Cooking Chickpeas in the Crockpot

Let’s start with this:  I never in a million zillion years thought that I would ever cook beans (other than for Ham & Bean Soup) for the purpose of simply having them on stock.  Nope I was a big time canned bean kind of girl.

But I was recently intrigued by the implied ease and cost saving of making my own.

I decided to start off with chickpeas, because I LOVE chickpeas!  

It was super easy to make the chickpeas in the crockpot.  Just throw them in & forget about them for 3 hours.  And it’s not much work to deal with them once they’re done cooking, either.

But here’s what truly astounded me.  The flavor and the size!  I mean look that the size difference between canned and home cooked chickpeas!  Amazing! 

In a side by side comparison, the homemade ones were also much more flavorful and I love that you can control the saltiness as well.

Recipe Notes:

*One can of chickpeas yields approximately 1 ½ cups of chickpeas.

Cooking Chickpeas in the Crockpot

Method from The Healthy Eating Site

1 lb (16 oz) dry chickpeas (about 2 cups)

6 ¾ cups water

1 tsp sea salt

Rinse and drain the dry chickpeas in cold water.  Keep an eye out for any stones and dark brown funky looking chickpeas; discard those ones.

Place the rinsed chickpeas into a crockpot (I used a 4.5 quart crockpot, though a slightly smaller one would probably do).  Add the water and salt and give them a little stir.  Then cook on HIGH for 2 hours (for very firm chickpeas) or 3 hours (for softer “more like the can” chickpeas).

When done to your liking, carefully drain the chickpeas into a colander.  Be sure to wear oven mitts and watch out for steam!  Rinse the chickpeas with cold water and let them drain for about 15 minutes.

Place the cooked chickpeas in an airtight container.  Cooked chickpeas will keep for 2-3 days in the refrigerator.  Alternately, place 1-2 cups of chickpeas into freezer bags and freeze the chickpeas to keep them longer.