Cooked chickpeas are delicious, healthy and add variety to your diet. We show you how you can easily prepare them yourself and when you have to soak the chickpeas.

The chickpea, which originated in Asia, came to Europe in the Middle Ages and is very popular today. Whether in curries, salads, falafel or hummus – the buttery-nutty-tasting legume gives many dishes an oriental touch and is also very healthy.

Never eat chickpeas raw

Organic chickpeas are commercially available in two forms:

as a pre-cooked preserve in a jar or in a can
raw and dried
If you are in a hurry, you can use the pre-cooked chickpeas directly. Do not throw away the chickpea water from the jar or can, you can use the aquafaba as vegan egg whites.

Dried chickpeas, on the other hand, have to be soaked and cooked first. If you cook the raw chickpeas, the toxin phasin they contain is destroyed and makes the valuable legume safe for us to eat. Caution: You have to throw away the soaking water in which the raw chickpeas were, because the toxin phasin dissolves in the water during soaking. The chickpeas and the cooking water can only be eaten after cooking.

Soaking chickpeas – time-consuming, but useful

Soaking the chickpeas takes time. It is best to plan one night for this. However, the time investment pays off: If you have soaked the chickpeas, they will be easier to digest. In addition, it shortens the subsequent cooking time considerably and thus allows energy-saving preparation that is gentle on vital substances.

How to properly soak chickpeas:

In a saucepan, cover the chickpeas with twice the amount of water and let them soak for at least 12 hours.
During the swelling period, the chickpeas absorb a lot of water. You may have to add a little more water if necessary.
Discard the soaking water afterwards to remove any residue of the toxin phasin.
Rinse the chickpeas thoroughly with fresh water.

How to properly cook chickpeas

You can boil the chickpeas in water the classic way:

Place the soaked chickpeas in a pressure cooker.
Cover them with fresh water. Make sure that the top third of the pressure cooker remains free.
Close the pot and set steam pressure level 2.
If the lid starts to hiss, turn off the stove or reduce the heat significantly.
After 20 minutes, open the lid as instructed in the pressure cooker instructions.
The chickpeas are done when you can easily mash them with a fork.
Put the chickpeas in a colander and rinse them with fresh water.
Tip: If you don’t have a pressure cooker, the peas will need to cook longer—at least an hour. Basically, the longer the chickpeas were soaked beforehand, the faster they will cook. That saves energy. If you let them soak in water for 24 hours, the cooking time in the pressure cooker is reduced to just ten minutes.

The cooking time also depends on whether you need the chickpeas buttery soft for making hummus or still al dente for use in curry or salad.

Another rule: the fresher the chickpeas are, the shorter they need to cook.

Chickpeas – not only delicious, but also healthy!

Chickpeas not only taste delicious, but are also extremely healthy. Chickpeas have these nutritional values:

With their high fiber content, they promote healthy digestion.
They have a high protein content and are therefore a vegetable protein source.
The legumes contain notable amounts of iron, zinc and magnesium.
Chickpeas are low in calories and fill you up at the same time.

Freezing chickpeas is a great way to always have the healthy legumes ready to cook. We’ll show you what to look out for when freezing chickpeas and how to use them.

Freezing chickpeas preserves the legumes even when cooked. Recipes that use chickpeas usually call for cooked chickpeas. However, the cooking time of legumes is very long, so they are not suitable for a quick meal uncooked.

Chickpeas are healthy because they have valuable vegetable protein, proteins and other healthy ingredients. Legumes are used in a variety of ways in the kitchen. If you freeze cooked chickpeas, you’ll always have them ready to cook.

When buying chickpeas, pay attention to organic quality. This protects the environment, since organically certified seals such as Demeter or Bioland do not use synthetic chemical pesticides.

By the way: in your own garden is very easy. You can grow your own chickpeas in the garden to avoid having to buy them at the store. This is how to plant and care for chickpeas.

Freeze chickpeas: this is how it works

Freezing chickpeas is quick and easy. Only the cooked chickpeas are suitable for freezing. Because in the dried state, properly packaged, the legumes can be kept for many months.

If you want to freeze chickpeas, then proceed as follows:

Cook the chickpeas according to package instructions. In another article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about cooking or soaking chickpeas.
Catch the chickpea water, because you can use it in many ways. In another post we have tips on this: Don’t throw away chickpea water! 5 ideas how to use it
Let the cooked chickpeas cool.
Place the cooked chickpeas in a freezeproof, sealable container. Make sure the containers are reusable. This is how you avoid rubbish. Also read: Freezing food without plastic
Place the container of chickpeas in your freezer. Important: If you are freezing in glass, do not fill the glass to the top, but leave some space so that the chickpeas can expand during freezing. Also, only close the lid after a few hours in the freezer, otherwise the jar may burst if the contents expand too much.
Tip: Freeze the chickpeas in several small containers. So you always have the right amount at hand for a meal.

Recipe ideas for chickpeas

Freezing cooked chickpeas will keep the legumes for a few months. Get them out of the freezer when you need them and use them in delicious dishes. You have two options for this:

Thaw the chickpeas before cooking:

Place them in a bowl in the fridge overnight to use the next day, or
let them thaw at room temperature for a few hours.
If you want it a little faster, put the frozen chickpeas in a small bowl and thaw them in a water bath over medium heat.
With the thawed chickpeas, you can cook particularly well recipes in which the chickpeas are pureed or should be used fresh, i.e. not further cooked and baked. For example, try the recipe for a classic hummus or a fresh chickpea salad.

Use frozen chickpeas:

Add the frozen chickpeas to a soup or warm dish and cook with the remaining ingredients until soft again.

Recipes that use cooked chickpeas also work well to use your frozen chickpeas. For example, they taste great in chickpea curry or chickpea soup.

Tip: Fry the frozen chickpeas in a little oil in a pan. Once they have softened, season them with herbs and spices of your choice.

The humble little chickpea is a special plant. There is a lot of evidence for the benefits of chickpea, thanks to which, it is popular to this day. Here are some interesting facts that you might not have guessed about.

1. Chickpeas first appeared in the Middle East around 7,500 BC. Its popularity quickly spread throughout the world, and soon it began to be grown in almost all ancient civilizations.
2. Chickpeas are called differently: chickpeas, lamb peas, Egyptian peas, tsetzi pods. It comes in different types, sizes and colors.
3. This miraculous plant not only provides a valuable crop, but also serves as a natural remedy for destroying wheat and barley diseases.
4. Scientists are sure that people have “smartened up” thanks to this miracle of peas, which is directly related to the production of serotonin, which ensures the transmission of impulses from cells.
5. Peas are rich in vitamins and minerals. It contains almost the entire periodic table.
6. It is believed that eating chickpeas can renew the blood.
7. Chickpea helps with diabetes, those who have been exposed to radiation, as well as with anemia, arrhythmias, nervousness, dental problems and inflammation of the gums, acne and skin rashes. In addition, it cleans blood vessels and normalizes blood pressure.
8. After the devastating wars that ended by the beginning of the 9th century, King Charlemagne ordered the sowing of the devastated fields with chickpeas to provide the people with nutritious and healthy food.
9. There is an Arabic recipe for an aphrodisiac. It was actively used by emirs, going on dates to their numerous wives in harems. The recipe for an Arabian aphrodisiac: squeezed onion juice, honey and puree from chickpeas boiled in camel milk.
10. The director of “Star Wars” was a big fan of this pea and even gave the name Nut to one of the main characters.
11. Chickpeas contain the substance methionine, which prevents obesity of internal organs and calms the nervous system.