Soften Canned Chickpeas In A Flash With One Pantry Staple

It's undeniable that canned beans are far more convenient than dried beans, which require hours of soaking and cooking. However, canned beans can sometimes be less than ideal in terms of texture. Canned chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans) are particularly prone to this issue. During processing, manufacturers often add calcium chloride to preserve the chickpeas' shape and firmness since chickpeas can be stored for long periods and may lose their integrity without this ingredient. If you want to soften canned chickpeas and achieve a creamy texture in your dishes instead of a slightly crunchy or grainy one, your go-to solution is also in the pantry — baking soda.

Whether the chickpeas contain calcium chloride or not, baking soda will not only loosen the texture created by calcium chloride but also break down the naturally occurring pectin within the chickpea that holds it together, further softening the bean. This quick softening process requires half a teaspoon of baking soda for a 15-ounce can of chickpeas, which is equivalent to about 1 1/2 cups of chickpeas. Pour all the contents of the canned chickpeas (including the water) into a saucepan along with the baking soda and boil for seven to twenty minutes. The longer you cook the chickpeas, the softer they'll become, but boiling them for more than twenty minutes risks boiling them apart. You can check your chickpeas every few minutes by using a slotted spoon to remove a bean or two from the pot, and once they've cooled down, squeeze them between your fingers to test their softness. When the chickpeas reach your desired softness, remove them from the heat and strain them from the water.

Not softening canned chickpeas should actually be added to the list of common mistakes you're probably making with canned beans. Although using baking soda to soften chickpeas can take up to twenty minutes, it's completely worth it because it still beats having to wait upwards of eight hours for dried chickpeas to be prepared to a desirable softness unless you're using a pressure cooker. Suppose you'd prefer to use a pressure cooker to soften your can of chickpeas rather than using baking soda. In that case, this takes almost just as long as pressure-cooking dried chickpeas whilst getting almost the same result as boiling chickpeas in baking soda. To use a pressure cooker for softening chickpeas, simply pour in the canned beans, set it, and forget about it until it's done. The baking soda, however, does not work in a pressure cooker as there will quickly be nothing left of your chickpeas.

Chickpeas, or beans in general, really are the perfect food Americans refuse to embrace for some reason. Using baking soda to soften chickpeas allows you to create the creamiest hummus at home like a pro, which surpasses any store-bought brand or perhaps you want to whip up a chana masala – softened chickpeas in this dish will be as tender as softened butter when grasped between a piece of naan bread. Softened chickpeas can also be effortlessly blended to serve as a thickener for sauces, stews, or soups, or they can even be marinated while they're still warm after softening for an excellent way to infuse flavor as a unique contrast in flavor and texture when added to salads.