How To Cook Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans)?

Chickpeas or garbanzo beans can be cooked easily and perfectly on stove top or instant pot pressure cooker whether you use canned chickpeas or dry chickpeas!

This is a perfect, easy to use guide for cooking chickpeas, especially if you are a beginner to using this beans in your diet.

This blog post helps you to make basic, easy, seasoned chickpeas or garbazo beans using different methods including stove top using a pan, pressure cooker or instant pot method.

Just like mung beans, red lentils etc, they make simple, delicious, protein rich side dishes for lunch or dinner!

Keep in mind that you can also cook chickpeas in other ways including slow cooker, air fryer, oven etc as well!

I have detailed posts on cooking chickpeas in different ways that include instant pot chickpeas no soak method, instant pot chickpeas with soaked beans, canned chickpea curry in instant pot, kale chickpea curry, coconut chickpea curry Indian recipe, green peas and chickpeas, chickpeas with spaghetti rigati, chickpea spinach curry, chana masala, instant pot chana masala and more!

What Is Chickpeas Or Garbanzo Beans?

Chickpeas or garbanzo beans is a type of legume which is cooked and used in many cuisines.

They look round in shape and they come in few different colors including white, beige, dark brown, green etc.

Chickpeas or garbazo beans is popularly used in cooking in Indian cuisine, Mediterranean cuisine, Middle Eastern cuisine and more.

They are rich in protein, fibers and perfect for vegetarian or vegan diets though anyone can enjoy them in a variety of recipes, if you like to include them in your diet.

Different Varieties Of Chickpeas

There are quite a few different varieties of chickpeas that you can find in the market.

Most popular kind of chickpeas available in the market is white chickpeas which is what you mostly find in canned chickpeas or dried chickpeas in market.

This kind of chickpeas is very tasty and works with most recipes.

Another popular variety of chickpeas is dark brown in color and mostly they come in smaller size than the white chickpeas.

They usually take slightly longer time to cook compared to white chickpeas.

I have noticed that the white chickpeas is also usually softer in texture than the dark brown chickpeas (because they have a slightly more thicker outer skin) but the dark brown variety has a more nuttier and stronger flavor which is great in many recipes.

Canned Chickpeas Vs Dried Chickpeas

Chickpeas is mostly availabe in stores in the form of canned chickpeas or dry chickpeas.

Chickpeas is available in most grocery stores and if you look at Asian stores like Indian grocery stores, you can buy the dried chickpeas in bulk very easily.

The advantage of using dried chickpeas is that you can buy them in bulk and they are cheaper than the canned variety.

So if you use a lot of chickpeas in your recipes, it is a good idea to buy dried chickpeas.

However, the canned chickpeas is more easy to cook because the dried chickpeas often needs to soaked in water prior to cooking and they also takes more time to cook.

If you want to convert and see how much dried chickpeas will yield when cooked, here it is:

1 cup dried chickpeas will yield about 3 cups cooked chickpeas

2 cups dried chickpeas will yield about 6 cups cooked chickpeas

Also, usually canned chickpeas is available in 15 oz cans which is approximately equivalent to 1.87 Cups of chickpeas.

Should You Soak Chickpeas Before Cooking?

If you are using canned chickpeas, you can directly use them in cooking without soaking in water prior to cooking, which saves a lot of time if you are looking to cook something quickly and easily.

If you are using dried chickpeas, most often you will need to soak the chickpeas in water prior to cooking, unless you use an instant pot pressure cooker or slow cooker.

How Long Should You Cook Chickpeas?

If you are using canned chickpeas, you can cook the chickpeas very easily in about 6 to 8 minutes time if you use a pressure cooker on stove top or instant pot pressure cooker.

If you do not use a pressure cooker, you can cook canned chickpeas on stove top in about 20 minutes time.

If you use dried chickpeas that is soaked in water for at least 7 to 8 hours, you can cook the chickpeas using a pressure cooker on stove top or instant pot pressure cooker in about 12 to 15 minutes cooking time.

If you do not use a pressure cooker, you will need to cook the soaked, dry chickpeas for about 1.5 hours or more on stove top using a pan or pot.

In instant pot pressure cooker, you can directly cook dried chickpeas without soaking. In this case, it takes around 40 minutes to cook the dried chickpeas, and if you want it softer in texture, you will need to cook for about 50 minutes time.

Different Methods To Cook Chickpeas

Chickpeas can be cooked on stove top using a pan or pot or using pressure cooker and it is much easier to cook soaked chickpeas using pressure cooker on stove top, than using a pan or pot which takes much longer to cook.

Other ways to cook chickpeas include using instant pot pressure cooker, slow cooker etc.

You may also roast chickpeas in oven, make air fryer chickpeas etc as well.

So here you can get ingredients and instructions to make simple, delicious chickpeas on stove top or instant pot.

How To Cook Chickpeas?

To cook chickpeas we use following ingredients (we are using dried chickpeas here but instructions for canned chickpeas also included).

Ingredients used

dried chickpeas 1 cup (garbanzo beans dry)

water 3 cups (plus more water for soaking dried chickpeas)

salt adjust to taste

for seasoning (optional)

garlic powder 1 teaspoon

onion powder 1 teaspoon

minced onions 1 tablespoons

Step by step instructions

Wash the dry chickpeas very well in water and soak the chickpeas in enough water in a large bowl for about 7 to 8 hours or overnight for best results. Make sure to use a large bowl because the chickpeas will absorb water and they will enlarge in size. If they absorb all water before the soaking time, you can add little more water.

Once the chickpeas is soaked for enough hours, you can see that they have doubled in size.

Discard the water used for soaking the chickpeas and rinse the chickpeas again in fresh water.

Now the chickpeas is ready to be cooked.

Stove top pan method:

Place the chickpeas in a large sized saucepan or pot (this is important because if you use small vessels the contents can boil over while cooking the chickpeas).

Add water, salt and seasonings, mix well.

Bring the mixture to a boil.

Once it starts boiling, reduce the heat to medium low, cover the pan with lid and cook for about one hour.

After that, open the pan, mix well and check if water is enough.

If needed, you may add one more cup of water and cover and cook for another 30 minutes (so the total cooking time is at least about 1.5 hours) or until the chickpeas is well cooked and soft in texture.

Once the cooking is done, if there is any leftover liquid, you may discard the liquid or save it for using in soups, stew, curries etc.

Transfer the cooked chickpeas to a serving dish, season with more salt, pepper etc (or any seasonings you want), enjoy it as it is or you can use it to make chickpea curry, soups, salads etc.

If using canned chickpeas (15 oz can), drain the water from the can, rinse the chickpeas and cook for about 25 to 30 minutes (pan covered once the mixture is boiled) until the chickpeas is cooked and soft in texture.

Stove top pressure cooker method:

Place the soaked chickpeas, water, salt and seasonings in a large sized pressure cooker (at least 6 quartz in size) and mix well.

Close the pressure cooker with safety valve in position (follow all instructions in the maual while using pressure cooker for safety reasons).

Cook in high heat until steam begins to release and once the steam is released, wait for couple of minutes until the pressure builds up, then reduce the heat to medium low and cook for about 12 minutes time.

Once the cooking is done, turn off the heat and allow the pressure cooker to cool down.

Once the pressure cooker is cooled enough, carefully open the pressure cooker and mix the contents.

You may save or discard any leftover liquid and use the cooked chickpeas in any dishes as you like!

If using canned chickpeas (15 oz can), drain the water from the can, rinse the chickpeas and use a cooking time of about 6 minutes once the steam begins to release.

Instant pot method for soaked chickpeas:

Place the soaked chickpeas in inner pot of instant pot pressure cooker.

Add water, salt and seasonings, mix well.

Close the instant pot with lid in sealing position, cook in high pressure for 7 minutes.

If you want really soft chickpeas so you can mash them to make hummus, patties etc, you may cook for about 10 to 12 minutes based on how soft you want the chickpeas.

Once the cooking is done, wait for a natural pressure release.

If you are in a hurry, you may carefully do a gradual controlled manual pressure release after about 14 minutes of natural pressure release.

Once the pressure is all released, carefully open the lid of the instant pot.

Mix the contents and transfer the cooked chickpeas to a serving dish (you may save or discard any leftover liquid) or you can use the cooked chickpeas in any dishes as you like.

Instant pot no soak method:

You may skip the soaking of chickpeas if you are in a hurry and if you are using instant pot pressure cooker to cook the chickpeas.

To cook dried chickpeas directly in instant pot pressure cooker without soaking in water first, rinse the dried chickpeas very well and add the chickpeas to the inner pot of instant pot pressure cooker.

Add water, salt and seasonings, mix well.

Close the instant pot with lid in sealing position and cook in high pressure for 35 to 40 minutes.

The chickpeas won’t be very soft at this point, but it will be perfectly cooked and will be great for using in salad recipes and such.

If you want more softer chickpeas, you may cook for another few more minutes (up to about 50 to 60 minutes) based on how soft you want the chickpeas.

Once the cooking is done, wait for a natural pressure release.

Once the pressure is all released naturally, carefully open the lid of the instant pot and mix the contents.

Transfer the cooked chickpeas to a serving dish, season with more salt, pepper etc if needed, or you can add them to salads or any dishes like curry, soups, stew etc (you may discard or save the leftover liquid).

If using canned chickpeas (15 oz can), drain the water from the can, rinse the chickpeas and use a cooking time of 6 minutes in high pressure.

Below you can get the instructions in detail for different cooking methods for chickpeas!