I made a vegetarian thai curry the other day and I thought i'd put chick peas in it (1st time) but..?!
Answers: after boiling them first for 20 mins then adding them they were still rock hard. how to cook chick peas please?
I applaud your intention here, but it really is a long job to cook chick peas well, they need soaking overnight. I suggest you use the tinned ones instead. The canning process removes very few nutrients and you'll get good results each time, buy the ones in water or brine and give them a good rinse before adding them to your dish. I've been using them for years after having a similar culinary experience.
Try putting them to soak overnight before cooking, this should eliminate the problem.....haven't tried chick peas, but it works for other legumes.
If they were dried, they needed soaking overnight in a jug of water.. I usually use tinned..
boil the chick peas on slow light flame (not hi-flame) for even 10-15 minutes is ok... than add them to make thai curry !!
Dried chickpeas need to be soaked over night in cold water at room temperature, then rinsed and drained, before using them.
I looked up quick prep for dried chick peas and it takes up to 3 and half hours and has multiple steps. "Quick soak the chickpeas by putting them into a large heavy bottomed pot and covering them with water by 2 inches. Bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes; remove from heat, cover, and let soak for 1 hour. Drain the chickpeas and return them to the pot. Cover them with fresh water by about 2-inches, add 1 tablespoon salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the beans until they are tender, about 2 to 2 1/2 hours."
In the future, just try canned chick peas, I doubt you'd taste much of a difference especially in a spicey curry.
You need to soak the chickpeas overnight before cooking them. A lot of people will add a teaspoon of baking soda to the soaking legumes....I am not sure why. Chickpeas take longer than a lot of legumes....I think between an hour and an hour and a half. Drain off the water in which they were soaked and add water (three times the volume of peas). Bring to a boil, turn down heat to low and simmer COVERED until they are to your liking.....at least an hour. Alternatively, you could cook them in a pressure cooker....that should take at least 10 minutes...but probably longer. (I always end up over cooking in a pressure cooker!) Also, a quicker alternative to soaking legumes overnight to bring them to a boil (in three times their amount of water) and let them boil for only one minute, then turn them off and let them sit for an hour before cooking. If that doesn't work.....buy canned! Good luck.
That was not enough time to cook chick peas. They need to soak overnight, boil slowly until they are done. Only then can they be added to other ingredients.
You need to soak them overnight and then boil for about an hour. Tinned ones are great with Morrisons selling organic and ordinary, all you do is rinse these and add. good luck.
you need to soak the chick peas in water over night with a little bi carb. this will help soften the chick peas.
now they should take about 30 min to cook now or less in boiling water.
How long chickpeas take to cook is highly dependent on how old they are. When they are really "fresh" each dry chickpea will be almost a half an inch across. As they get older they become still dryer and shrink up to half of what they were. Doesn't take long either - just a month or two. When you buy the dried chickpeas, be sure to look at the size of them. You want to buy the freshest ones you can get.
Someone else mentioned putting the chickpeas in a pot, covering them with lots of water, bringing them to a boil, and then covering them and letting them sit. You can let them stand as little as an hour or overnight, whatever you have time for. That will jump start the rehydration. Bring the beans back to a boil and simmer them until done. With smaller beans you can tell by blowing on them - if the skins lift, the beans are done. Chickpeas are a pretty large bean though, so I prefer to taste one after it has passed the blow test. Sometimes the inside will still be hard.
Another factor that affects dried beans & peas is the hardness of your water. That can significantly increase the cooking time too. You can get around that by adding 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda to the beans, but do be aware that the baking soda will also reduce their nutritional value. I only use baking soda with beans that simply will not cook without it. Black beans seem to be rather prone to this.
Often what I do with chickpeas is cook a really big potful, then portion them out into 2 cup containers and freeze the cooked beans. That way they are handy when I want them. You can always used canned chickpeas though - just drain them and rinse them very well to remove the "canned" flavor.
No matter how long you boil them & whether the flame is high or low,dry peas will remain as you say,rock hard .Soaking is a must,at least several hours in water to cover ,overnight is best .They need to get plump & soft before you start boiling ,chick peas are used in many Indian recipes & this is how we do it ,soaked peas are gently boiled till tender ,in an emergency warm water is used to saok & hasten the process & pressure cooking does help if you are really pressed for time. A pinch of soda bi carb is said to hasten tenderising .
Depends if they are tinned, or dried. The tinned are pre-soaked and alot of the top chefs have no qualms about using them as they are much easier to use, but the dried ones need to be soaked in salted water over night at least and then need a good time in the saucepan, slowly cooked.
Dried chickpeas need soaking overnight. Next time buy the canned variety, they are already soaked and can be used straight away in a curry.
BTW: 3 cans of chickpeas for ￡1 at Sainsburys.