Preparing And Cooking Chickpeas Takes Time
Preparing and cooking chickpeas isn't something you do between the time you get home from work and the time you're ready to serve dinner. Chickpeas usually need a good soaking before they can be properly cooked, or otherwise prepared for use in a variety of dishes. One doesn't absolutely have to soak chickpeas before cooking them, but in doing so, the cooking time can be significantly reduced. If chickpeas aren't soaked before cooking, they need to be cooked for up to two hours. If they are cooked a little too long however, they may begin to fall apart.
If you've ever cooked garbanzo beans, cooking chickpeas shouldn't be a mystery, as they are one in the same. The main reason we don't find fresh chickpeas more often is they are a semitropical plant, growing primarily in the Mediterranean area, and in the Middle East.
Chickpeas can be purchased cooked in cans, though are much better tasting if you do it yourself. In fact cooking chickpeas at home can be quite a bit less expensive than buying them in cans. In preparing chickpeas for cooking, one can take the slow approach and let them soak overnight, some even say over the weekend, before actually cooking them. A quicker approach is to pressure cook them, which usually takes less than 15 minutes. You may want to experiment to see if soaking them before putting them in the pressure cooker adds anything or not.
Numerous Companion Foods And Spices - One can either be satisfied with cooking chickpeas by themselves or adding other ingredients to the pot. Tomatoes and chickpeas go well together, as do peppers, and one or two other kinds of dried beans. Just stir the combination occasionally until it starts looking like a gooey mess. It will be a pleasant tasting gooey mess however. Chickpeas have a sweet, nutty flavor, and whatever else you add to the pot may make the flavor even more enjoyable. Some add a little curry to the mix; others add pieces of apples, oranges, and even grapes.
Some food items that go well with chickpeas, whether served along side or mixed in are: green onions, garlic, tomatoes, carrots and most other vegetables. To enhance the flavor, some use mustard, others sesame seeds, caraway seeds, or vinegar. Even cinnamon seems to add to the flavor of chickpeas. Chickpeas can even be baked, with a little seasoning salt added. They just have to be cooked first.
Chickpea Nutrition - When you're cooking chickpeas, you're cooking a nutritious meal. Chickpeas are rich in protein and carbohydrates, contain some fat, though are considered a low fat vegetable, and are as good source of crude fiber. Chickpeas are also a very good source of phosphorus, magnesium, and calcium, while providing some iron and zinc as well. The calcium content in chickpeas is said to be roughly the same as that in milk, on a per unit weight basis. A cup of chickpeas contains about 160 calories, and is about 2% fat of which only 0.2 %, or a fraction of a gram, is saturated fat.
Historically, people have been cooking chickpea for centuries; in fact chickpeas are one of the earliest of the cultivated vegetables. While chickpeas could be grown as an annual in many parts of the United States, the yields would be so low as to generally not make it worthwhile. Some who live in temperate climates grow chickpea sprouts however.
Since they are also called garbanzo beans, more people eat chickpeas that one might otherwise be lead to believe. The chances are very good indeed, if you've had a bowl of well prepared minestrone, there are chickpeas in it. Many commercial bean dips have chickpeas as one of the major ingredients as well.