If you haven’t yet cooked beans for yourself, garbanzos are a very satisfying first experience. You’ll find the dry garbanzos in the bulk area of your grocery. Buy about 2 cups of dry beans (approximately 1 pound). Recipe for preparing them follows. Just be warned. It will be very difficult to return to the canned ones once you’ve tasted home cooked.
Once you have yourself some cooked garbanzos, make some hummus!
Bean Basics: Garbanzos for Hummus
1 pound dry beans = 4 - 6 cups cooked beans
Ingredients
- 1 lb dry garbanzo beans
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
Rinse the Beans
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Put the beans in a large bowl or pot (if you're going to do the quick soak) and rinse the beans under running water, filling the bowl and pouring off the water a few times. Keep an eye out for imposters (sometimes small stones get in with the beans - you don't want any emergency dental visits, so look carefully). Fill bowl (or pot) with fresh water to cover beans by 3 or 4 inches. Remove any floaters.
Soak the Beans
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Overnight Soak: Set the bean bowl on the counter overnight. The next day, dump the beans into a colander and discard the soaking liquid. Beans are ready to cook.
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OR Quick Soak: Put the beans into a large stockpot and fill the pot with water to cover the beans by 4 – 5 inches. Over medium high heat, boil the beans for 3 minutes then turn off the heat, cover the pot and let beans sit for at least 1 hour, ideally 4 – 12 hours (I know, that’s not exactly “quick”, but beans are a zen food…enjoy the pace!)
Cook the Beans
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After soaking, drain off the soaking water and rinse the beans with fresh water.
Slowcooker: Place beans in slow cooker and add fresh water to cover beans by an inch or two. Drizzle in olive oil and sprinkle in the salt. Cook on low heat setting for 4 - 6 hours, but start checking at 3 hours. If your beans are very fresh, they may cook more quickly. Also, depending on how you want to use the beans, you may want to keep them al dente.
OR Stovetop: Place beans in dutch oven or large stockpot. Add fresh water to cover beans by an inch or two, add the olive oil, sprinkle in the salt and bring to boil. Lower heat to maintain a gentle simmer and cook until tender, usually 1 – 1 ½ hours.
No matter how you cook the beans, store them with their broth in the refrigerator—I like to use a canning funnel and ladle them into a couple quart-sized canning jars. Beans will keep in refrigerator for several days.
