?dried chick peas how much volume increase?

cloffie, Mar 13, 2:54am
Am just wondering if it worth buying chick peas from the binn Inn and cooking them instead of buying cans of them [I buy when they are on special] your opinions and advice much apreciated. Am going start a thread with questions about dried beans too!

nauru, Mar 13, 3:13am
Cloffie - Much cheaper to buy dried to cans. I cook mine in the MW in bulk and then freeze into smaller packs just ready to use.

cloffie, Mar 13, 3:18am
Thanks nauru thats what I was thinking . have just been to the binn inn and they are so darned cheap dried. great idea to freeze them!

gaspodetwd, Mar 13, 4:29am
Ooooh - i know this - really big! I love the slow cooker for doing them. I get a fantastic result when I presoak them before putting them in the slow cooker.

vinee, Mar 13, 5:27am
yep, I slow cooker them too.
then mash/smoosh and freeze in small bags. Flatten out the bags, they stack better and defrost quicker too.
I use it for thickening casseroles, stew, soup etc as well as hummus.

Just note that they come out drier than the canned ones, so to make hummus for example you'll need more oil/lemon etc. .

and re volume - HEAPS! ! over double.

cloffie, Mar 14, 12:11am
How long do you cook them for in the slow cooker?

calista, Mar 14, 1:55am
Cloffie, some random thoughts.

If you can borrow "100 Great ways To Use slow Cookers and Crockpots" Simon + Alison Holst from your local library read p86 it answersmost of your questions on both cps and beans.

Chickpeas should be cooked in the crockpot for 4 -5 hours on high. 1 cup of dried cp weighs about 190g and yieldsabout 2 1/2 cups slow cooked cp. 2 1/2 c slow cooked, drained cps weigh about 460g. A 400g can holds about 1 and a half cups (abt 250g) of drained, cooked cps.

American call chickpeas 'garbanzo beans'.

My favourite chickpea soup recipe entails soaking the beans for 8 hours or overnight before cooking before cooking

Do a google search for "just Bean recipes" and you'll find 460 recipes for garbanzo beans - should keep you busy for a while.

Oh, and someone on here told me that cps can becooked then frozen for later use.

cloffie, Mar 14, 4:05am
Thanks Calista thats awesome info

beaker59, Oct 30, 10:10am
I do my cps the allison holst way in the slow cooker. A tip though is not to drain them just pack them in jars with the juice and keep in fridge for up to two weeks the juice sets into a light jelly and is nice added to stews, curries etc etc with the peas.