Chickpeas In The Slow Cooker

Asked by pollyhubner. Answered on 12th April 2016

Full question

Is it necessary to pre-soak dried chickpeas if you're going to cook them in a slow cooker for 6-8 hours? I'm going to make the Cauliflower and Chickpea recipe in 'Simply Nigella' and was intending using dried chickpeas and cooking in the slow cooker with bicarb, then using directly for the recipe. However I have always been told to always pre-soak chickpeas (and other pulses) even if cooking slowly.

Our answer

Nigella has several chickpea recipes in SIMPLY NIGELLA, such as the Warm Spiced Cauliflower And Chickpea Salad With Pomegranate Seeds. In the book Nigella uses chickpeas that she has cooked in a slow cooker, though drained canned or jarred chickpeas can also be used in all of the recipes.

Chickpeas that are cooked at home tend to have a better texture and flavour than the canned variety. And Nigella has found that cooking them in a slow cooker without presoaking is easy, as well as yielding chickpeas that are plumptious and tender. You can soak chickpeas before cooking as it will soften them slightly and reduce the cooking time, though if the chickpeas are old then pre-soaking may still not help them to soften. The cooking time is only reduced slightly and pre-soaking requires more planning and forethought. With the slow cooker method you need to add bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) to the cooking water. This does help the chickpeas to soften as they cook, as the bicarbonate of soda is an alkali and this breaks down the skin of the chickpeas more quickly.