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These Instant Pot chickpeas are cheaper and taste better than canned! Cooking garbanzo beans is the ideal task for a pressure cooker.
Did you know you can cook dried chickpeas in under 1 hour in an Instant Pot? Since it takes a while to cook dried beans on the stovetop, most of the time Alex and I end up using canned beans. We just got an Instant Pot and learned that cooking beans in a pressure cooker takes less than 1 hour! Consider us impressed. Cooking dried beans is cheaper than buying them canned, and they taste better.
For our first recipe for cooking beans in a pressure cooker, we decided to try dried chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans). Alex and I use them all the time in salads, nourish bowls, and curries. Keep reading for a video of how to cook chickpeas in an Instant Pot, and some of our favorite chickpea recipes!
Watch how to cook chickpeas in an Instant Pot
What’s an Instant Pot?
An Instant Pot is an electric pressure cooker. Instant Pot is actually the brand name; there are many other brands of electric pressure cookers. Here’s the Instant Pot we used: 6 quart Instant Pot Pressure Cooker. The concept of the Instant Pot to cook foods at high pressure, which dramatically cuts down on cooking time. It’s the opposite of a slow cooker, which cooks things dramatically slowly.
We’ve been experimenting with our Instant Pot for years and have lots of healthy and delicious Instant Pot recipes. Cooking grains and dried beans is one of our favorite uses for the pressure cooker because it’s easy and hands off!
Why make Instant Pot chickpeas?
Cooking dried beans on the stovetop usually takes several hours to soak and then a few hours to cook. You also have to check the garbanzo beans often towards the end of the cook time to see if they are done. Here’s why to make homemade Instant Pot chickpeas:
- It’s quick and hands off. The method is truly hands off, and the chickpeas cook perfectly every time. It’s most reliable when you soak them prior to cooking (see below).
- It’s cheaper than canned. While we love eating canned chickpeas, cooking beans in a pressure cooker is cheaper: about half or more the price of canned!
- It’s MUCH more delicious than canned. The texture and flavor of home-cooked Instant Pot chickpeas are better than those from a can. These chickpeas have a slightly nuttier flavor and firmer texture than canned, which can be mushy and have a lackluster flavor.
Do you have to soak Instant Pot chickpeas?
Good question. Short answer? It makes the most reliable chickpeas in a pressure cooker. We’ve experimented with soaking and not soaking. Here’s what to know (updated December 2020):
- Soaking makes the most tender, evenly cooked chickpeas. We know, it requires thinking ahead. But it’s totally worth it! All you have to do is soak overnight (or during your workday) in the bowl of your pressure cooker. Cover the chickpeas with 2 inches water and soak for 10 to 12 hours.
- What if you don’t have time to soak? You can also cook unsoaked chickpeas! You’ll simply pressure cook them for 35 minutes instead of 23 minutes. Keep in mind: unsoaked will be drier. If you’re using them for something like hummus, you’ll have to add more liquid. See the recipe below!
How long does it take to cook Instant Pot garbanzo beans?
The cook time for Instant Pot chickpeas is 23 minutes. Insanely quick, right? But remember: the Instant Pot requires a “preheat” time for coming up to pressure, and a “cool down” time to release the pressure. In this recipe, it’s about a 20 minute preheat, and then a natural release for 20 minutes.
This means the actual overall time for cooking Instant Pot garbanzo beans is 63 minutes. This is still shorter than the time it takes on the stovetop. This makes us much more likely to make dried chickpeas in our Instant Pot! And other types of dried beans, too: like our Instant Pot Refried Beans.
Ways to use Instant Pot chickpeas
How to use these pressure cooker chickpeas? Let us count the ways. Here a few other chickpea recipes where you can use them:
- Mix up a Chickpea Salad Sandwich (fan favorite!)
- Throw them into Coconut Cauliflower Curry or Moroccan Stew with Chickpeas
- Bake them up so they’re Crispy Roasted Chickpeas
- Add them to zesty Greek Orzo Salad
- Blend them into Instant Pot Hummus
- Use them as a pizza topping for Best Vegan Pizza
- Add them to Tomato Sage Chickpea Soup
- Throw them into Falafel Burgers or Chickpea Burgers
More Instant Pot recipes
The Instant Pot is perfect for cooking sweet potatoes, rice, quinoa, dried beans, mashed potatoes, and even soups. In fact: you can ditch your rice cooker and slow cooker in favor of the Instant Pot! Here are a few more Instant Pot recipes to try:
- Whip up perfectly moist sweet potatoes
- Make grains like quinoa, farro, rice (like white, brown, basmati, and jasmine)
- Cook more beans like refried beans or lentils
- Make the perfect hard boiled eggs or soft boiled eggs
- Cook pasta like creamy pasta, spaghetti or mac and cheese
- Whip up tasty soups like lentil soup, wild rice soup, minestrone, or chili
This Instant Pot chickpeas recipe is…
Vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, plant based, dairy free, naturally sweet, and refined sugar free.
Instant Pot Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans)
These Instant Pot chickpeas are cheaper and taste better than canned! Cooking garbanzo beans is the ideal task for a pressure cooker. Updated for reliability December 2020.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes (preheat)
- Cook Time: 42 minutes (including natural release)
- Total Time: 52 minutes
- Yield: 6 cups 1x
- Category: Main Dish, Side Dish
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: American
Instructions
- Night or day before (recommended): Place the chickpeas in the Instant Pot and cover with the water. Soak 10 to 12 hours, then drain. This makes the most tender chickpeas that are most evenly cooked (see notes below*).
- Place the chickpeas into Instant Pot and cover with water by 1 inch (about 6 cups). Add the kosher salt. Lock the lid. Place the pressure release handle (vent) in the “Sealing” position.
- Cook on high pressure 23 minutes (soaked) or 35 minutes (unsoaked*): Press the Pressure Cook button, making sure the “High Pressure” setting is selected, and set the time. It takes about 15 to 20 minutes for the pot to “preheat” and come up to pressure before it starts cooking. Wait while the Instant Pot cooks. (Note: During cooking, avoid touching the metal part of the lid.)
- Natural release for 20 minutes: After the Instant Pot beeps, wait for another 20 minutes to let the Instant Pot naturally release pressure. (Tip: We set a timer for this part so we don’t forget!) Then vent any remaining steam by moving the vent to “Venting”, covering your hand with a towel or hot pad. Never put your hands or face near the vent when releasing steam. (The pressure indicator in the lid may drop on its own after 10 minutes, meaning that there is no remaining steam in the pot.)
- Open the lid and taste one chickpea to see if it is tender. Some chickpea brands and pressure cooker brands have require longer cook times. If it’s not tender, cook a few more minutes on high pressure and do a quick release. Once cooked, drain and use immediately, store in the refrigerator for 4 to 5 days, or freeze indefinitely. We freeze the drained chickpeas in sealable containers in 1.5 cup servings, which equals 1 15-ounce can.
Notes
IMPORTANT: Read and abide by all safety precautions in your Instant Pot / pressure cooker manual.
*Soaked chickpeas make the most reliable results: they are most tender, evenly cooked, and closest to canned chickpeas. Unsoaked chickpeas can be rather dry; if you’re using them in hummus, you may need to add more water than the recipe specifies to make a creamy consistency.
Last updated: December 2020
Worked great in my Ninja Foodie 8 qt….make sure how ever much you make your water and beans don’t fill the pot more than half way. I would like to figure out a time I could go in and skim them, but totally happy with texture (pre-soaked overnight).