How do you cook your chickpeas? Most people boil, slow cook and roast chickpeas.
In Singapore and Malaysia it's very normal to see vendors steam the chickpeas (kacang putih in Malay) which does two things:
- Keep it warm for customers' consumption
- Will not cause it to overcook
- As steam cooks from bottom to top, there's no need to stir the chickpeas to ensure that they cook evenly.
The vendors will simply make a cone out of clean paper and pour a scoop of kacang putih into the cone :D and that's my favourite snack to go!
There are a few recipes for the different marinades to add for the different flavours. After that, they will be tasty enough to eat whole and worthy of popping into the mouth.
I will be cooking with my thermal pot so I don't have to watch it on the stove for 2 hours. I'll also save on gas (nothing is cheap in Singapore)!
Whenever there is more than 1 hour of cooking required, I will use this method. It is surprisingly useful if you only have one stove (as most of us do!) then it will free up the stove for us to prepare other foods.
My dried chickpeas only come in one size, apparently, according to my supermarket sales person. So I will be using this size for most of my recipes.
330g / 11.6oz Dried Chickpeas
4 teaspoons of sea salt
2 teaspoons of grounded turmeric (optional) or according to taste
3 pieces of washed pandan leaves (optional)
2.5 - 3 litres / 2.1 - 3.2 quarts of water to boil
Preparation the day before:
- Rinse the chickpeas in a colander/strainer
- Soak the chickpeas overnight using a wide container or a pot with a wide base
- Be generous with the water as the peas will double in size. I used 2 litres / 2 quarts of water for this amount of chickpeas.
- Do not cover with a lid. If you must cover it, use a cloth instead.
- Next day, it should have doubled in size. Pour away this water that was used for soaking.
Cooking steps:
- Boil the chickpeas in 3 litres of water for 15 minutes in a thermal pot. Check to see if you need to skim the top. At the same time, add salt. If you like turmeric flavour, you can add that now. I normally add pandan leaves at this stage.
- Continue boiling for another 10 minutes (totalling 25 minutes of boiling time).
- At the peak of this boiling process, transfer it to the thermal pot quickly, while it's bubbling boiling hot.
- Leave it covered in there for 1.5 - 2 hours.
Easy right?
If you have any alternative flavourings for chickpeas to be consumed whole (not as a hummus) do feel free to comment or share below.
