Buying tinned pulses or cooking pulses

wigglebeena

Is it cheaper to buy tins of chickpeas, or to buy the dried ones, add a little bicarb, soak overnight, and cook them yourself? I mean including the lecky involved.

seraphina

Unless you have a pressure cooker, it's probably cheaper and more environmentally friendly to buy the tinned chickpeas (and kidney beans, and other pulses that require a long cooking time). With tinned pulses, you don't need to worry about the amount of water, gas and time needed to boil them for however long they take.

Also from an environmental point of view, it's more energy efficient to use industrial/catering sized pressure canners and pay the transport costs of moving cans about rather than to sell dried pulses and have them all cooked on domestic cookers of various efficiencies.

It's one of the reasons I bought a pressure cooker - they slash the cooking time and I can use the lowest setting on the smallest ring of the stove once it's up to pressure.

paybacktime2008

I found tins of chickpeas for 39p in Mr T's the other day. They were in the 'foreign' food isle. Worth having a root around as stores sell the same product for different prices depending where they are in store iyswim.

Trinny

Hi there

If you look at Thriftlady's freezer building blocks thread - it talks about cooking pulses batch style and then freezing them in portions.

With chickpeas or butter beans - the cost of cooking is high if you only cook a portion at a time - why not cook the whole bag of dried peas/beans - then portion off and freeze.

Its cheaper and you get masses

Trin

Barneysmom

I usually buy dried pulses so I can mix them in different meals?

Purpleclutterbuck

I have a pressure cooker and would love to know how to cook chick peas -please could someone tell me what to do ?
I always buy tinned red beans and have just started buying tinned lentils to put in homemade soups ,bolognaise etc as I'm cutting down on the meat bill . I think p'raps use both- tinned for emergencies and cook them if you've got time would be the most cost effective

Alison_Funnell

I have a terrible history with cooking beans they frequently take far longer to cook than they should and often refuse to properly soften - and I do pre soak and don't cook with salt.

seraphina

Purpleclutterbuck wrote: »

I have a pressure cooker and would love to know how to cook chick peas -please could someone tell me what to do ?
I always buy tinned red beans and have just started buying tinned lentils to put in homemade soups ,bolognaise etc as I'm cutting down on the meat bill . I think p'raps use both- tinned for emergencies and cook them if you've got time would be the most cost effective

Right, this is what I do for my chickpeas in a pressure cooker.

Soak overnight, discard soaking water.
Put chickpeas in pressure cooker with plenty of water. Add a teaspoon of vegetable oil to stop them foaming.
Put lid on and bring to full pressure (15psi), cook for 15-18 mins. For hm hummus where I want them really soft I cook them for 20 mins
Leave pressure to drop naturally - if you do a quick pressure release you split off the skins.

You can get away with soaking them for less time, you just have to cook them longer. Don't overload your pressure cooker as chickpeas and other pulses can foam badly and block the valves.

Check out: http://missvickie.com - that site has a big chart with all the pressure cooking times for pulses.

I must admit I do keep a can in stock for emergencies!

valk_scot

I go for the speed option and mostly buy tinned chickpeas and beans. The only time I used dried is when I'm making Boston baked beans or a fancy version of cassolet.

Elliesmum

paybacktime2008 wrote: »

I found tins of chickpeas for 39p in Mr T's the other day. They were in the 'foreign' food isle. Worth having a root around as stores sell the same product for different prices depending where they are in store iyswim.

They are 3 for a pound in Asda at the moment... Again in the more exotic food isle. I stocked up.

EM xx

helenamy123

hi,

Personally I would go for tinned, never any room in freezer to batch cook them anyway, BUT the smell of boiling beans or lentils etc i find horrible! (Tho i do like to eat them).

best wishes

helen x