Many of our favorite customers swear by the pressure cooker. I find it too violent and inconsistent. I know I’m irrational but there you have it.
I was home with a cold and thinking it would be nice to have chick peas to play with. I think the worst part of the pressure cooker is the dead-tasting bean broth. There has been no evaporation and no air and I always feel they are second rate compared to slow-simmered beans in a pot. But with garbanzos, who cares? Even simmered chick peas have an uninteresting broth. So what difference would it make?
Into my pressure cooker pot, I added about a cup and a half of dried garbanzos (they were Rancho Gordo, so I knew they were “fresh”), some onion and a little bit of oil. I was going to skip the oil until I remembered something about cooking beans without oil can gum up the safety valves or something like that. Old wives tale? I brought the pot up to pressure and then cooked them for exactly 25 minutes and then shut the heat off, allowing them to release naturally.
I forgot about the beans and when I did remember, I rushed to open the pot. I expected to have to cook the peas for another 20 minutes or so but I was shocked to find each chick pea cooked to perfection! No splitting and no hardness. Less than hour from having the idea to table and cooked beans were mine!
I made hummus. I made a soup from Mexico with chicken, chipotles and garbanzos and then I even made this little salad with chorizo, roasted red bell peppers, garbanzos and good olive oil and lemons.
I’m not giving up my clay pots but I am keeping an open mind!
Because of your breathing thing; I usually put them on the stove for a bit to do that after Instapot- true time saver, plus breathing time!
If your instant pot has a saute feature (mine does), you can simmer them in the pot and not have to transfer them to the stovetop.
I use my Instant Pot for beans, especially Garbanzo beans. Always a winner.
The key to the Instant Pot is not adding too much liquid; otherwise, you are right, the broth is less than appealing.