They are a little scary, but it’s just a stovetop pressure cooker.

They’ve been around for decades before the Instant Pot came along.

I’ve had good luck “soaking” chickpeas for only an hour. Add to a pot with a pinch of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). Bring to a boil, turn off the heat, and cover. Let sit for an hour. Drain and cook as if they soaked overnight.

The amount of baking soda takes some trial and error. Not enough and they won’t cook through, too much and they’ll turn to mush.

My gosh, is there anything baking soda can’t do? oO

So thanks for that tip. I make beans all the time, so will be jumping on that one immediately.

Btw, I’ve found that cooking and rehydrating beans at the same time works perfectly well for just about all varieties, and should especially combine well with pressure cooking. True-- you might lose some of the texture, and maybe not get as full of a Maillard Reaction as otherwise, but I haven’t found these to be significant problems. So OP, beans shouldn’t take anywhere near 8hrs to soak, in future.

Side note: I happened to get myself a grain grinder because of how long my favorite bean (kidney) took to hydrate & cook. Unfortunately, something indeed gets lost that way, and the beans simply aren’t as good as when whole.

comrade_squid@lemmy.ml