Dried chickpeas and beans cost a fraction of canned ones and taste better, but they need planning: an overnight soak, then one to two hours of simmering. Cook a big batch, and freeze it in portions.
Soak them overnight
Cover the dried pulses with three times their volume of cold water and leave them for 8 to 12 hours. They double in size. Soaking shortens the cooking and helps them cook evenly. Lentils and split peas need no soaking at all, which is why red lentil dal is so quick.
Simmer, don’t boil hard
Drain them, cover with fresh water by a few centimetres and bring to the boil. Red kidney beans must boil hard for at least 10 minutes first: raw or undercooked, they contain a toxin, phytohaemagglutinin, that causes food poisoning, and slow cookers on a low setting don’t get hot enough to destroy it. Then lower the heat and simmer gently until tender: about 1 to 1½ hours for chickpeas, 45 minutes to 1½ hours for most beans, depending on their age. Old beans take longer. Salt the water near the end, or from the start: both work.
How many to cook
100 g of dried chickpeas or beans gives about 250 g cooked, roughly one 400 g can drained. Cooked pulses keep 4 days in the fridge in their liquid, and 3 months in the freezer. Falafel are the exception to all this: they are made from soaked but uncooked chickpeas.