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Instant Pot Garbanzo Beans – Yummy and Vegan!

This recipe for Yummy Vegan Instant Pot Garbanzo Beans is for an 8-quart pressure cooker.  If using a 6-quart Instant Pot or other pressure cooker, use 1 pound of beans and reduce other ingredients by half. Makes approximately 10 cups of cooked drained garbanzo beans. This recipe was shared by Nan Simonsen in her October 2021 cooking class.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds dry garbanzo beans (I use organic)
• 1 onion, peeled and scored into quarters to the midpoint, from the stem end
• 3-4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 piece of kombu, a sea vegetable; adds minerals and helps digestibility. I use Eden brand.
• 1 carrot, whole and washed
• 1 celery stalk, whole and washed
• Fresh herb sprigs—I used a bit of rosemary and oregano. Thyme would also be nice. Use what you like.

Instructions

Soak garbanzo beans in plenty of water for 8 or more hours.

Drain the soaked garbanzo beans, rinse, and add to the Instant Pot base. Bury the onion partway into beans. In order to easily remove them when cooking is finished, place the remaining ingredients on top of the beans. Barely cover the beans and veggies with water.

Set the Instant Pot to high pressure. Pressure cook for 18 minutes. Let naturally release for 20 minutes, then release pressure. Remove the veggies from the pot and put in your compost bin (if you use one). Season with salt & pepper to taste, if desired.

Strain the beans and keep the ‘aqua fava’ (the rich broth) for another use, it can also be frozen. I use it in a vegetable soup into which I add garbanzo beans.  

After the beans are well-drained and cool, spread them out on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet with sides (called a jelly roll pan), and freeze in the pan (if your freezer will accommodate the pan), or, simply scoop the cooled beans into 1-quart Ziplock freezer bags and freeze what you won’t use within a week.  I got three full bags from my 2 pounds of beans. When frozen in the Zip Lock bags, you can lightly tap a bag on the counter and the beans will become loose and scoopable.

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