TIL a $4 bag of dried chickpeas took me 3 weekends to get right, and I almost quit twice

Ryan Anderson · 2026-09-24T19:05:04.587358+00:00

I decided to stop buying canned beans back in January because the price at my local grocery in Columbus jumped to $1.29 a can and I eat a lot of chickpeas. Simple math said dried beans at $4 for a 2 pound bag would stretch way further, so I figured I would soak overnight and be done. First batch I boiled way too hard and ended up with a pot of mush that tasted like nothing, so I threw out the whole thing. Second try I undercooked them and burned through a whole afternoon chewing rocks, then my roommate asked why the kitchen smelled like wet cardboard for 2 days. It took me until the third weekend to figure out that a pinch of baking soda in the soak water plus a real simmer (not a rolling boil) gets them soft in about 90 minutes. Now I cook a big batch on Sunday and freeze them in 2 cup portions, which works out to about 40 cents a can when I do it right. Has anyone else fought with dried beans like this, or do you have a trick for getting the texture right without babysitting the pot?

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TIL a $4 bag of dried chickpeas took me 3 weekends to get right, and I almost quit twice | Budget Friendly Meals - Rigidtalk