Instant Pot Small Chickpeas. Italy loves Ceci Piccoli, mini-sized chickpeas. I love to cook them in my Instant Pot, where I can cook them from dry for 30 minutes at high pressure. No soaking is needed!
Would you like to save this recipe?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Jump to:
I got my ceci piccoli in my Rancho Gordo bean box. They're so cute! They also cook quicker than larger chickpeas, thanks to their small size. They have a high skin-to-meat ratio, which gives them more texture than full-sized chickpeas. They're an excellent substitute for regular chickpeas in most recipes; I only avoid hummus because the extra skin gives the hummus too much texture.
If you have full-sized chickpeas, see my Instant Pot Chickpeas recipe for cooking instructions.
Ingredients
- 1 pound (2 cups) dried small chickpeas (aka ceci piccoli)
- 6 cups water
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 small onion
- 1 bay leaf
How to make Instant Pot ceci piccoli (small chickpeas)
Sort and rinse the small chickpeas
Sort the small chickpeas, removing any stones or dirt clods you find. Rinse the chickpeas, then put them in an Instant Pot or other pressure cooker
Pressure Cook for 30 minutes with a Natural Release
Add the water, onion, and bay leaf to the pot. Lock the lid and pressure cook at high pressure for 30 minutes in an Instant Pot or electric pressure cooker or for 25 minutes in a stovetop PC. (Use Manual, Pressure Cook, or Pressure Cook - Custom mode in an Instant Pot). Let the pressure come down naturally; you can quick release any remaining pressure after 15 minutes if you are in a hurry.
Serve
Unlock and remove the pressure cooker lid – open it away from you to protect yourself from the hot steam. Discard the onion and bay leaf. Serve the chickpeas with their broth, drain them for use in other recipes, or freeze them in their broth in 2-cup containers for up to 6 months.
Substitutions
Onion and Bay Leaf: Chickpeas, water, and a little salt are enough for basic beans, and you don't need anything else. But the onion and bay add extra flavor to the chickpeas. You can substitute two unpeeled garlic cloves if you don't have an onion. If you don't have a bay leaf, substitute a small sprig of fresh rosemary. (Be careful with the rosemary; it has a strong flavor. I use a 2- to 3-inch-long sprig of rosemary.)
🛠 Equipment
Scaling
This recipe scales down easily - cut everything in half if you don't need as many chickpeas or have a 3-quart pressure cooker. Scaling up runs into space issues; if you have an 8-quart pressure cooker or larger, you can double this recipe, but it's too much to fit in a 6-quart pressure cooker.
Soaking small chickpeas?
I always get the "to soak, or not to soak?" question. I don't soak my dry, small chickpeas in this basic recipe. They don't need an overnight soak to cook to tenderness with 30 minutes at high pressure.
That doesn't mean you can't soak small chickpeas. They turn out fine, though the bean broth isn't quite full-bodied. Soaked small chickpeas cook much quicker, in 15 minutes at high pressure. I use that when pressure cooking chickpeas with other ingredients, where the shorter cooking time keeps me from overcooking the whole dish to get the chickpeas tender.
Sorting Chickpeas
Chickpeas are an agricultural product, and stuff tends to creep in when they are processed. Chickpeas should always be sorted and rinsed before cooking to eliminate twigs, stones, clumps of dirt, or broken chickpeas.
To sort the chickpeas, I pour them out on one side of a rimmed baking sheet to keep the chickpeas from escaping. (I love my half-sheet pans; they're an essential kitchen tool I use almost every day) . I slowly run my fingers through the pile of chickpeas, pulling them towards me on the sheet. I watch the chickpeas as they move, looking for anything that doesn't seem right. If I see something, I poke around in the chickpeas until I find what catches my eye and discard it. I repeat this several times until I'm satisfied everything is out of the chickpeas.
Then I dump the chickpeas into a fine mesh strainer and rinse them under cold running water to wash off any dirt or dust on the beans.
The small chickpeas are sorted, rinsed, and ready for soaking or cooking.
💡Tips and Tricks
- This whole recipe is the trick - pressure cooker dried chickpeas are easy and fantastic. Try them, and you'll never go back to canned beans. (OK, maybe you will for convenience, but see the storage section for tips on making freezer beans ahead of time.)
- Salt your chickpea water! "Salt toughens beans" is a myth. Salting before cooking helps season the chickpeas all the way through as they cook.
- If your beans are still tough when the cooking time is over, especially any "floaters" at the top of the pot, stir the beans, lock the lid, and pressure cook for another five minutes. Older beans take longer to cook, and if the beans have been sitting on the shelf at your store for a while, they may need extra time.
- Simmer to thicken: If you have the time and want thicker bean liquid, simmer the beans for 15 to 20 minutes after pressure cooking. I set my Instant Pot to Sauté mode adjusted to low, set the timer to 15 minutes, and leave the lid off to let the broth evaporate.
Storing leftover chickpeas (make ahead chickpeas)
A 2-cup container of cooked small chickpeas, with cooking liquid, replaces a 15-ounce can of beans from the grocery store. They'll last in the refrigerator for a few days and freeze for up to 6 months. I always make extra chickpeas and freeze the leftovers for use in other recipes. Freezer chickpeas are ready to use with about 5 minutes in the microwave and are so much better than canned.
How to use cooked small chickpeas
How do I use cooked small chickpeas? Usually, when I think of chickpeas, I think of hummus, but these small chickpeas have a lot of skin, so I save the hummus for full-sized chickpeas. They are an excellent ingredient for Sautéed Chickpeas, Chickpea and Tomato-Lemon Vinaigrette, or Smashed Chickpea and Scallion Salad. Small chickpeas are fantastic in my favorite new pasta recipe, Chickpea Puttanesca. They're also great as a crunchy snack: Oven Roasted Chickpeas, but cut back the roasting time to 15 minutes. (Also, see the "Storage" section because leftover frozen chickpeas taste much better than canned chickpeas.)
Print
Instant Pot Small Chickpeas Recipe
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 6 cups of cooked chickpeas 1x
Description
Instant Pot Small Chickpeas. Italy loves Ceci Piccoli, mini-sized chickpeas. I love to cook them in my Instant Pot, where I can cook them from dry for 30 minutes at high pressure. No soaking is needed!
Ingredients
- 1 pound (2 cups) dried small chickpeas (aka ceci piccoli)
- 6 cups water
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 small onion
- 1 bay leaf
Instructions
- Sort and rinse the small chickpeas: Sort the small chickpeas, removing any stones or dirt clods you find. Rinse the chickpeas, then put them in an Instant Pot or other pressure cooker
- Pressure Cook for 30 minutes with a Natural Release: Add the water, onion, and bay leaf to the pot. Lock the lid and pressure cook at high pressure for 30 minutes in an Instant Pot or electric pressure cooker or for 25 minutes in a stovetop PC. (Use Manual, Pressure Cook, or Pressure Cook - Custom mode in an Instant Pot). Let the pressure come down naturally; you can quick release any remaining pressure after 15 minutes if you are in a hurry.
- Serve: Unlock and remove the pressure cooker lid – open it away from you to protect yourself from the hot steam. Discard the onion and bay leaf. Serve the chickpeas with their broth, drain them for use in other recipes, or freeze them in their broth in 2-cup containers for up to 6 months.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Side dish
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
Would you like to save this recipe?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Related Posts
Instant Pot Masala Desi Chickpeas (Masala Desi Chana)
Instant Pot Garbanzos with Smoked Paprika
Instant Pot Pasta e Ceci (Pasta with Chickpeas)
My other Instant Pot Bean Recipes
My other Instant Pot and Pressure Cooker Recipes
Enjoyed this post? Want to help out DadCooksDinner? Subscribe to DadCooksDinner via email and share this post with your friends. Want to contribute directly? Donate to my Tip Jar, or buy something from Amazon.com through the links on this site. Thank you.
Mike Vrobel says
Try it, you'll like it!