Steamed Chickpeas

1 lb Dried chickpeas (garbanzos)

8 c Water

1 ts Salt garlic salt

Soak chickpeas for 6 hours in water. Pour off water. Steam chickpeas, for approximately 1 hour, maybe more, until tender and yet chewy. Do not overcook to mushiness. Drain thoroughly, cool and sprinkle with salt and garlic salt. I used a rice steamer and the flavor of the chickpeas is totally different (almost like a peanut) from the canned or the usual boiled flavor. They were just del icious! So just out of curiosity, I tried steaming a small handful of several different beans, altogether (small red, kidney, black beans, lima, navy, adzuki, pinto). (By the way, soak black beans separately, they stain the white beans a very attractive shade of gray!) Same result! I ended up just snacking on them by the handful. I never even got far enough to use them for soup or something, they were so good by themselves! This will be great for summer when it`s too hot to cook! Try experimenting with different spices (cumin, red pepper, cajun, italian etc.). I will probably never use canned or simmered beans again, if I can help it. I`m definitely not a cooking purist, but the difference with this steaming method is enormous! From Fatfree Digest April-May 1994, Formatting by Sue Smith (using MMCONV)