Goodwill hunting

Mom has a new hobby. Whenever she's been out longer than I expected, she invariably ends up having visited one of the Goodwill shops around town. There's not much Mom takes more delight in than getting a compliment on a "new" shirt and responding, "Thanks, it was $3 at Goodwill!"

Fortunately, Mom's bargain shopping finally paid some kitchen dividends. She was looking for a cheap slow cooker and found this classic Rival Crock•Pot:

 

And look at the sticker: only $2.99, just like Mom's shirts she loves to brag about. The only problem is that it's small, only 2½ quarts, which is not enough for the slow cooker recipes I've already posted, which tend to nearly overflow even a pot more than twice that size. But it just happened to be exactly what I was looking for to make Alton Brown's ridiculously easy, and well reviewed, recipe for slow cooker chickpeas. How do you like dem apples?

 

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As it turns out, I like dem apples quite a bit, because Mom's $2.99 slow cooker worked like a charm. Four hours at high, and I had perfectly cooked chickpeas ready to crank out the best-textured hummus ever. Of course, I also had another three cans' worth of cooked chickpeas that had to be used up in about a week, but Chana Masala (two cans) and chickpea pasta (one can) took care of those. I'm not giving up the convenience of canned chickpeas forever just yet, but if you want to impress someone with some ultra-creamy hummus, this is the way to go.

 

  Slow Cooker Chickpeas

Adapted from Alton Brown via his website and Good Eats (S14)

Time: 4 to 8 hours (<5 minutes active)

7 cups (1,650 grams) water
1 pound/454 grams dried chickpeas, sorted and rinsed
1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt

¼ teaspoon baking soda

    1. Place all of the ingredients in a 2½-quart slow cooker. Cook until the chickpeas are tender but not mushy, about 4 hours on high or 6 to 8 hours on low.
    2. Store the cooked chickpeas in one or more containers, covered with their cooking liquid, for up to a week.
    3. To use: For the equivalent of one standard 15.5-ounce (439-gram) can, use 240 grams of cooked chickpeas, plus however much cooking liquid you need (e.g., 75 grams or more for Hummus 2.1).