Canning Garbanzo Beans with Roasted Tomatillos

In this article, I’m canning garbanzo beans with roasted tomatillos. It has kind of an Indian-ish flair to it, though I personally don’t consider it to be an authentic Indian recipe. But the overall flavor of it has an Indian flavor, so if you like Indian food, you’re likely to enjoy this home-canned chickpea recipe.

Canning Garbanzo Beans with Roasted Tomatillos

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I got the recipe from the book, The Complete Guide to Pressure Canning (Amazon), by Diane Devereaux, also known as the Canning Diva. What I like about the book is that it has recipes like this one, that are quite a bit different from your typical canning recipes.

Now let’s get into how to can garbanzo beans with roasted tomatillos.

Ingredients

3 cups dried garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas)
Approximately 20 tomatillos (I used 2 1/2 pounds)
10 whole, peeled garlic cloves
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup diced onion
4 minced garlic cloves
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 cups chicken broth

Yield: 5 pints

The Process of Canning Garbanzo Beans with Roasted Tomatillos

This recipe is actually quite a bit more complex than many of the canning recipes that I tend to lean toward, but no need to worry, as I’ll take you through the process, step-by-step.

Step 1: Prepare the Garbanzo Beans

I started off by preparing the garbanzo beans. Note that three cups is a little more than a pound of dry garbanzo beans.

First, measure out 3 cups of dried garbanzo beans.

Look through them to make sure there aren’t any rocks or bad garbanzo beans, and then rinse them.

Next, put the garbanzo beans into a pot and cover with two inches of water. Bring the water to a boil, and boil for 5 minutes. Turn the heat off, and put a lid on the pot to keep the heat in. You’ll want to let the garbanzo beans sit in the hot water for about 30 minutes.

Note: It actually took me longer than 30 minutes to do the next steps. During this time, I just let the garbanzo beans sit in the hot water in the pot with the lid on. If anything, it’s helpful to allow them to soak in the hot water more rather than less time, which is why I do this step before even starting the other steps.

Step 2: Prepare Your Jars, Canner, and Lids

While the garbanzo beans were cooking, I washed my jars. I then put the jars, lids and rubber gaskets into my Instant Pot full of water and put it on to heat.

Note that you don’t need an Instant Pot. You can use any pot for this. The key is to get the jars simmering so they are hot when you fill them with the hot chickpea and tomatillo mixture.

If you’re using traditional metal canning lids, you don’t need to heat them. I used Harvest Guard lids. If you use reusable canning lids such as Harvest Guard or Tattler, you do need to heat the gaskets.

Pro tip: If you’re new to reusable canning lids such as Tattler (Amazon) or Harvest Guard, be sure to check out my article, How to Use Reusable Canning Lids.

I also heated the water in my canner. I used my Nesco canner (Amazon), but you can do this with your stove top canner as well. Just add in the water and put it on to heat while you do everything else.

Step 3: Prepare the Tomatillos

Some of the tomatillos I purchased were huge. See how big the one on the left is compared to the smaller one on the right. Most of the ones I got were large, so 13 tomatillos was enough for this recipe.

The recipe called for 20 tomatillos. When I made this recipe, I did grocery pickup, and since I needed to order the tomatillos by the pound instead of by the number of tomatillos, I guessed, and bought 2.5 pounds of tomatillos.

In my case, 2.5 pounds of tomatillos ended up being just 13 tomatillos, but some of them were huge. So even though I have fewer tomatillos than the recipe calls for, it worked out fine.

Pro tip: One of the advantages of of pressure canning is that you don’t need to be concerned with things like the acid level, so you can wing it a bit more with recipes. So even if you have more or less of an item than the recipe you are following calls for, while the overall flavor may be affected, there are no worries when it comes to the safety of the recipe.

Husk, Wash, Core, and Cut the Tomatillos

removing the husks on tomatillos before preparing and canning garbanzo beans. — Removing the husk from a tomatillo.

When you buy tomatillos from the grocery store or harvest tomatillos you grew, they have a papery husk on the outside.

Removing the husks is the first step in preparing the tomatillos.

When you remove the husks, you’ll notice that there is a sticky residue on the outside of the tomatillos. This is completely normal, and nothing to worry about.

There may also be some crud that looks pretty disgusting on the outside of the tomatillos, but it comes right off, and is also nothing to worry about. Just be sure to wash the tomatillos after removing the husk.

The next thing I like to do is remove the core. I don’t think this is absolutely necessary, so removing it is a matter of personal preference.

After removing the core, cut the tomatillos in half.

Roast the Tomatillos

Place the peeled, cored, and halved tomatillos on a baking sheet, skin side up. Add garlic cloves, and drizzle with olive oil before roasting.

Put the halved tomatillos skin side down onto a baking sheet. Add the 8-10 whole, peeled garlic cloves onto the baking sheet as well. Drizzle olive oil over the top of the tomatillos and garlic.

Here’s what the tomatillos looked like after being the in oven for 30 minutes. Ideally, they would have been more charred, for better flavor. If you look closely, you may be able to see that there is a lot of liquid on the baking sheet. I recommend using that liquid because it’s full of flavor!

Roast the tomatillos and garlic in a preheated 400-degree oven for about 25-30 minutes.

Step 4: Prepare the Rest of the Ingredients

While the tomatillos are roasting, prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Dice the onion. I ended up with more than 1 cup of diced onion, but we like onions, so I went ahead and used all of it.
Mince 4 garlic cloves.
Measure out the spices – 1 teaspoon of paprika, a teaspoon of ground coriander, a half a teaspoon of ground cumin, 1 teaspoon yellow curry powder, and 1 teaspoon salt.
If using powdered bouillon, add 4 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules, to 4 cups of hot water. You can skip this step if you’re using canned or boxed chicken broth.

Pro tip: I like keeping whole spices in my pantry. I didn’t have any ground coriander but had some coriander seeds. I roasted the coriander seeds in a dry skillet until they emitted a wonderful fragrance. I then let them cool and then ground them in a coffee grinder that I reserve for spices.

Grinding coriander seeds to make coriander powder.

Puree the Tomatillos

The recipe calls for using a food processor to puree the tomatillos. The food processor I have is tiny, so instead, I used an immersion blender. You could also use a regular blender but be sure to either let the tomatillos cool first or vent the lid when you run it. Putting hot tomatillos into a blender without venting is a recipe for ending up with tomatillos splattering your walls and ceiling, so do so with caution. 😊

Another thing to note is that when I took the tomatillos out of the oven, there was a lot of juice. The recipe doesn’t say anything about draining the juice, and let’s face it, it has a lot of flavor. So, I left it in when pureeing the tomatillos.

Step 5: Cook the Tomatillos and Garbanzo Beans Mixture

It’s now finally time to get to cooking!

Pro tip: This recipe is definitely more complex than many canning recipes, so be sure to allow plenty of time for it. If you have a hard time finding enough time for everything, you can prep the tomatillos and garbanzo beans the day before canning them. Just refrigerate them until you’re ready to use them.

Now let’s get into the nitty-gritty of getting this thing cooked!

Sauté the Onions and Garlic

Sauté onions and garlic in about a tablespoon of olive oil, until onions are translucent.

Add about a tablespoon of oil to a large stockpot and put it on medium heat. Add in the diced onion, and minced garlic.

Sauté the onions and garlic for about 5 minutes, or until the onions are translucent.

Add in Garbanzo Beans and Spices

Adding the spices to the sautéed garbanzo beans.

Next, drain the garbanzo beans and add them to the pot. Sauté the garbanzo beans, onions, and garlic for about 5 minutes.

Now, add in the spices, including the salt. Note that the recipe doesn’t call for pepper, but since I like pepper, I decided to sprinkle in some pepper at this time as well.

After adding in the spices, sauté for an additional 2 minutes.

By this point, it smells great, and I’m finally starting to believe that all this work is going to be worth it!

Add in Pureed Tomatillos and Chicken Broth

After adding the tomatillo puree to the garbanzo beans, I added the chicken broth. If you prefer to make this vegetarian, use vegetable broth or water instead of chicken broth.

Next, add in the pureed tomatillos and chicken broth. Bring it to a boil and simmer it for about 2 minutes.

Step 6: Fill Your Jars with the Garbanzo beans and Tomatillos

using a funnel to add garbanzo beans to canning jars. — A canning funnel makes filling canning jars with the garbanzo bean and tomatillo mixture easier.

debubbling garbanzo beans before canning. — Debubble the jars to remove any air pockets.

checking the headspace when canning garbanzo beans. — After debubbling, check headspace and add more (or less) if needed for 1 1/4″ headspace.

Dip a paper towel in some vinegar, and wipe the rims before putting on the lids.

Next fill your jars with the chickpea and tomatillo mixture, leaving 1 ¼” headspace. I find it helpful to use a canning funnel, like these that you can pick up on Amazon.

Be sure to debubble the jars, using a plastic knife, chopsticks, or a debubbler, like this one (Amazon). After debububbling, check again for headspace, and add if needed, more to bring it up to 1 ¼” inch headspace.

Be sure to wipe the rims with a paper towel that you’ve dipped in vinegar. Then add the lids, according to the manufacturer instructions.

Step 7: Process the Canned Garbanzo Beans and Roasted Tomatillos

Pressure can the garbanzo beans and roasted tomatillos for 75 minutes (1 hour and 15 minutes) for pints, or 90 minutes (1 and a half hours) for quarts.

Changes I’d Make to this Canned Garbanzo Beans Recipe

The flavor of these canned garbanzo beans and roasted tomatillos is very good. The spices are spot on, and an excellent choice for anyone who likes Indian-inspired food.

But, if you’re interested in canning garbanzo beans with tomatillos, there are a couple of changes I recommend making.

Use Fewer Garbanzo Beans or Cook Them Longer

The end product is very, very thick. The thickness makes this a potentially unsafe recipe, since it’s so dense. There are a couple of ways around this.

The first way is to cook the garbanzo beans longer than the recipes calls for, before adding them to the other ingredients. According to the National Center for Home Food Preservation, you should first soak all dried beans, including dried garbanzo beans for 12 – 18 hours, and them for 30 minutes before canning them.

This recipe calls for a middle ground approach that is somewhere between the NCHFP recommendations, and the common practice of canning dry beans that haven’t even been soaked. I suspect that the garbanzo beans soaked up some of the soupy liquid that was in the jars, and thus I ended up with a very thick end product.

Another option is to use a smaller amount of dried garbanzo beans, such as two cups instead of three.

Use Green Salsa or Enchilada Sauce Instead of Tomatillos

This recipe for canning garbanzo beans was a pretty time-consuming recipe that took a fair amount of work. To reduce the amount of time and work, instead of using fresh tomatillos that you need to husk, cut, and roast, use green salsa or green enchilada sauce.

If you choose to make this substitution, feel free to leave out the ground cumin and paprika. However, I recommend using the ground coriander and yellow curry powder, because those are that provide the traditional Indian flavor.

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