Cooking question: I adore chickpeas, but...

[PeterB]

... they're a real problem for someone like me who has IBS.

I've read lots of ways to try to prepare them to reduce the gas -- which is especially problematic for someone who has IBS. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of buying a very large bag of dried chickpeas, which I have already used in my Instant Pot, with delicious results -- but unfortunately also very unpleasant GI side effects.

I'm wondering if there isn't some other way to completely remove the offending polysaccharides. Soaking the beans is supposed to help, and I'm sure it does, but it didn't really solve the problem for me. I'm thinking maybe to take the dry beans, blend/grind them to a powder, THEN add the water ... so as to really remove the polysaccharides ... the problem is then how to get rid of the water and keep the powder.

If anyone's curious, here's what I'd like to try next, in terms of using them in a recipe: https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/brown-b...sto-pasta/

I'm also wondering if it might help to add enzymes to the chickpeas while soaking or cooking ... I take one of those digestive enzyme type supplements when I eat stuff like this, to try to help with the digestive issues, but again it didn't help much in this case.

[Ombligo]

I assume you have tried Bean-O?

[PeterB]

Ombligo wrote:
I assume you have tried Bean-O?

Yup ... that's basically one of the ingredients in the enzyme supplement I mentioned. Beano is alpha-galactosidase. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-galactosidase ... the supplement I use is Zygest 13, which also has the same enzyme plus many others. https://www.puritan.com/enzymes-130/zyge...yme-034711

Edit: the wiki I just posted for alpha-galactosidase says that the enzyme temperature optimum is 55oC, which is again making me think to maybe add the enzyme to the beans and slow/pressure cook, rather than soaking.

[JoeH]

I have a moderate case of IBS myself. For baked beans I find those that have been cooked longer, the beans are a bit mushy in texture after long slow cooking in an oven, give me few issues.

P.S. Most of the "baked" beans on the market are what used to be considered "pot beans" here in New England. Cooked in a pot on a stove burner, just until they have boiled and the beans just barely tender. Some companies will the run them through an oven quickly to get the "oven baked" bit to label them with.

[btfc]

How long did you soak?

Have you thought about Hummus?

[mrbigstuff]

I have IBS and I eat all that stuff anyway. It's too good for us to not eat it. I deal with the bloat by eating some ginger or fennel. Sometimes even a pickle (the salty not sweet variety) works. But it still happens.

[Janit]

Treating this as a matter of biochemistry I see the following issues:

1) How effective is soaking at leaching out the polysaccharides? Is there a better way to do this?

2) How much maceration is necessary to get effective enzymatic digestion? Is it enough to cook until soft, and then incubate at 55 degrees with alpha-galactosidase for some time, or is it better to puree and then incubate? Are other enzymes also necessary to digest the polysaccharides?

3) Is there an easy way to assay the level of polysaccharides remaining in the chick peas after preparation? This might also make it possible to quantify what level of polysaccharides your gut can tolerate.

This sounds like a perfect pandemic project if you are missing the lab. And the results would surely qualify for submission to the Journal of Irreproducible Results.

Another approach would be to breed or engineer gasless chickpeas.

Finally, I wonder if it would be possible to brew a chickpea beer, thereby converting all those nasty polysaccharides into ethanol? miley-excited001:

[PeterB]

btfc wrote:
How long did you soak?

Have you thought about Hummus?

Soaked overnight. And I think about hummus ALL the TIME. Dammit! Now you've got me wanting to make some. :yum:

Janit wrote:
Treating this as a matter of biochemistry I see the following issues:

1) How effective is soaking at leaching out the polysaccharides? Is there a better way to do this?

2) How much maceration is necessary to get effective enzymatic digestion? Is it enough to cook until soft, and then incubate at 55 degrees with alpha-galactosidase for some time, or is it better to puree and then incubate? Are other enzymes also necessary to digest the polysaccharides?

3) Is there an easy way to assay the level of polysaccharides remaining in the chick peas after preparation? This might also make it possible to quantify what level of polysaccharides your gut can tolerate.

This sounds like a perfect pandemic project if you are missing the lab. And the results would surely qualify for submission to the Journal of Irreproducible Results.

Another approach would be to breed or engineer gasless chickpeasmiley-excited001:

Yep... I was thinking about this from the biochem perspective too. I did soaks where I was replacing the water fairly frequently (this is the recommended method from the USDA), but the problem -- as I see it -- is that you could still have a lot of the oligosaccharide hiding inside the intact beans. That's why I was thinking about grinding them up, THEN soaking.

And soaking/cooking at the higher temp, using an enzyme, might do it... since the enzyme is optimal at 55oC. The Zygest-13 supplement I posted also has hemicellulase enzyme, which may work on these damned oligosaccharides.

And breeding or developing gasless legumes would be pretty cool and not too hard, now that we can all be doing CRISPR at home. miley-excited001:

[Janit]

PeterB wrote:
[quote=btfc]
How long did you soak?

Have you thought about Hummus?

Soaked overnight. And I think about hummus ALL the TIME. Dammit! Now you've got me wanting to make some. :yum:

Janit wrote:
Treating this as a matter of biochemistry I see the following issues:

1) How effective is soaking at leaching out the polysaccharides? Is there a better way to do this?

2) How much maceration is necessary to get effective enzymatic digestion? Is it enough to cook until soft, and then incubate at 55 degrees with alpha-galactosidase for some time, or is it better to puree and then incubate? Are other enzymes also necessary to digest the polysaccharides?

3) Is there an easy way to assay the level of polysaccharides remaining in the chick peas after preparation? This might also make it possible to quantify what level of polysaccharides your gut can tolerate.

This sounds like a perfect pandemic project if you are missing the lab. And the results would surely qualify for submission to the Journal of Irreproducible Results.

Another approach would be to breed or engineer gasless chickpeasmiley-excited001:

Yep... I was thinking about this from the biochem perspective too. I did soaks where I was replacing the water fairly frequently (this is the recommended method from the USDA), but the problem -- as I see it -- is that you could still have a lot of the oligosaccharide hiding inside the intact beans. That's why I was thinking about grinding them up, THEN soaking.

And soaking/cooking at the higher temp, using an enzyme, might do it... since the enzyme is optimal at 55oC. The Zygest-13 supplement I posted also has hemicellulase enzyme, which may work on these damned oligosaccharides.

And breeding or developing gasless legumes would be pretty cool and not too hard, now that we can all be doing CRISPR at home. miley-excited001:
Ah, you answered before I made my final edit:

Finally, I wonder if it would be possible to brew a chickpea beer, thereby converting all those nasty polysaccharides into ethanol?

[kledo]

It's been done:
Hummus beer