Tinned Beans & Chickpeas

Dried beans need planning: an overnight soak and then an hour or more of boiling, or a pressure cooker and some nerve. Tinned beans and chickpeas skip all of that. They are cooked through, hold their shape and soak up a gravy in ten minutes, which is why they fill the cupboards of busy cooks from Southall to Brixton.

The shelf divides in two. Tinned chickpeas include white kabuli chana for chole, chana chaat and hummus, and the smaller, nuttier kala chana for Navratri prasad and dry chana sundal. Tinned beans cover red kidney beans for rajma, black-eyed beans for lobia, butter beans, rosecoco, black beans and gungo peas, the pigeon peas that go into Caribbean rice and peas.

Drain and rinse before cooking for a cleaner flavour and less salt. The liquid from chickpeas, known as aquafaba, whips like egg white and can be kept for eggless baking. Add beans once the masala is cooked, then simmer gently so they absorb the spices without falling apart, and mash a spoonful against the side of the pan to thicken the gravy.

If you prefer to cook from scratch, the dried versions are under dried beans and chickpeas in the dals and pulses aisle. These tins belong to the tins and ready meals department, and a jar of chole masala is the quickest way to season them.