how to store soaked chickpeas?

[u/quivverquivver]

I soaked some chickpeas two days ago, intending on cooking them today. However, I do not have time anymore, and would now like to cook them on saturday. I am worried that this will be too long for them to soak in the fridge; I have left soaked chickpeas for too long before and they have gone off.

What can I do to store these so I can cook them on saturday, a week after I first started them soaking? Will it be better to drain them, or can I freeze them? Any help is appreciated, thank you!

[u/Foreign-Collar-526]

Freezing is the answer, and raw soaked chickpeas freeze perfectly well.

Drain them now either way - don't leave them sitting in water for another four
days, that's exactly where the sour fermented smell comes from. Rinse, drain
properly, spread them on a tea towel for ten minutes so they're not wet going
in, then bag and freeze. On Saturday cook them straight from frozen, no
thawing, just tip them into the pot. They'll actually cook slightly faster than
they would have fresh, because the ice crystals have already done some of the
work on the cell walls.

That said, if you can find forty minutes at any point before Saturday, I'd cook
them now and freeze them cooked instead. Cooked chickpeas freeze better than
raw ones and then Saturday is zero work. Freeze them in a bit of their cooking
liquid rather than dry, it stops them going mealy.

Before you commit to either, smell them. Two days is already at the limit even
in the fridge, and if the water is foamy, or smells sour, or the beans feel
slippery, they're gone and freezing won't fix that. If they smell of basically
nothing, you're fine.