Soaked overnight and grounded up chickpeas in a blender to bake falafels. Is the soaking enough to remove the antinutrients/phytates or should the chickpeas be boiled as well? Does the same work when replacing chickpeas with lentils or beans?
look at these scientific articles, in theory this data is validated for other beans and pulses
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11855623/ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279667768_Nutrients_and_antinutrients_in_chickpea_Cicer_arietinum_L_cultivars_after_soaking_and_pressure_cooking#:~:text=Most%20antinutritional%20factors%20are%20heat,%2%20germination 20and%2For%20fermentation.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1013189620528
After the night soaking, I would wash them and drain the water and let them sit ‘dry’, so they will start the sprouting process. The longer they sit dry the further a long this process goes. You can even continue this by having another over night soak and ‘dry’ day. The sprouting process can be taken as long as you want to wait. Or you can continue it if you didn’t have the time/energy to do what you wanted that day.
This soaking over night, sitting dry during the day is the easiest method to handle and kind of replicates what is happening naturally.
The main thing is to do your best to remove antinutrients, but don’t expect to get rid of them all. But the more you do, the better. Cooking would decrease them even more. The same methods work for all legumes, grains, nuts and seeds.
Soaking dry chickpeas makes them easier to cook faster when boiling. If you just ate soaked chickpeas and try chewing them, they would actually be kinda hard to chew. If you boil them after soaking them overnight, it allows them to be very soft texture when you chew them.
However, as far as blending them, I don’t if it makes a difference in that aspect. I always use chickpeas for salads.