How to Cook Dried Legumes: Everything You Need to Know to Preserve Their Properties

Beans, chickpeas, lentils, grass peas and broad beans: we are talking about legumes, small great allies of our health and protagonists of infinite recipes. A precious ingredient for our diet, legumes were once called "poor man's meat" for the enormous quantity of proteins they contain.

Very often, for a question of speed, we prefer to use pre-cooked or canned legumes for our soups and broths: but to enjoy them at their best, preserving their flavor and properties, it is preferable to choose the dried ones. Of course, cooking times can be a little longer, but the result is definitely worth it: here is a simple guide, explained step by step, for cooking dried legumes.

How to Soak (How Much and When)

Before being cooked, all dried legumes need to be soaked in cold water and this is why it is always best to decide in advance when to cook them (deciding the day before is certainly the best way). Soaking serves to rehydrate the starch and fibre contained in the legumes and, of course, to soften them before cooking. The hours of soaking vary from a minimum of 2 hours for some types of lentils and peas, to a maximum of 24 hours for unhulled chickpeas; all other legumes (beans, chickpeas, etc.) must remain in cold water for about 12 hours. If indicated on the package, in some cases you will be advised to change the water once or twice during the soaking period and, once the necessary time has passed, all you have to do is rinse your legumes under running water and cook them, let's see how.

How to Cook Dried Legumes

Once washed and drained from soaking, you can cook your legumes following a few small precautions:

• Always place the legumes on the stove in cold water and without salt.
• Salt should be added only a few minutes before the end of cooking.
• If more water is needed during cooking, be sure to add it boiling and not cold.
• The water needed for cooking varies depending on the legume you want to cook: in the case of lentils, you will need double the volume of the latter, for beans the water should be triple the volume, while for chickpeas the recommended quantity is quadruple the volume of the legume.

How to Manage Cooking Times

Cooking times, like soaking times, change depending on the legume you are going to cook:

1. The chickpeas will need to cook for an average of 2 or 3 hours.
2. Depending on their size and variety, beans and broad beans will require one to two hours of cooking time.
3. The lentils should not cook for more than 40 minutes, in some cases just 20 will be enough.

The best way to know if your legumes are cooked and ready to be enjoyed, the advice is always and only to taste.