Chickpeas, lentils and beans are delicious and nutrients, but if you do not cook them in the right way they can be hard, indigestible or insipid! Here are 5 common mistakes you are probably making: from the wrong spine to too long or too short cooking. Find out how to prepare legumes correctly to make them more digestible, tasty and perfect for each dish!
Tuition, lentils and beans are extraordinary foods, rich in proteins, fiber and unmistakable flavor. But let’s face it, cooking them properly is far from obvious. How many times have you found yourself with hard chickpeas like Sassolini or the beans who left you a feeling of swelling worthy of an aerostatic balloon? If your legumes never come as they should, maybe you’re making one (or more) of these errors.
Let’s see what they are and how to avoid them, on the world legume day:
Don’t soak them (or hurt it)
Admission is a very important phase for many dry legumes, but it is not enough to simply throw them in a bowl of water. If you don’t soak them long enough, they will remain hard and indigestible; If you forget them for too long, however, they could ferment and develop uninviting odors.
How to proceed:
Cook them in cold water or add the salt too early
Another common mistake concerns cooking legumes starting from cold water: the result? Eternal cooking times and irregular consistency. But the real sabotage is to add the salt too early: it tends to harden the peel and make the legumes leathery.
Solution:
Cook them too much (or too little)
Here we are at the worst of all. Scotti legumes flake, become a shapeless pappa and lose consistency. The raw ones, on the other hand, are indigestible and, in the case of beans and chickpeas, can contain enemy substances of our stomach.
Here are the right times:
To avoid disasters, it always tastes: the perfect legume will have to be soft but not unmade.
Forget the aromas (or use the wrong ones)
A plate of unsipid legumes is a crime against taste. But even exaggerating with too aggressive condiments can cover its natural flavor. The aromas must be chosen with care and added at the right time.
Which ingredients to use:
Throw away the cooking water without using it
Have you ever noticed how dense and creamy the chickpea cooking water? And that of the beans? Throwing it into the sink is a waste, because it contains starch and nutrients that can enrich your recipes.
How to reuse it:
Here are the five errors that ruin your legumes! Now that you know the secrets to prepare them in a workmanlike manner, you can say goodbye to hard chickpeas, indigestible beans and scotte lentils. Whether for a hot soup or a summer salad, following our advice your legumes will always be perfect!
