How to cook dried legumes?
To cook dried legumes (except lentils and split peas), simply follow 3 steps:
- First, soak them overnight
- Blanch them by placing them in cold water and bringing the water to a boil. Never put them directly in hot or boiling water to avoid extending the cooking time.
- Rinse them, change the water, and cook them again for a good hour after boiling. At this stage, you can add a bit of baking soda to soften the water.
Dried legumes will be more digestible if you add herbs (onions, cloves, bay leaf, thyme...) to your cooking water, and if you cook them long enough to make them nice and tender.
Be careful, when cooking all dried legumes, only add salt at the end of cooking to avoid hardening the legumes.
How to speed up the cooking of dried legumes in a video here! Discover our range of dried legumes for sale here
Find plenty of recipe ideas with lentils and legumes in our book in collaboration with Marie Claire