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How to Properly Soak Cereals and Legumes Before Cooking: Culinary Tricks
14.02.2023 14:44
Updated: 14.04.2023 01:41
Bean dishes are considered difficult to digest, and often after eating one dish or another one experiences discomfort in the stomach.
It is believed that bloating and colic are not so much a feature of legumes, but rather the consequences of their improper preparation.
Why soak beans and grains
By the way, this family includes not only beans and peas, but also soybeans, lentils, chickpeas and even peanuts. These products contain a large amount of phytic acid and lectins. By their nature, they protect products from negative factors, which affects digestion and leads to gastrointestinal diseases.
In addition to legumes, lectins are found in nuts and a number of vegetables.
If we talk about phytic acid, it is found in millet, buckwheat, pearl barley, and brown rice.
How long to soak
It is recommended to soak legumes for at least 8 hours. But usually housewives leave the products overnight. Cover the container with a lid and leave at room temperature (just not in the heat).
Cereals are also soaked. Even small millet or buckwheat can be soaked in water for 10-15 minutes before cooking. Pearl barley, like legumes, is soaked for 10-12 hours.
Various cooking tricks with these products - for example, adding soda or cooking in several waters - only speed up the process, but do not affect the quality of cereals and grains.
