Soaking lentils:
Recipes using lentils will often tell you that one of their advantages, unlike beans, is that you don’t have to soak them before cooking. While this is true our grandmothers knew that soaking them first for 8 – 10 hours in warm water to which an acid such as yogurt or citrus has been added has some advantages for dried lentils, beans and peas.
- It increases the digestibility of legumes by neutralizing enzyme inhibitors that make digesting the proteins found in legumes difficult
- It liberates the plentiful minerals bound up in legumes by degrading the anti nutrient phytic acid
- Soaked legumes typically cook more quickly and more thoroughly than those that have not been soaked