Hi again edwardlorilla2000.tower@blogger.com --
In the Indian cuisine, specifically in Indian vegetarian cuisine, both beans and lentils are staples.
Various kinds of dishes are made with them. Beans and lentils serve as an excellent protein source for vegetarians and vegans alike.
How to Cook Beans & Lentils Perfect...Every Time
Tips to cook beans and lentils perfectly:
Soaking: For any kind of whole beans or peas like chickpeas, kidney beans, white peas it is always better to soak them overnight or for 8 to 9 hours. Soaking beans reduces the phytic acid that causes indigestion and flatulence making the beans or peas more digestible. For lentils like split chickpeas or mung lentils, you can soak them for about 20 to 30 minutes.
Rinsing: Before cooking, rinse the soaked beans in water a couple of times. Then drain all the water and cook the beans with fresh water.
Cooking: Soaking beans and lentils considerably reduces the cooking time by 25%. You can cook the soaked beans in a pan or in a pressure cooker or instant pot. Add double to triple the amount of water for cooking lentils. For cooking peas and beans, add four times water to one cup.
Freshness: It is an important aspect to know the freshness of the dried legumes. Legumes like chickpeas, dried peas, kidney beans etc should be fresh and not old or aged. Beans which are too old will take a lot of time to cook and perhaps not cook well enough to give a melt in the mouth texture. Undercooked beans also upset the stomach.
Spices: You can change or skip the other ingredient but not the spices in any Indian lentil or bean preparation. These spices and herbs help in digestion of the beans and lentils.
Begin with these 3 awesome recipes. These are the best.
DAL MAKHANI - Creamy Black Lentils
CHANA MASALA - Spiced Tangy Chickpea Curry
DAL TADKA - Restaurant Style Tempered Yellow Lentils
The above recipes can be easily adapted to be made in a pan, stove top pressure cooker or an electric pressure cooker like the Instant Pot.
Note that any Indian lentil dish is either served with steamed rice, cumin rice or Indian breads like roti, puri, paratha or naan.
Tomorrow I will send you an informative lesson on Indian Breads.
Happy Cooking,
Dassana
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