Most legumes have a bland flavour. We season and flavour them to make them taste good.
Either tomatoes or lemon juice will make legumes tasty. And their vitamin C makes the iron in the beans easier to absorb. But not if our timing is off.
Things Required:
6 tablespoonfuls of lentils or presoaked beans
4 tablespoonfuls of tomato sauce or lemon juice
2 small pots of water
Directions:
Cull the lentils and discard any that float to the top. Place three tablespoons in each pot and cover with water.
To pot number 1, add the tomato sauce or lemon juice. Don’t add any juice or sauce to pot number 2.
Simmer both pots on a low flame. After 20 minutes test the lentils in both pots for softness using a fork. Retest every 10 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat when the lentils are tender but firm. Note how much time it takes them to cook.
This Is What Happens:
The plain lentils take 30 to 40 minutes to soften.
The lentils with the tomato sauce take much more time to soften.
Science Behind It:
When you add tomatoes or tomato sauce or lemon juice before the beans are soft, the acid of the fruit or vegetable reacts with the starch of the beans to toughen their seed coat. They do soften, but it takes them much longer. That’s why acidic foods need to be added only after the beans are soft.
Adding molasses before the beans softened also interferes with the softening process because molasses contains calcium.
Salt also reacts with the seed coating to form a barrier that keeps liquid from being absorbed and makes the skins tough. It too should be added only after the beans are cooked.
