Nutrition
Cereal & pulses cooking tip
Reduce cooking time for whole grains, beans, peas & other legumes
Designed to save much time, fossil and other energy and thus costs as well as possibly nutritional value (actually adding to it since sprouting enhances nutrient and decreases phytic acid content...)
by Ulla, webmaster of Healing Cancer Naturally
Here is a cooking tip hot off the plate so to speak:
It always amazes me to read the "endless" cooking times suggested for various whole grains and pulses (chick peas, lentils etc.) ...
Here is what I do when preparing such items: I soak them a very long time, such as 24 hours, in good filtered water or as long as it takes for them to become SOFT enough to eat raw (they have started to sprout). I then rinse them well in a strainer and cook them A FEW MINUTES and they are DONE!
Whole grain rice for instance softens very quickly when soaked and doesn't even require 100° C (212° F) for cooking (rice cooks at temperatures above about 75° C).
For extra nutrition one may set some of the softened cereal/pulses aside (unless they contain toxins when raw), mash them in a blender and add them to their cooked "siblings" in the raw state.
This allows one to save a lot of energy and cooking time (and probably nutritional value), with the only requirement consisting in soaking the grains or pulses up to c. 24 hours in advance.
Additionally, softening the grains in the above manner allows to reduce the phytic acid content of these foods, see Phytic acid and the bioavailability of minerals in common plant foods.
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