boiling pulses

Sorry Norah I must have misinterpreted.
Apologies.

shelflife me too

I use red lentils a lot - takes little or no time to cook. I use a tiny sprinkling of asoefitida, to prevent tummy troubles ..

gangy5

Lentils and dried peas won't cook if boiled in liquid that has salt in it. Shop bought soups and stocks need to be added after the cooking.

I use a stock cube that probably has salt in it. Might that be why the peas don’t soften up? I still get awful wind from eating pulses, though, no matter how much I eat them

NotSpaghetti

Niacin, vitamin A, vitamin B12 and folic acid aren't affected Norah.
It's the other ones.

I understood you.

That's why I said We'll take a look at the damage to the other nutrients which you list and figure if we acquire those nutrients any other way into our diet.

I looked, we get plenty of C, D, riboflavin, thiamin, essential amino acids -- in grains, fruits, veg -- during our daily meals. It's fine if the soda decreases those nutrients but B12 is harder to find in food as vegans, and it's not affected.

Thank you.

Niacin, vitamin A, vitamin B12 and folic acid aren't affected Norah.
It's the other ones.

I discard the steeping water and also the cooking water after boiling dried peas.

I never use the tablets included with the peas but replace with a teaspoon of bicarb - dissolves much quicker. We eat so many other foods daily that contain vit C anyway so the occasional use of bicarb doesn't concern me.

I cook dried red lentils in my lentil and water ever soup no soaking before hand. Which has lots of veg in with the lentils Oxo cubes salt and pepper bring to boil and cook for 90 mins. I use pearl barley from dried in my stews used salt ,pepper Oxo cubes plus veg and chicken or Quorn bring to boil and simmer 90 mins never had any problems . Everything tastes delicious.

I have a very successful Sarah Brown recipe Red Dragon Pie cooling down on the worktop. Probably cost a lot of electric to do the 'boiling and simmering' using the oven, but it tastes lovely!

I use beans from tins, but pulses, lentills, soup mix, i just chuck in the dish I am using them in and let them cook 'in plve', so t speak.

My cooking has never caused anyone to suffer from food poisoning of any kind.

Lentils and dried peas won't cook if boiled in liquid that has salt in it. Shop bought soups and stocks need to be added after the cooking.

NotSpaghetti

Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) damages vitamin C, vitamin D, riboflavin, thiamin, and one of the essential amino acids (can'trememberwhich)
It doesn't affect niacin, vitamin A, vitamin B12, folic acid (and something else I've forgotten).

My parents used to use it but as a vegetarian using lots of pulses etc for nearly 50 years now I am aware that we shouldn't be doing it if we want to preserve nutrients.

Thank you for that information.

We're mostly vegan, if our children aren't coming round.

Obviously niacin, vitamin A, vitamin B12, folic acid matter to us. We'll take a look at the damage to the other nutrients which you list and figure if we acquire those nutrients any other way into our diet.

Just googled "marrowfat" peas:

The name 'marrowfat' was coined around 1730 from marrow and fat. Another source says the peas were named because people wanted plump (fat) peas of the Maro variety, a Japanese variety introduced to the UK in the early 20th century.

(From Wikipedia)

Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) damages vitamin C, vitamin D, riboflavin, thiamin, and one of the essential amino acids (can'trememberwhich)
It doesn't affect niacin, vitamin A, vitamin B12, folic acid (and something else I've forgotten).

My parents used to use it but as a vegetarian using lots of pulses etc for nearly 50 years now I am aware that we shouldn't be doing it if we want to preserve nutrients.

We soak overnight, bicarb soda in water, drain, fresh water, cook half done, drain, cook in broth. Simple. Very reasonable protein.

You can look up tables on-line that give the safe boiling times for all pulses. Lentils only need a short boiling time, and have only a trace of the haemagluttin (?) toxins, so are fine just boiled as part of a dish.
I don't bother with looking up exact times - everything apart from lentils gets boiled for 10 minutes and the water discarded. Theoretically of course, the water is safe as it has been boiled, therefore destroying the toxin, but I always have the idea that it is 'bitter' and change it.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and foods used to publish a food safety leaflet that had all this information + safe temperatures, bottling times and was so useful. I got one in 1974 and treasured it (as they stopped publishing it) but it got lost in my last house move.

Baggs, would you please if you don't mind give a rough estimate of the quantity of water or stock relative to the lentils? .

Baggs

Re dried peas, I seem to remember they used to be sold with a little packet of fat and were called "marrowfat peas". Just wondering if soaking them with some oil would help soften the skins and make them cook faster.

I use a lot of lentils, some of which (like beluga lentils) I do soak before cooking. I generally buy split peas rather than whole peas because this solves the soaking problem.

I don't think it was fat.Was it not bicarb which kept the green colour but destroyed vitamins?

It might be cheaper to buy r4eady meals than use the oven for long periods

I just throw and handful of the soup mix in soup and long cook casseroles but I don't know if I will be doing those this year.

I don't exactly boil lentils. I fry some onions and garlic, then chuck them, the lentils, a large variety of gentle spices, stock, chopped up leftovers, etc, into a casserole dish. bung a lid on and let it stew in the oven. Turns out perfectly dal-ish every time.

I use soup mix. I boil it for ten minutes, drain it and then add it to whatever I’m cooking, in the last case, a ham hock in the slow cooker. My mother used to use red lentils and split peas in soups and stews regularly but I never remember her boiling them first. I think she just soaked them overnight.

I have decided life is too short to boil pulses ,I open a tin.

this is a packet of soup or broth mix from Tesco, pearl. barley, split peas, whole peas, lentils, instructions say soak overnight, drain and rinse, boil for ten minutes and then reduce heat.
My ponder is, should I then discard the boiled water. This morning I searched online, found conflicting information.

I’m making Scotch Broth in the slow cooker, it will probably be ready by Wednesday.

Nowadays I use only tinned kidney beans, some which I remember are quite hard I boil anyway, can’t be too careful.

Compared to legumes, lentils have a massively lower toxicity so you don't need to soak if you boil them properly. Obviously they do cook quicker if soaked.