How to properly soak peas for soup, porridge and puree?

Pre-soaking legumes can significantly reduce their further cooking. In addition, this procedure will allow you to control the process of preparing soups to which you plan to add peas.

If the beans are not pre-soaked and immediately added to the soup, then other vegetables may be overcooked, and the peas will not have time to become soft. Or vice versa - the meat may not reach the state of readiness and remain tough, and the peas will already turn into porridge.

In addition, some chefs believe that soaking peas helps prevent bloating.

What water should you soak in?

Peas should only be soaked in cold water. If you pour hot water over it and leave it for several hours, this will cause the product to sour and the finished dish will be spoiled by the unpleasant taste of legumes. The problem is that spoiled beans look no different from normal ones.

For soaking, it is better to use filtered or bottled water so that the peas do not absorb harmful impurities from the water that flows from the tap. If it is not possible to use a filter or bottled water, take boiled water.

To further speed up the process of softening the peas, you can add a little baking soda to them. But not sugar or salt, as some housewives advise: they, unlike soda, are not able to speed up the softening process of legumes.

Adding soda to peas will reduce the content of vitamin B1 in it and slightly worsen the taste of the product.Therefore, before adding soda, you will have to choose whether you want a healthy or a quick dish.

Now let's look at the soaking process in more detail:

1. To begin, place the required amount of cereal in a deep bowl and sort through. It is necessary to remove all debris, as well as split and spoiled peas, so that they do not spoil the taste of the dish.
2. Now rinse the peas several times until the water runs completely clear.
3. Fill the peas with cool water so that it covers them by 1–2 cm.
4. When the soaking process is completed, the peas must be washed again.

How long to soak?

Several factors influence how long you spend soaking:

• the selected pea variety (Idaho variety cooks fastest);
• whole peas take longer to soften (6–8 hours) than split peas (20 to 180 minutes);
• the temperature of the room in which the legumes are located (in a warm room, soaking can be reduced by 2–3 hours, in a cold room it can be extended to 9 hours);
• By adding soda, the soaking process is also shortened.

Determining the readiness of peas is quite simple: if they have doubled in size, you can start cooking.

How to quickly soak peas?

If you need to prepare a dish very quickly, choose split or as fresh as possible peas and soak them in warm (but not hot!) water with the addition of soda.

1. Thoroughly wash and sort the legumes.
2. In a separate bowl, stir soda at the rate of 2 teaspoons per 2 liters of water.
3. Pour the resulting mixture into the beans and add more warm water so that the liquid covers the peas by a couple of centimeters.
4. After soaking is completed, be sure to rinse the peas thoroughly to get rid of the peculiar taste of the soda.

If you choose split peas, then soaking should not last more than 60 minutes. If you are preparing whole peas, soak them in a warm soda solution for about 2 hours.

How to soak peas overnight?

Prolonged soaking may spoil the product. It is not difficult to determine that peas are overcooked: a kind of foam will appear on the surface of the water. This effect indicates that the beans have soured during soaking, and this can spoil the taste of the future dish.

If you still want to save time and leave the peas in water overnight, you should put the container with them in the refrigerator or place it on a cool window so that the product does not spoil.

How to soak split peas?

The rules for soaking split peas are no different from the usual process, except for the time they should spend in water. For split peas, 20-60 minutes of soaking will be sufficient.

Since split peas cook much faster, you don't need to soak them at all before boiling or stewing. Then the cooking process can increase to 2 hours - and these are all the differences. The main thing is to remember to sort out and wash the split peas.

How long does it take to cook peas after soaking?

If the peas were previously left in water for 2–4 hours (this should be done with whole peas), then the cooking time is reduced to 1.5–2 hours. If the beans have been in the water for more than 4 hours, then cooking them can take no more than 30–60 minutes.

To determine if the peas are ready to add to the soup, remove one pea and try to crush it. If this is easy to do, then it’s time to finish soaking. Also, remember to keep an eye on the size of the beans. Their doubling in size is also a sign of readiness.

When the peas are already boiled or baked, their readiness is also easy to check.Take one pea and try to crush it again. If this is easy to do, the dish is ready.

Those who want to cook pea puree should wait another 20 minutes and only then remove the pan from the heat. This way all the peas will become very soft; mashing them into a puree using a masher or a blender will be quite easy.

Nuances and tips

After you have poured water over the peas, try not to shake them or disturb them in any way, otherwise this will lead to the appearance of foam and souring of the product. Also, you should not leave the beans in the water for more than 8 hours, otherwise the product will definitely turn sour and all you have to do is throw it away.

You need to salt the dish with legumes at the end of cooking. If you add salt earlier, the peas will cook longer.

If you need to add tomato paste or fresh tomatoes to dishes with peas directly during the cooking process, this should be done at the moment when the beans become soft. Otherwise, the acidity of the tomatoes will prevent them from cooking for a long time.

As you can see, soaking the peas really makes the cooking process easier. Follow all the rules described above, and cooking peas will not cause you any difficulties, and the result will pleasantly surprise you.