How to Purée Peas and Lentils
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Adding lentil or split pea purée to your baked goods batter increases protein, fiber and moistness. The basic lentil or split pea purée is made as follows:
Add 2,5 cups of water per cup of split peas or 2 cups of water per cup of lentils. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer. Simmer 10 to 20 minutes for decorticated (skinned) lentils, 35 to 40 minutes for whole lentils, and 45 to 55 minutes for split peas. Add more water if cooking time is extended due to high altitude, hard water, or prolonged storage prior to cooking. Stir a few times. Cook lentils or split peas until they are very soft but just short of falling apart. When cooking is complete remove from heat and let cool slightly but do not drain. In small batches purée the lentils or split peas with a sieve, food mill, blender, food processor, or potato masher.
Purée should be the consistency of canned pumpkin. Add water to thin if necessary.
Covered and refrigerated, purée should keep three to four days. It also freezes well.

Storage of dry beans
It's so easy!
Dry beans are generally easy to store and keep and, being a non-perishable product, they're always at hand. They are best stored in hermetically-sealed jars in a cool place to avoid any possibility of them turning rancid or a change in their consistency. Using a translucent plastic or glass recipient makes it easier to see how many beans are available but direct light, especially sunlight, should be avoided. When it comes to meal planning, the recommended dry weight per person is between 60 and 85 grams.

Storage of cooked beans
Freezing without fear!
You can cook a huge pot of beans and later freeze them in smaller quantities. Made sure you label them with the date and type of bean to avoid having unlabelled packets in the freezer compartment. Frozen beans will keep for up to 3 months, while cooked and refrigerated beans will keep for up to 5 days. Beans take very well to being frozen, and are easy to defrost - simply place a bag into hot water for five minutes or use the microwave oven: by following these guidelines, you'll always have beans ready to serve.

Cooking
Beans more than double in size
Beans increase in size by two and a half times after cooking, which is something we should bear in mind when meal planning. Don't mix beans: never cook different varieties together. Each variety has a distinct cooking time, although all range between one and a half and two hours or from 20 to 30 minutes in a pressure cooker. For the same reasons, avoid cooking together legumes purchased in different places or at different times, and, most particularly, in different years: there would be no way of achieving the same standard of cooking .
Salt: best afterwards
It is important to add salt and acids such as lemon juice or vinegar after cooking; if not, cooking time may have to be extended due to hardening of the beans. Allow around 20 ml. of salt for every 500 g. of dry legumes.
Calories: it's up to you!
Some recipes include very fatty ingredients and nutritionists recommend that we add these after cooking. If what we want is to cut down on calories, it's best to keep these ingredients to a minimum or cut them out altogether. In any case, the most appropriate condiment is a drizzle of olive oil before serving.
The pressure cooker tip
If you want to use a pressure cooker to cook your beans, you can cut out the soaking process. In this case, it is particularly important to add a splash of olive oil so that the foam given out during cooking does not block the safety valve. Using this method, we save on cooking time but lose on flavour, so this is only recommended when we just want to boil the beans on their own. Beans tend to absorb the flavours and aromas of the ingredients with which they are cooked, which is obviously facilitated by long, traditional cooking.
The bicarbonate tip
Adding bicarbonate of soda, to both soaking and cooking liquids, makes the beans more tender although it does destroy part of the thiamine, making the amino acids less digestible. In other words, nutritional value is negatively affected.
The oven tip
When cooking beans in the oven be sure to add sufficient water or liquid, otherwise the dampness left from soaking evaporates and the beans harden.
The cold water tip
For the beans to end up tender but intact, the best advice is to add cold water during the cooking process. Another technique is to change the water for fresh once they have come to the boil. It is very important not to overcook beans; as is the case with all foodstuffs, you would lose out on nutrients, texture, colour and flavour.

Soaking
The night before
A 12-hour soak in cold water before cooking helps hydrate the beans and considerably shortens cooking time. Ideally, beans should be put to soak the night before they are to be prepared and be kept in a cool place, or in the refrigerator, to avoid any fermentation taking place. Before soaking, wash them several times in cold water and remove any damaged or split beans. Discard any particles floating in the soaking water, such as small insects from the harvest, specks of dirt or other contaminants.
The right amount of water
For soaking, use three measures of water to one measure of dry beans. During cooking, the quantity of water should not exceed a third of the volume.
The "swift soak"
An alternative to the traditional 12-hour soak is one which we call "swift soak". This involves cooking the beans until boiling point has been reached for two minutes, then removing the pan from the heat and leaving the beans in the hot water for between one and four hours. You can then proceed with the cooking process, changing the water for fresh. Although this is not a particularly popular cooking method in these latitudes, many writers believe that beans treated in this way cause less flatulence than when soaked traditionally. The risk with the "swift soak" method is of fermentation taking place if the beans are left for too long in hot water. This is simply an alternative to the traditional slow soak, more useful for community cooking than in the home, or if you really are in a hurry.

Precooking and Storage
Text copyrighted by and used with the permission of USADPLC
Precooking lentils or split peas can be refrigerated in a tightly covered container for 3 to 4 days or can be frozen. Use precooked lentils or split peas in salads, soups, main dishes, purées, or in baking. If you plan to use precooked lentils or split peas in dishes that will require further cooking - soups or main dishes, for instance- cook lentils and split peas until barely tender or about 15 to 20 minutes, respectively.
When you prepare a recipe using precooked lentils or split peas, you may need to recude the liquid in the recipe by 1/3 to ½.

Storage of Dry Peas, Lentils, and Chickpeas
Text copyrighted by and used with the permission of USADPLC
Storing dry peas, lentils, and chickpeas is simple. Dry peas, lentils, and chickpeas will keep indefinitely when stored in sealed containers in a cool, dry place. After long storage their colour may fade slightly, but their taste will not be noticeably altered. Long storage may increase cooking time.

Material's pan
Text copyrighted by and used with the permission of USADPLC
Do not cook peas, lentils, chickpeas or beans in aluminium or cast-iron pans.
These materials tend to inhibit cooking and change the color of the product.

Adding acidic ingredients
Text copyrighted by and used with the permission of USADPLC
Adding tomatoes, lemon juice or other acidic foods at the beginning of cooking may dramatically increase cooking times. Add these ingredients only after lentils split peas and chickpeas have achieved their desired tenderness.
Salt may increase cooking times as well. However, some cooks feel that adding salt initially, or using broth instead of water, results in better flavor, because the salt spreads more uniformly through the legume. Feel free to experiment.
A squeeze of fresh lemon added near the end of cooking cuts down on the earthy flavor associated with some lentil varieties.

How do you make a bean purée?

For smooth soups, velvety sauces and gravies, and other dishes that specify bean purée: soak overnight ½ pound (one cup) dry beans, rinse and drain. Cool with fresh water until extremely tender and mushy. Drain off and reserve cooking liquid. Put beans in a food blender, one cup at a time, with ¼ cup of the reserved cooking liquid, and spin at medium setting until smooth. Occasionally stop the blender to stir purée from the bottom and to scrape the sides of the container.

When are beans tender?

Since cooking times can only be approximate, the best idea is to test frequently during cooking. Test for doneness by squeezing a whole bean or pea between your fingers, or tasting a small spoonful of purée - but take car if it's hot! Otherwise you can press a bean on a cutting board with a fork, which will avoid burning your tongue. Let beans cool in their cooking liquid to keep skins intact.

Rinsing Beans

Before packaging, beans are not usually washed because moisture would make them start to sprout, so when you 're ready to soak and cook them, you'll need to remove field dust by swishing the beans in a colander under running cold water.

Packing beans

Drain leftover beans and cool them rapidly, uncovered, then cover for refrigerating or freezing. Pack cooked beans, mashed beans and bean leftovers in covered containers, and refrigerate for up to four days; for longer storage, they freeze well without loss of quality for up to six months.
When packing beans for freezing, they can be slightly undercooked, because freezing tends to soften them; allow room for expansion in the container. Defrost frozen beans slowly overnights in the refrigerator to retain their shape; or thaw for several hours at room temperature. If you are in a real hurry, they will defrost in about an hour in a pan of warm water, or within minutes in the microwave.

How long do you cook beans?

Accurate timing is impossible to give because of many variables such as the bean variety, the age of the beans, the hardness of your water supply, and your altitude. Fortunately cooking times for beans are not quite as critical as they are with fresh vegetables. There's more leeway with beans, so an extra minute or two is unlikely to turn them into mush.
When considering cooking times, think of the use you intend to make of the beans: when you need beans for salads, or freezing for later use, or if they will be cooked further in soups, stews or casseroles, you generally want them firm-cooked or slightly under-cooked. For purées, smooth soups, sauces, dips or mashed beans, a longer time works best, until the beans are soft.
Old beans that have suffered lengthy storage will probably take longer to cook than the new season's supplies coming directly from the farm or ranch. As a general rule, colored and mottled beans take longer to cook than white, except navy and small whites; lentils cook rapidly. A few of the commonly sold beans are given here:

- Black -eyes 30 minutes to 1 hour
- Chickpeas 1 to 1,5 hours
- Kidneys, pinks, small whites 1 to 1,5 hours
- Limas: baby 1 hour
- Limas: large 45 minutes to 1 hour


Don't mix beans

Cooking beans with similar cooking times in the same pot is not a good idea. Their flavors and colors will mingle and lack distinction, and any unknown or unseen differences in age and dryness will produce uneven cooking -some may cook perfectly, others may disintegrate to mush and the rest remain obstinately hard.