The most important thing when buying pulses is to go to a supplier who has a quick turnover. In theory all dried pulses must be eaten within 12 months of being harvested – from one summer to the next – otherwise they stay hard however long you soak them, and they lose their flavour.
Lentils can be cooked without being soaked, a great advantage if, like me, you never plan a family meal in advance. Chick-peas and dried broad beans, on the other hand, need long soaking, sometimes as long as 24 hours, but certainly overnight. I soak chick-peas in the following way, which softens even the hardest skin. Cover the chick-peas with cold water. Make a thin paste with 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda, 1 tablespoon of flour and 1 tablespooon of salt. Stir this mixture into the chick-peas and leave overnight. When they are ready, drain and rinse them, and cook them in unsalted water. Do not lift the lid of the saucepan for the first 1–1 1/2 hours, or the chick-peas may harden. Chick-peas sometimes take as long as 4 hours to cook, much longer than any other pulse.
When, as often happens, I have forgotten to put my beans in to soak for the recommended 6–8 hours, I fall back on the excellent method of boiling them for 2–3 minutes, draining and rinsing them and then cooking them in fresh water until soft: 1–1 1/2 hours is usually all they need. This method also makes the beans more digestible.
Cook pulses in an earthenware pot if possible. Add flavouring vegetables and herbs to the pot, but do not add salt until the very end of the cooking, about 10 minutes before they are ready. Harold McGee, in his On Food and Cooking, suggests cooking pulses in a small quantity of water, since ‘the less cooking water, the fewer carbohydrates are leached out . . . So give the seeds enough water both to soak up and cook in, but don’t drown them.’
Tinned pulses are a great shortcut and they can be bought everywhere. They are quite good but, whenever you can, I advise you to use dried ones because they have a far deeper flavour. And at the end of the cooking you are left with a most delicious stock to use to make soups.