5 Chef Tips to Speed Up Cooking Time for Dry Peas

Craving dry pea soup but don't want to wait until cooking is done, which often takes several good hours? Try the following tricks shared by various chefs around the world.

The first and most successful tip is to soak the peas in advance, for at least six hours. However, chefs recommend going for a full night of about eight hours, no less, because softening legumes is a key step in reducing their cooking time. 

Why does this happen?

Well, soaking softens the peas and allows heat to penetrate the legume more quickly, effectively cutting cooking time in half. 

The second tip is to use boiling water instead of cold water, and to soak for only one hour. 

Chefs call this process 'quick soaking'. 

This does not soften the legume as much as soaking overnight, but it definitely eases the cooking process and shortens the time as well. 

The third tip is adding baking soda, about half a teaspoon per liter of water. 

You can add the baking soda either at the start or end of cooking, and it helps shorten the cooking time because the soda changes the acidity level and softens the cell walls. 

The fourth tip is using a pressure cooker, which used to be very popular. Cooking dry peas in a pressure cooker can take as little as half an hour, sometimes even less. 

The advantage of the pressure cooker is not only the shortened cooking time but also the preservation of the peas' nutritional values, which do not 'evaporate' with overly prolonged cooking. 

The fifth and most important tip is the timing of adding salt: salt hardens the outer shell, so it is advisable to add it only towards the end of cooking, not at the beginning as many unknowingly do.