From moong, masoor, urad, to rajma — here’s how long you must soak each legume for

Legumes including beans, lentils, and peas form an essential part of our daily diets. They are not just fulfilling but also extremely nutritious for one’s health. But, did you know that you can extract so much more from legumes simply soaking them before cooking?
According to Ayurvedic practitioner Dr Dixa Bhavsar, soaking legumes improves their digestion and nutrition absorption. “If you wanna absorb optimum nutrition, soaking is the best option,” she said.
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Sharing how soaking them is beneficial, the expert added: “It also brings prana (life) into the legume. It removes phytic acid and tannins from the legumes (which blocks the absorption of nutrition from it and causes bloating). That’s the reason why most of the people feel bloated/have gastric trouble after eating heavy legumes like rajma.”

Apart from aiding your health, soaked legumes can also bring down your cooking time, she shared. “What is better than a quick meal right?”
Here’s the best soaking time for some of the most commonly-consumed legumes, according to Dr Bhavsar.
*Whole dals like moong, tuar, masoor and urad – 8 to 12 hours*Split dals – 6 to 8 hours*Heavy legumes like rajma and chhole – 12 to 18 hours.

She added that soaking them overnight is the best option. “The best time to enjoy them is during lunch.”
Instead of throwing away the soaked water, you can utilise it for watering your plants. “That way your home plants shall get some nutrition too,” the Ayurvedic expert said.
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