Kurma

I was asked recently:

"I have heard that adding salt during the cooking process results in the skins of mung beans to harden."

Here's the answer:

You are correct! This is the same with all dried beans, legumes, dals and pulses. Never add salt to the water while cooking them for that reason. They will take much longer to break down and become soft, and in some cases, like the heavy pulses such as chickpeas etc, they will never really get soft at all.

The same thing applies with adding anything salty such as tamari, soy sauce, miso etc AND anything sweet such as sugar, honey etc AND anything sour such as lemon, vinegar, tamarind, tomato etc.

All the above need adding AFTER the beans fully cook and reach the desired stage of softness or 'broken-down-edness'.

VT from Penrith, NSW Australia asks:

"Could you please tell me if ghee can be used to spread on toast and sandwiches."

My reply:

"It can indeed. It is, in fact, recommended by Ayurveda. However, it is not to my taste, since I like butter. But you can slowly distill spices in it by adding teaspoonfuls and heating the ghee ever so slowly for long periods on very low temperatures and infusing it with delightful flavours such as ginger, cumin, chili, etc. Or you can obtain some first-class ghee (or make your own) and just spread it, as you suggest.

For more on ghee...