Timesaving kidney bean stew

A creamy classic without the overnight soak

When I cook at home, I don’t always plan ahead. Some days, I simply crave certain foods. Unless you’re using the canned kind, legumes are a bit tricky in this aspect. You need to give them some time to soak in water to soften and speed up cooking.

Soaking legumes, especially beans, does a few things. The seed absorbs water, which helps it soften and also helps awaken the seed and kickstart a bunch of chemical reactions inside it. Then there’s pectin, the same substance present in apples, quince and orange that gives jam and marmalade its soft gellike structure. Pectin is the cement that holds cells together in plants, and depending on the environment, it can take on different personas — hard or soft.

In the presence of acids like vinegar and lemon juice, pectin is hard, but in the presence of alkaline ingredients such as baking soda, pectin becomes soft and dissolves in water quickly. As dried legumes age in storage, they accumulate acids that make the pectin hard and the time needed to cook them increases.

To circumvent some of these problems, I soak beans for several hours in water mixed with a little baking soda. As the beans absorb water, the alkalinity of the baking soda makes the pectin more amenable to water and this considerably reduces the time needed to cook the beans. In the case of kidney beans, a sixhour soak works perfectly, allowing you to cook them to a soft texture that’s almost falling apart in under an hour. That still gives you time to start the beans in the morning and cook them for that evening’s dinner.

There is pure comfort in the texture of soft beans like this, which, as their skins fall off, reveal their creamy, rich interior. Rajma, the classic kidney bean stew from India, provides that soothing sensation. The red kidney beans are wrapped in a dark red cloak of rich, velvety textures paired with the fieriness of chiles, garlic and ginger. You don’t need much to go with it, except for a bit of rice or bread. And you don’t have to plan that far ahead for it.

Nik Sharma Rajma, or kidney bean stew, gets some heat from chiles, garlic and ginger. When you soak the beans, add baking soda to trim the time they need to soak.