Composition, soaking, cooking properties and thermal characteristics of starch of chickpeas, wrinkled peas and smooth peas.

We investigated both the distribution of protein, ash and starch in legume (chickpeas, smooth and wrinkled peas) cotyledons, and the soaking and cooking characteristics, including gelatinization and retrogradation, of the starch. There were large differences in composition between different types of legumes and also between the outer and inner parts of legume cotyledons. Wrinkled peas exhibited much higher water absorption during prolonged soaking and there were higher hardness value determined for cooked seeds compared with chickpeas and smooth peas. While the hardness of cooked seeds decreased continuously as cooking time increased to 110 min, all legume starch was fully gelatinized after cooking for 70 min. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]