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 cooki ng characteristics, including gelatinization and retrogradation, of the sta rch. There were large differences in composition between different types of legumes and also between the outer and inner parts of legume cotyledons. W rinkled peas exhibited much higher water absorption during prolonged soakin g and there were higher hardness value determined for cooked seeds compared with chickpeas and smooth peas. While the hardness of cooked seeds decreas ed continuously as cooking time increased to 110 min, all legume starch was fully gelatinized after cooking for 70 min.