Precooking-dehydration of pulses: Multiscale mechanisms, quality trade-offs, and advances in co-cooking strategies.

Abstract

Pulses provide substantial nutritional and sustainability benefits; however, their consumption is often limited by long cooking times. Precooking-dehydration (soaking-cooking-drying) is a promising approach to produce quick-cooking pulses and enable co-cooking applications (e.g., with rice), but its performance depends on process-induced structural and compositional modifications across multiple length scales. This review synthesizes multiscale mechanistic evidence explaining how precooked dehydration modulates cooking time by (i) altering seed coat architecture and permeability, (ii) weakening cotyledon cell-cell adhesion through pectin-related transformations in the middle lamella and cell wall, and (iii) promoting the formation of whole-bean pore networks that facilitate water transport during rehydration. We further evaluate the associated quality trade-offs, including texture, sensory and nutritional attributes, highlighting a balance between processing efficiency and sensory and nutrition retention. Finally, future research priorities are outlined: mechanism-driven modeling, nutritional enhancement in co-cooking applications, and smart monitoring with data-driven optimization.