Question

Seema wanted to eat rice and kidney beans(Rajmah).She asked her mother to cook the same for lunch tomorrow. At night, her mother took a cup of kidney beans and put them in container having some water. She kept the container covered overnight. Next morning ,She cooked rice and kidney beans for lunch. Seema asked her mother the following questions: a) Why did you soak kidney beans in water overnight? b) Name the scientific phenomenon involved in above process. c) Name at least one more food item that is cooked in this way.

Answer 1

1. so that the bean could get fluffy (&soft), watery and fleshy .
2.osmosis
3.rice

Answer 2

a) Kidney beans are seed and each cell of it is covered with porous cell wall and semi permeable plasma membrane. By the process of endosmosis, water is diffused in kidney beans upon soaking overnight and they get swollen and become palatable after cooking. Soaking the red beans will also break their “indigestible sugars or oligosaccharides”, after eating the gas and flatulence gets reduced.

b) The scientific phenomenon involved in the above process is Endosmosis. Endosmosis is the osmotic entry of water into a cell or system due to presence of hyper-tonic solution on the outside.

c) White grams are cooked in the way given in the questions. (Kabul chana or choley or chicken pea{gram or chana).