Effect of parboiling and drying pretreatment on the cooking time and quality attributes of bambara groundnut

Abstract

Bambara groundnut (BGN) was separately parboiled for 45 and 90 min, then, sun-, oven-, or freeze-dried. Untreated BGN served as the control. Cooking, physical, chemical, and sensory characteristics were investigated to assess quality. All parboiled-dried samples cooked signi�cantly (p ≤ .05) faster (43%–86%) than the control. Freeze-dried samples showed signi�cantly (p ≤ .05) higher L* values than their sun- and oven-dried counterparts, irrespective of parboiling time. Sphericity and aspect ratio signi�cantly (p ≤ .05) reduced with all the drying methods, though insigni�cantly when parboiling was extended from 45 to 90 min. Pretreated BGN had higher protein but lower antinutrient contents. Mineral leaching was minimal at 45 min parboiling. Parboiled-dried BGN cooked samples were generally accepted by the panelists as demonstrated by scores of >6 on a 1–9 Hedonic scale. Combined parboiling and (sun- or oven-) drying presents a practicable strategy for BGN farmers/processors to o�er an easy-to-cook product, potentially storable for later food preparation by consumers.