The effects of soaking and soaking-freezing treatments on the water absorption and cooking time to soften soy beans, kidney beans and peas were studied. The soaking treatment effectively increased the water absorption and decreased the hardness of each sample during cooking. The samples cooked at 99.5°C had greater water absorption and underwent more softening after being soaked at 20°C for 20 h than the non-treated samples. A similar result was observed with the samples which had been subjected to the soaking-freezing treatment. The difference in water absorption and softening between the soaking-treated and soaking-freezing-treated samples was less than that between the non-treated and soaking-treated samples. The cooking time for the soaking- and soaking-freezing-treated samples to obtain the optimum hardness was 30-50% of that for the non-treated samples. The effect of freezing on shortening the cooking time for soy beans was more obvious than for the other samples.