Baking soda while cooking veggies

 If we add a pinch of baking soda when cooking vegetables, they get cooked easily.

Baking soda softens vegetable cell walls through a chemical process called alkalization.

Plant cells are bound by pectin.  It acts like cement between cell walls.

 Mixing baking soda to the water in which vegetables are supposed to cook, baking soda raises the water pH, thus making it alkaline.

In alkaline environment, pectin bonds breaks down quickly. This further reduces the rigidity of tough and fibrous vegetables.

This allows the boiling water to penetrate into vegetable, significantly reducing cooking time.