The present investigation was carried out to study the effect of different cooking methods i.e. soaking, germination, pressure cooking and microwave cooking on the antioxidant activity of commonly consumed pulses namely; Bengal gram whole, black gram whole, green gram whole, moth beans and red kidney beans was studied. Raw and processed pulses were analyzed for their proximate composition. The crude protein content of raw pulses ranged between 17±0.13 to 23.6±0.45 with the mean value of 21.6±1.42g/100g, being lowest in Bengal gram whole and highest in black gram whole. Germination resulted in an increase in the crude protein content whereas there was slight decrease in case of other processed samples. Ash content of raw pulses ranged from 2.7±0.03 to 3.7±0.05 g/100g with mean value of 3.36±0.18 g/100g with minimum value in Bengal gram whole and maximum in red kidney beans.