Adding salt at the wrong stage of a meal can RUIN it. Pay attention to the time you add it. Some recipe-saving rules are:

1. When cooking dried beans of any kind, add the salt (and any other ingredient as well) AFTER the beans have cooked completely ALONE in tap water and are mushy enough for your taste. Beans have a skin on them that tightens up when it comes in contact with salt and most other ingredients. This stops the water from getting inside the bean and cooking it. Always add salt to beans AFTER they are fully cooked.

2. When frying up potatoes or other starchy veggies like tubors, put the chopped potatoes into the fry pan with oil and add the salt directly to the potatoes before they start cooking - when they are still raw. This helps the potatoes to not stick to the pan as much as they otherwise would. Doing this, will allow you to cook the potatoes using the least amount of oil.

3. When cooking eggplant, cut it up and sprinkle salt on the raw eggplant. Set it aside for a few minutes. It’ll bring out water from inside the eggplant. Drain off the few drops of water. Then start to fry the eggplant. Doing this will stop the eggplant from soaking up all the oil. It’ll require just a few tablespoons of oil instead of a few cups! 

4. When frying onions, if you want the brown caramelized taste and look, put the onions into the fry pan with oil and add the salt to the onions before they start cooking - when they are still raw. This helps the onions get their brownish color. If you don’t want your onions to have that caramelized taste, add the salt AFTER they’ve finished frying. They'll be more translucent than brown.