Cooking Dry Beans

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Beans are easy to cook and prepare. And when prepared well, they are delicious and digestible. You’ll even save money when buying dry beans instead of canned!

They are a source of high quality, inexpensive nourishment. They offer minerals, B vitamins, essential fatty acids, not to mention soluble and insoluble fiber.

As wonderful as beans are, we all know that they can produce undesirable results in polite society. 😉

Beans contain phytic acid, which can impede mineral absorption if not neutralized during soaking or cooking. But also, harder beans (such as black beans or navy beans) contain large, complex sugars called oligosaccharides that can “completely confound digestion” (source).

So prevent these undesirable results, proper preparation is key. Here’s how.

What You Need For Cooking Dry Beans

Start with new crop dry beans. Dry beans that are more than 13 months old are not only less nutritious but harder to rehydrate, and therefore more difficult to cook completely. Reputable natural food warehouses and health foods stores with good turnover can provide delicious, healthy, and young dried beans. The best beans are brand new to 4 months old. Admittedly, this is hard to know. In general, older beans are darker and show more cracked skins and more splitting overall.

If you’re worried your beans will be tough, adding a pinch of baking soda to the soaking water can be very helpful.

Choose your crockpot or stockpot carefully. It needs to be big enough so that the dry beans do not fill it more than 1/3. Otherwise, you will not be able to fit the amount of water required to cook them thoroughly.

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Generally, 1 cup of dry beans will yield 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 cups of cooked beans. These are some common dry bean yields:

  • 1 cup dry black beans —–> yields 3-1/2 cups when cooked
  • 1 cup dry kidney beans —–> yields 3 cups when cooked
  • 1 cup dry pinto beans —–> yields 3 cups when cooked

I will be sharing 2 easy methods for cooking beans properly: on the stovetop or in the crockpot. Both require that the beans start with a good, long soak.

Step 1: Soaking Dry Beans

Put dry beans in the cooking container (stockpot or crockpot). Fill with triple the amount of water as beans. Optionally, add a pinch of baking soda to the water to help with toughness.

In the Stockpot: Bring all to a light simmer, then turn off heat. Cover the pot and let beans soak a minimum of 7 hours, but preferably overnight or 12 to 24 hours.

In the Crockpot: Put the lid on the crock. Turn the crockpot to HIGH for 1/2 to 1 hour to warm up the mixture. Turn off the crockpot. Let beans soak a minimum of 7 hours, but preferably overnight or 12 to 24 hours.

Normally, bubbles and maybe a little scum appear on the top of the soaking water — rinse this all away. The beans should smell “bean-y”. If they smell rotten, rinse them really well, and then smell them again. If they still smell rotten, they probably are. Unfortunately, you’ll have to toss these beans and start again.

Step 2: Cooking The Beans

Drain and rinse the beans. Cover the beans in the stockpot or crockpot with water. The amount of water should be about double the volume of the beans, due to the beans rehydrating during the soaking.

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In the Stockpot: Bring the bean/water mixture to a boil, then cover all or partially as the boil reduces to a constant simmer. Watch for foam, and skim as it appears. Boil gently until beans are tender — about an hour for soft beans, or an hour and a half for harder beans. Turn off the heat. Drain.

In the Crockpot: Turn the crockpot to high for one hour, then turn down to low for the duration of the cooking time. Skim foam occasionally, but quickly so as not to lose much heat. Cooking time depends on the crockpot’s heat output, but generally 8 to 12 hours cooking time is sufficient for most hard beans; soft beans such as lentils and peas will take less time. Turn off crockpot. Drain.

Note: Soft beans, such as lentils, peas, or split mung beans, will often be falling apart by the time they are tender. Therefore, when just starting out preparing these beans, it is advisable to follow a recipe that takes into account the proper amount of water for the desired food consistency.

For old beans that don’t seem to want to soften up, add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda or a piece of kombu (Japanese sea vegetable) to the cooking water to help them along. Either of these will help reduce the gas-producing properties of beans.

Seasoning The Beans

If I’m adding soaked, uncooked beans to a soup, I add flavor ingredients like spices, seasonings, bones (turkey, ham, chicken, etc.), and broth during the cooking time. The beans cook while marinating in all the yummy flavors.

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If I’m adding cooked beans to a dish (such as beans and rice, refried beans, or even soup), I add seasonings after the cooking.

Experiment with all your favorite herbs and spices — basil, thyme, oregano, cumin, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, and of course, sea salt, pepper, ginger, or garlic. Add oil and onions too!

Uses For Beans

While you’re making beans, why not make up a big batch? Use some immediately or in the days to come, and freeze the rest for later! Here are some of my favorite recipes:

Want More?

Grab a free video on cooking beans from inside our online class Fundamentals — along with 4 other free videos — right here!

Sources

This article includes information from the article, Putting the Polish on Those Humble Beans from the Weston A. Price Foundation, as well as information from the book, Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon Morell.