How to Cook Beans from Scratch
1. Sort through the dry
beans Remove any stones and shriveled, broken or off-colored beans. Rinse
well.
2. Presoak All dry beans
(except for lentils, black-eyed peas and split peas) need to presoak before
cooking.
Presoaking Options
Overnight method: Cover beans with 3 cups of water per cup of beans (or
just plenty of water!) and soak overnight. Drain and rinse.
Quick method: Cover beans in pot with plenty of water. Bring to a
boil. Simmer for 3-5 minutes, turn off heat and then let set 1-2 hours. Drain
and rinse.
Sprouted method: Allow beans to soak for 24 hours (refrigerate after 8
hours). Drain and rinse.
Cooking Options Following
Presoaking
Stove top: Add 3 cups of water per cup of dry beans to a pot.
Bring to a boil then simmer gently, adding more water as needed.
Pressure cooker: A 4-quart pressure cooker can cook up to 3 cups of dry
beans. Add enough water to cover the beans by 1-2 inches. Add 1-2 Tbsp. oil to
reduce foaming.
Slow cooker: Add 2 cups of water per cup of beans. Cook on low for
indicated amount of time. Ideally, soak beans overnight, then put in crock on
low in the morning. Reduce cooking time by beginning with boiling water. You
can also cook on high for half the indicated amount of time.
Does this just look like
too much work?
You can certainly opt to use
canned beans for the sake of convenience.
You might be pleasantly
surprised, however, once you begin preparing beans from dry (particularly in a
pressure cooker or slow cooker) at just how easy it is. Again, it’s just a
matter of starting things early- set the beans to soak the night before and
then set them to cook in time for being done for meal time. When I go to the effort of making beans from dry, I make double the amount that I need and put the rest in a freezer bag and freeze for next time.
What’s the advantage of
cooking beans from dry?
* More economical
* You’re in control of
everything that goes into them (canned beans often contain a lot of sodium
and sometimes have added preservatives as well as questionable materials in the
can and lining itself).
Cooking
Times for Preparing Beans from Scratch
Experiment
with these times because many factors affect the cooking time
-age of
beans, type of cooker, humidity, elevation, etc.
Stove top
Pressure Cooker Slow Cooker
Chickpeas 1
1/2 - 2 hr. 22 min. 10 hr.
Kidney 1 1/2 -
2 hr. 15 min. 10 hr.
Pinto 1- 1 1/2
hr. 12 min. 8 1/2 hr.
Black beans 1-
1 1/2 hr. 12 min. 8 1/2 hr.
Soldier 1- 1
1/2 hr. 12 min. 8 1/2 hr.
Azuki/Aduki 1-
1 1/2 hr. 12 min. 8-10 hr.
Navy 1- 1 1/2
hr. 10 min. 6 1/2 hr.
Black-eyed
peas 1- 1 1/2 hr. 10 min. 6 1/2 hr.
Lima beans 1- 1 1/2 hr. 10 min. 6 1/2 hr.
Split peas 1-
1 1/2 hr. 10 min. 4 hr.
Lentils 1- 1
1/2 hr. 8-10 min. 4 hr.
Bean
Equivalents
1 can of beans
= 1 1/2 - 2 cups of beans
1 lb. dry
beans = 2 cups dry beans
1 cup dry
beans= about 2 1/2 cups cooked beans
1 lb. dry
beans = about 5 cups cooked beans
1 lb. dry
beans = about 3 cans of beans
Do not
add salt, lemon or vinegar to cooking beans.
It will
lengthen their cooking time and make them tough.
Only add after
they are fully cooked.
