Cooking Beans 101
Canned beans are convenient and easily accessible, but if you try to cook beans yourself you will see that it tastes better and saves money.
Dried beans are known for taking a long time to to cook, but most of it is unattended. I soak mine on a Saturday night and cook them on Sunday when I am doing laundry, paying the bills, or (on a rare relaxing weekend) catching up with my Netflix. A little bit of planning ahead you will have a pot of beans for the rest of the week.
Canned beans can be mushy and salty. When you cook your own, you are in full control of the texture and flavor. I always add carrots, onions and bay leaves to the pot when I cook beans. These ingredients eliminate that raw legume taste and adds sweetness and depth. If you want a stronger flavor, you can add some rosemary and garlic for garbanzo beans or some cumin and coriander for black beans.
It turns out that it’s much cheaper to cook with dried beans. A 15-oz can (about 1 3/4 cups) of premium, low-sodium canned beans is about $1.29 in my neck of the woods. A pound of dried beans is about $3, but it yields more than 6 cups of cooked beans!
My vegetarian readers are probably used to incorporating legumes in their diets, but the rest of you may be wondering what you would do with a huge pot of beans. I like to add white beans to pasta or use them in these adorable sliders. Black beans are great in salads or in these vegetarian tostadas. But I think you will love these homemade beans so much that you will eat them straight up.
Cooking Dried Beans
- Dried beans such black beans, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, 1 pound
- Onion, 1 medium, peeled and halved
- Carrots, 2 medium, cut into thirds
- Dried bay leaves, 2 medium
- Salt, 2 tablespoons
Soak beans in water overnight or for at least 8 hours. Use a large bowl because the beans will expand as they soak.
Drain the soaked beans, rinse and discard any bad ones.
Put the beans in a large saucepan or a stockpot and add enough water to cover the beans by 3 inches. Add onion, carrots, bay leaves and salt. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 1/2 hours or until the beans are soft but not mushy.
Discard the onion, carrots and bay leaves. Drain beans and use as you would canned beans. They will keep for about a week in a sealed container in the refrigerator.
Makes about 6 cups.
Thanks for the great idea of adding carrots, onion, and bay leaf to the beans–I’ve been cooking my own beans for years, but have never thought of that! Beautiful photos–I don’t know how you make dried beans look so good!