One of the best ways to save money on your grocery budget without compromising on flavor and nutrition is to add more beans to your meals. Canned beans are convenient but cooking dried beans from scratch is the best for flavor and frugality. This is an important cooking skill for any home cook to learn. If you’ve never cooked dried beans then you’ve come to the right place! I’m going to show you the method I use most often and then give you some tips to try.
Types of dried beans
When I was growing up, my mom always cooked pinto beans with a ham bone. That is still my dad’s favorite meal of all time. I think I was a teenager before I learned that there were so many other kinds of beans. Over the years I’ve cooked just about every type of dried beans you can imagine. In fact I became a bit of a bean hoarder. It turns out that you don’t actually need 4 kinds of white beans.
I’ve narrowed it down to the five types of dried beans that I use most and that my family likes best. Chickpeas are great for making homemade hummus. If you haven’t tried making your own hummus, please do. It’s amazing! Black beans are what I use most often, both by themselves and in other dishes. They are my preference in chili, taco filling, and corn salsa. I love red kidney beans for red beans and rice but sometimes buy small red beans instead. The Camelia brand is what I usually buy for the red kidney beans. Pinto beans are always on hand for cooking with a ham bone or making refried beans. Last of all I stock navy beans for soup in the winter.
To soak or not to soak
There’s a big debate about whether you need to soak beans before cooking. Soaking makes them more digestible and they will cook faster. Both of those are pretty big advantages. The disadvantage is that you have to plan ahead and get them soaking the night before. Thankfully that is a very easy process.
All you do is sort through the beans to check for small rocks, clumps of dirt, or damaged beans. Above you can see a few damaged beans I found in this batch. Toss any of that obviously. If you don’t believe in sorting dried beeans before soaking just bite down on a pebble one time and you’ll change your mind! Put the sorted beans in big bowl or pan and cover with room temperature water to an inch or so above the beans. Add a teaspoon of salt. Put a lid on the bowl or pan and set it aside until your ready to cook the beans. That’s it!
Quick soaking dried beans
Some cooks like to do a quick soak. To do this put your sorted beans in a pan and cover with water. Bring the water to a boil then turn off the heat and let the beans soak for an hour. Then drain the beans, add fresh water and simmer until tender.
I don’t use the quick soak method because I’ve never noticed it reducing the cook time enough to make it worthwhile. In my experience you are better off just simmering the beans for that hour and getting on with the recipe.
Draining the soaked beans
If you chose to soak the beans, go ahead and drain them now. An overnight soaking will neutralize or remove a lot of the indigestible parts of the bean. There are some carbohydrates that we can’t process and phytic acid that make several nutrients hard to absorb. When you soak the beans and drain away the soaking water you are draining off those things. So drain the soaked beans!
Pour the drained beans into a pot and cover with fresh water. Usually an inch or two above the beans is fine. Now is the time to add any seasonings such as onions, oil or fat, salt, pepper, or even a ham bone. I’m went a simple route here and added salt, pepper, and some bacon grease.
The Great Salt Debate
There is another bean debate. Who knew beans could be so controversial! Forever it’s been preached that adding salt while cooking beans will make them tough and they will take a longer time to cook. According to Samin Nosrat in her book, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, salt does not make beans take longer to cook. The salt seasons the beans and makes them more delicous. Generally the older the dried bean, the longer it will take to cook. So buy beans from a place that has a good turnover of their stock and you will get faster cooking beans.
Time to get cooking!
Set the pot on the stove and bring to a boil over medium heat. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting and simmer the beans. Check every so often to see if you need to add more water. They will absorb a lot of water if you didn’t soak them. Even soaked beans may need some extra water so keep an eye on it. Most beans will be tender in 1 1/2 to 2 hours. When you think they are done, scoop up a bean and test it. You should be able to easily squash it with your finger or a spoon. If there’s any resistance, keep cooking.
The water level also affects how soupy the beans are. If I’m cooking beans for a dish like chili or tacos I don’t worry too much about the amount of water. I’ll be draining them anyway. If I’m making bean soup like I was with these red kidney beans, I want the right amount of water for the type of soup I’m making. A brothy soup will need more water. Of course you can just add more water to a pot of thick beans but it’s nice to cook them so you have the right amount. There’s a lot of flavor in the bean broth!
Finish your dried beans
Now that you have your perfectly cooked beans it’s time to finish your dish. If you’re adding them to another dish you can turn off the heat and let them sit covered until you’re ready to use them. You may want to add sauteed onions, vegetables, sausage, or something to make a simple soup. For the beans I cooked here, I sauteed onion and green bell pepper before adding them to the beans then simmered the soup half an hour longer.
The more experience you get cooking with dried beans and trying different types the easier it will be to add this skill to your everyday cooking. You will find your favorite recipes and the varieties of beans your family likes best. Also you will be amazed at the money in your grocery budget you will save from cooking dried beans from scratch.
