Comments on: How to Cook Dried Beans

By: Cheryl Arkison

Cheryl Arkison — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:08:37 +0000

A trick I picked up from America’s Test Kitchen – soak them in a brine, or at least heavily salted water. This does wonders for helping them keep their shape and not have skins all over.

I also bake my beans just to cook them, no babysitting on the stove required.
.-= Cheryl Arkison´s last blog ..Bean Burgers Yum! =-.

By: Carrie

Carrie — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:24:19 +0000

@Charmian Christie,
True. Maybe you should have done your pressure cooker experiments before the reno!
Look forward to reading how that goes.
And sadly, I do think about cooking beans, I just never actually do it. In fact I have a lot of them sitting in glass jars on my counter. Good thing they don’t really go bad.

By: lori

lori — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 02:47:36 +0000

P.S. I am wondering about the cooking process in a slow cooker? any thoughts?

By: lori

lori — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 02:45:24 +0000

I think you are psychic! I was going to ask you about soaking and cooking beans.To save money , for the freshness and as well to avoid the cancer causing white lining inside the cans….My problem is lack of freezer to store the cooked beans…

By: Charmian Christie

Charmian Christie — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:47:46 +0000

@Carrie, don’t consider it the lazy route. I don’t think cooking your own beans is something most people think about.

Thanks for mentioning the pressure cooker. I’m about to do some experimenting with one. I’ll test beans for sure.

Pressure cookers used to be quite dangerous but are now engineered with multiple safety features. I trust the new versions, but wouldn’t touch an “old generation” model. No sense renovating the kitchen only to blow a hole in the ceiling with a pressure cooker.

By: Carrie

Carrie — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:24:41 +0000

I have to admit, I often go the lazy route and use canned legumes (except lentils which cook quickly enough.) I rationalize it by the energy cost involved in cooking beans. But you’re right, that I have no control over the amount of sodium I’m ingesting.
However, I’ve been tempted to try a pressure cooker, I’ve heard that can reduce the cooking time significantly. I’m a little scared of it, to be honest. I think it’s a childhood fear, enforced by my father’s belief that pressure will explode with little provocation.

By: Cheryl@5secondrule

Cheryl@5secondrule — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:25:44 +0000

Those scarlet runners are lovely!

My favorite bean recipe right now is definitely the minestrone I adapted from Nani Steele’s beautiful book My Nepenthe: http://5secondrule.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/01/minestrone-recipe-from-my-nepenthe.html

I just love the burst of color whole beans add to soups, and the body the pureed ones add to dips. I say toss your chick peas with some cooked ditalini, crushed red pepper, fennel and garlic! Yum!
.-= Cheryl@5secondrule´s last blog ..Muesli =-.