The purpose of What’s For Dinner? is to provide you a recipe with items on sale this week, with no more than 10 ingredients (not including pantry items), and coming in at under $10 per meal.
I have received several requests via email or on Facebook about “How To Cook Dried Beans?” in the last couple of weeks. And as the saying goes…if one or two are asking the question, there is probably 10x that number that are wondering.
Let’s just admit it. Dried beans are kind of weird.
They look scary. They are hard. Come in a bag. Usually used in a kids craft. And you wonder what will happen if you under or over cook them…
But rest assured, cooking dried beans is REALLY easy.
Method #1: On The Stove
1. Sort dried beans and look for any rocks or “bad beans”. Discard.
2. Dump beans in a large stock pot and cover with water and a lid. Soak overnight.
3. When ready to cook, strain beans in a colander and rinse. Then add back to pot and cover with water (usually two to three inches above the beans) and any desired seasonings.
4. Uncovered, bring water to a boil on high heat and then reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Cook for approximately two hours (sometimes longer) until beans are desired “softness”.
5. Strain beans in a colander and rinse. Use immediately or place equal four-part portions in freezer bags and freeze for later use.
Method #2: In the Crockpot
1. Sort dried beans and look for any rocks or “bad beans”. Discard.
2. Dump beans in a large crockpot, cover with water and any desired seasonings. Place lid on top.
3. Cook for approximately six hours (sometimes longer) until beans are desired “softness”.
4. Strain beans in a colander and rinse. Use immediately or place equal four-part portions in freezer bags and freeze for later use.
And now you need a few recipes to use your new Dried Bean Cooking Mojo in…here are my favorites.
Good luck…I know you can do it. Have you recently started using dried beans? If so, share a comment of encouragement with some other readers.
We get lots of dry bean on WIC and I use a presser cooker. It works out great. You don’t have to wait hours for them to get done.
I’m one of the s10X of silent questioners about dry bean cooking methods. Thanks for posting!
thanks–this was on my to-learn list!
Cooking dried beans has always been so foreign to me…tks for the how-to.
After step one – discarding any “bad” beans, I always give a quick rinse to the batch prior to the cooking stage. You will be amazed how dirty the water will be as well as it allows for “skins” from some beans to float to the water surface!
Do you not need to soak them if you are using a crock pot?
No. Soaking is not needed for crockpot. But rinsing is required.
I’ll second the vote for the pressure cooker… sooooo quick and easy!!
I don’t have a pressure cooker, but I have a crock pot. Do I cook on high or low?
High. 🙂