All About Dried Beans

Cooking dried beans from scratch is both more economical, as well as healthier.

Here's the directions for how to do cook dried beans and other legumes.

1. Sort through beans and remove any that don't look good as well as any small pebbles that might be in the bag. Rinse beans well. I use a large size wire strainer basket to sort though the beans and then to rinse them. It allows you to spread the beans out so you can see and rinse them better. (see picture below)

2. Place beans in a pot and cover with plenty of water. (About 3 1/2 cups of water for every cup of dried beans.) Remove any beans that float. Do NOT add salt at this point.

3. Soak beans for 6 to 8 hours, or overnight, in a refrigerator

or

if you are short on time, bring water and beans to a boil and then quickly remove the pot from the heat and let soak one hour. The overnight method helps remove more of the complex sugars that sometimes cause flatulence, although both methods help some.

4. After the soaking period, drain the water out.

5. If you will be using the same pot to cook the beans, add water to cover the beans, cover with a lid, and bring the pot to a boil over medium heat. Do NOT add salt at this point either. When the water boils, reduce the heat to low and cook until tender. (Cooking beans too fast breaks their skins.) Here are some approximate cooking times for various types of beans.

Kidney Beans - 1 1/2 to 2 hours
Lima Beans - 1 1/2 hours
Baby Limas - 45 minutes to 1 hour
Navy Beans - 1 1/2 hours
Black Beans - 1 to 2 hours
Pinto Beans - 1 1/2 to 2 hours
Chick Peas - 3 hours
Lentils - 30 to 45 minutes (presoaking is not necessary)
Split Peas - 1 hour
Navy Beans - 1 to 1 1/2 hours
Great Northern Beans - 1 1/2 to 2 hours

6. After cooking the beans, you may add salt and use them in any recipe you like. (If you add salt before the beans are tender, they may never completely soften.) It's nice to keep some beans on hand in the refrigerator to quickly add to a soup, or burrito, or serve with some leftover rice for an easy lunch.

7. Some recipes call for precooking the beans before adding them to a recipe, and others allow you to cook the beans just once, along with all the other ingredients. Follow the directions for your specific recipe, and/or the directions that came with your beanpot.

Note: Old beans may take considerably more time to cook.

Did you know cinnamon helps improve
the digestibility of beans?

Find out what else helps!

Beans have complex sugars, called oligosaccharides, which are not easily broken down by enzymes. This is what causes some people to have digestive problems with beans. But eating beans frequently, rather than only ever so often, helps solve this problem as the enzymes in our bodies gradually adjust and become better able to digest those sugars.

Here are a few more tips:

When cooking beans from scratch, rinse the beans after the soaking period and refill the pot with new water before cooking. Doing so gets rid of some of the complex sugars which cause the gas. Make sure to cook the beans under they are fully tender too, as undercooked beans tend to cause more discomfort.

There are several things that can be added to beans which helps as well. Savory, ginger, marjoram and several other herbs and spices improve the digestibility of beans. Kombu (a type of seaweed), and a potato cooked along with the beans and then thrown away, are also reported to make a difference.

The following three websites provide a few more hints as well.

Ellen's Kitchen has a nice section on improving the digestibility of beans. At the top of her page, click on "Add this to improve digestion" to read the section called, "Tenderizing." Also click on the link labeled "reducing gas" to read the section called, "The Musical Fruit."

Indiacurry.com has more information about "How to cook beans to reduce gas discomfort."

Beans, Glorious Beans, an article on active.com, provides quite a bit of information about beans, including hints on improving digestibility. Near the bottom of the first page is the section on, "Bypassing the Gas."

Beans are full of many nutrients. They are an excellent source of complex carbohydrates and protein. They contain vitamin A, B vitamins, and other vitamins. They are also rich in minerals, such as iron, calcium, zinc, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium.

Beans are good sources of phytochemicals and phytoestrogens which may provide some protection against breast cancer. They are a great source of fiber. In fact, beans have almost as much fiber as bran! They can help you lower cholesterol and insulin sensitivity, and maintain stable blood glucose levels. It is believed that beans may also help people prevent colon cancer.

Darker colored beans, such as black beans, pinto beans, red beans, and kidney beans, have high levels of healthy antioxidants. Antioxidants curtail the cell damaging action of free radicals.

For more information about the nutrients in beans, you may be interested in this chart showing the amount of calories, protein, fat, carbs, fiber, calcium, iron,and potasium levels that can be found in various types of beans.

Here are some links to more information about the health benefits of eating beans.

Antioxidant Superstars: Vegetables And Beans

Dry Beans Inhibit Breast Cancer

Berries, Beans Top 'Best Antioxidants List'

Extraordinary Facts About Beans

Information about the health benefits of eating black beans

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Page last updated 5/31/12.