A Quick Soak for Dry Beans

Who has time to cook with dried beans?

Apparently, I do. (And maybe you do, too.)

And, why would you want to go through the trouble when you can open a can?

All beans are nutritional goldmines bringing you beneficial dietary fibre, low fat protein, vitamins, minerals and no cholesterol. But cooking your own beans rather than opting for a can gives you a healthy edge because, like any scratch cooking, you’ve got control. Canned beans are high in sodium. Start with dry beans and you’re in charge of how much salt is added. Canned beans can have a shelf life of up to five years and that means they have preservatives added and/or the can has a white plastic lining. That lining may contain Bisphenol A, which may or may not lead to cancer or reproductive problems. Start with dry beans and you don’t have to worry about that – or recycling the can.

Dried beans are economical, too, usually about half the price of canned beans. One pound of dry beans will give you about six cups of cooked beans. You’d need about four 15-ounce cans of beans to get six cups of cooked beans. So even with a good sale on canned beans (which we don’t want anyway, right?) the dried beans will be cheaper.

And one last reason to try cooking beans from scratch … their taste and texture will be better than canned.

There are many ways to take beans from dried to cooked. Search “quick cooking beans” and you can see for yourself the length and breadth of the dried bean debate. The method I’m going to describe is taken primarily from one of my cooking heroines, Mme Jehane Benoit, and is rewritten here to be a little easier to follow. Now the “quick” does not mean “instant.” We’re simply cutting the soaking time. You’ll still need to give yourself a few hours to turn the dehydrated legumes into succulent little morsels.

Once you have transformed the dry beans into cooked beans, you can use them any number of ways: soups, salads, casseroles, maybe even the Baked Beans with Apples I’ll be posting next. You can also freeze the cooked beans for future use.

MA’s Short Soak Stove Top Beans

1 lb (about 2 cups) dried beans – any kind, except split green or yellow peas or black-eyed peas, which should not be soaked and consequently not used for this method (Navy beans are shown in this post.)

8 cups rapidly boiling water

1 tbsp molasses

Pick through the dried beans. The surface of the bean should be smooth, firm, and uniform in size and color. Remove any beans that are broken, blistered looking, wrinkled or shriveled. Take out any tiny stones or dirt. Wash beans in cold water. Remove any floaters, as they will not cook properly.

Place beans in a large pot.

Cover the beans with the boiling water. Add molasses.

Cover and let stand for one hour.

Foam forming on top of beans

Uncover and bring to a rapid boil in the same water for 2 to 3 minutes.

You may get some foam gathering on top of the water as the beans cook. Skim off the foam. You can minimize heavy foaming by adding 2 tbsp of butter or oil to the beans.

Cooked and ready to use

Cover and lower the heat. Simmer for about 1 ½ hours or until the beans are starting to become tender.

IF the beans are going to be used in another dish in which they will cook further, such as baked beans, stop here and add the ingredients needed for the dish, then continue cooking.

IF the beans are going to be used in a dish without further cooking, such as in a salad, keep them simmering until they have reached the firmness/mushiness you prefer.

IF you don’t know how you are going to use the beans, continue simmering until they have reached the firmness/mushiness you want. You can always cut down on the cooking time if they end up in a recipe where they’ll be cooked further.

Either way, cook slowly and test the beans often to see how they’re doing.

Printable Recipe for MA's Short Soak Stove Top Beans