Over the past few years I have been cooking dried beans. Now, I realise that it’s easier to open a tin than think about soaking overnight and then cooking the next day but I prefer the dried variety. Firstly dried are cheaper than buying tinned and you can measure the exact amount you need. Therefore there is no wasting a whole tin. Secondly, I think they are a lot tastier than the tinned variety and so much more nutritionally dense as well.
Beans are not only a vegetable they contain fibre, protein, carbohydrate and plenty of nutrients. It may seem daunting to many people to even consider cooking beans from scratch. At first I did find this a challenge. In recent months I have found ways to cook the beauties easily. I thought I would share my tips for storing and cooking beans.
To store the beans I buy I have brought glass jars for my pantry. Once I open the packet I pour the contents into the airtight storage jar. I find this help to keep them fresher for longer and I don’t get any nasty spills in the cupboard either. If I didn’t have jars I would use airtight boxes to store the beans instead.
When I cook the beans I soak them overnight and rinse them thoroughly the next day. Then I put them into a pan of water. I make sure their is enough water to cover the beans and then about 2 inches above the top of the beans. Beans, like pasta, need plenty of water to cook in. I normally leave them to cook for a good thirty minutes or so. Or until most of the water has disappeared. Again I drain the bean through a colander over the sink and rinse again.
My final tip but probably the most important one is to add baking powder to the beans while they are cooking. The baking powder acts like a softer to the beans and it also helps to cook them faster. When I add the water and baking powder to the pan I also add a little bit of Himalayan pink salt or sea salt. This adds a lot of extra minerals and it makes the beans slightly tastier.
Honestly I don’t think I’ll be going back to tinned beans anytime soon. Now I have these hacks up my sleeve it’s made it so much easier to cook beans from scratch. All I do now is soak, rinse, add, cook and rinse again. Then I have perfectly cook beans. Do you cook with beans and if so, do you use dried or tinned? Let me know in the comments below and please don’t forget to like and follow me for more. Thank you xxx
Googies Kitchen Life 