fftf: 2 mins work ➡️ week's worth of sustenance

Hello!

I have one goal today: to convince you to make cooking dried beans part of your regular cooking routine. Why? because it’s SO EASY and SO DELICIOUS, not to mention economical. After years of experimenting with different ways - I'll explain why making beans in the slow cooker/instant pot is my favorite way to do it. (And I include an alternative method, too, in case you don't have one of these appliances.)

So - the first question: why dry beans over canned beans?!

Canned beans, of course, have their place as a staple convenience food. When jazzed up or added to other dishes, canned beans are great. However - I would argue that you have not fully experienced the utter deliciousness of humble beans until you start cooking them yourself from dried. As with all foods, when you make them yourself, you have control (hello fellow control freaks!), and with dried beans, you get the chance to flavor them from the inside out while they cook.

Another reason to cook dried beans is because though it might SEEM like a lot of work, when you do my method, it is literally 2 mins of “work” and otherwise totally inactive cooking time. The only other requirements are a tiny bit of foresight and some practice. Slow-cooking beans is the PERFECT thing to master while you are working from home. SO - our continued stay-at-home existence is the perfect opportunity to build this delicious habit into your cooking repertoire! I am confident that if you do - when/if we ever go back to normal life - this one will stick!

What kind of dried beans to buy/make?

The most important thing when buying dried beans is to purchase from a place that has high turnover. It’s probably NOT the best idea to buy beans at your corner store where they could have been sitting on that shelf for years. Better to buy from a big grocery store where a lot of people are buying beans. You can also order heirloom beans that you know are fresh from a specialty company/farm like Rancho Gordo or Llano Seco.

I love an heirloom bean, but the beans I cook most often are still plain old chickpeas, black beans, and canellinni beans. (Note: I also make a good amount of lentils but I do a different cooking method for those so will address another time.)

When I make even plain chickpeas from dried, cooked simply with salt, I can’t stop eating them just plain by the fingerful when they are done. They are so creamy and vastly more flavorful than anything out of a can. I honestly don’t know why they are so good - maybe I'm just a weird bean lover - but they are! The black beans I make are also so delicious that I crave them (and thus make them) at least once/month. Keep reading for that "recipe."

What’s the best way to cook dry beans?

If you look into bean cooking, you find TONS of conflicting information:

“You should pre-soak them.”
“DON’T pre-soak them. Totally unnecessary.”
“Salt them while soaking/cooking.”
“DON’T salt them while cooking!”
“A dash of acid/(insert other weird/random trick ingredients here) helps them cook faster/better/etc.”
“A dash of acid makes them seize up and prevents them from cooking through!!”

The info can be totally overwhelming. Here are my conclusions:

First: as with all cooking, there are MANY DIFFERENT WAYS to cook beans!!!
Second: beans are unpredictable!

Sometimes they take 2 hours to cook, sometimes 4, sometimes 6. It seems that the main predictor of cooking time (other than size) is freshness, but there’s really no way to know how fresh a bean is. Which is why your best bet is to buy beans from a store with high turnover, and to not let them sit in your pantry for years before you try to cook them.

To soak or not to soak?!

I have found that pre-soaking - with water AND salt - leads to consistently creamy and evenly cooked, delicious beans. However - I have found that the soaking is more important with bigger beans (such as cannellinis and chickpeas) and not always necessary. So - my official answer is that I usually soak them… but I also sometimes don’t.

Salt?!

I add salt to my soaking water, or if I don’t soak, then I add salt in the beginning before I begin cooking. I learned this from Samin, author of Salt Fat Acid Heat, who I trust very much. As a general cooking principle, you always want your food to be salted throughout, not just on top, so it makes intuitive sense to start letting the beans absorb salt as soon as you start on them.

Cooking time?!

The answer to this: it depends. Which is why my method of cooking - low and slow in the slow cooker - works the best.

When you make your own beans from dried, YOU get to choose how well-cooked they are! Do you want them a little firmer for a salsa, salad, or to go into a soup? Or do you want them a bit creamier for a dip?! You’re in control!

And yes - I know that pressure cooking is a popular method of cooking beans, and sure - in a pinch I will do that (using the instant pot). But I've found that there is simply no competing with good old TIME. In my opinion, the more time you give your beans (meaning soaking + slow cook), the more time the flavorings have to permeate throughout and deliver their deliciousness.

Flavorings?!

Adding your own flavorings is the best part about cooking dried beans. Again - we are flavoring from the inside out! It’s a great place to experiment with different spices and dried herbs. It’s also a great way to use up odds and ends of veggies and/or even meat scraps! If you save veggie scraps in the freezer, you can totally use those to flavor your beans!

When you cook dried beans yourself, you also get the benefit of a flavorful cooking broth that the beans come in. It’s kind of like a built in soup - and this is why I very often eat a bowl of beans (with some of the bean broth) on their own as a meal.

Ok - hopefully I’ve at least somewhat convinced you, now let’s get to my favorite cooking method and my most delicious ways to eat the beans!!

GPJ general dry bean* cooking instructions - Slow Cooker Method:

SOAK: Place beans in slow-cooker (turned off) and cover with water by about 1.5-2 inches, then add at least 1 tsp salt per cup of beans and stir to dissolve. I usually make 2 cups of dry beans (which means 4-5 cups of cooked beans) to eat over the course of 1 week. Soak for anywhere from 2-12 hours depending on your schedule and mood.
When ready to cook, add more water as needed so the beans are again covered by 1.5-2 inches. (Yes, you’re going to cook them in the soaking liquid.) I usually add another ~teaspoon of salt/2 cups dry beans at this point - but it’s a good idea to first dip your finger in the water and taste how salty it is before adding more salt. Add any aromatics / spices / veggie scraps / other flavor ingredients.
Turn on the slow cooker, put the lid on, and set it for 4-8 hours depending on the type of bean. If you’re new to doing this, start checking the beans at 2/2.5 hours and through to 5 hours to observe the beans as they continue to cook and change texture. Add more water and salt if needed along the way. Inevitably different beans in the pot will cook at different speeds so you want to taste at least 5-7 beans at each taste to see how they are coming along. I find that black beans when soaked usually take about 3-4 hours to cook and they are some of the fastest.
When beans are done, eat and/or let cool. Store in their cooking liquid. They will last about a week or a little more in the fridge.

*Important note: In my bean research I've learned that red kidney beans specifically have a toxin that needs to be boiled out, otherwise it might make you sick. So, if cooking red kidney beans from dry, make to sure boil them for at least 10 mins to kill the toxin before slow cooking. Apparently other kidney beans like cannellinis also have smaller amounts of this toxin, so if you're sensitive, you might want to boil those for 10 mins too just to be safe. I have personally slow-cooked cannellinis many times and never gotten sick, but - do what seems best to you!

Timing/Schedule

As I mentioned, beans are unpredictable in their cooking times. So - especially if you are new to cooking dried beans, I would try to be home/around while they are cooking so you can check them every so often. An ideal schedule might be:

- start soaking beans in the morning when you wake up
- around mid-day, start them in the slow-cooker
- monitor throughout the afternoon, when you need excuses to get up from your chair anyways
- beans for dinner!!

There is a bit of finesse to managing the correct amount of water - and if you soak/cook them too long, sometimes they can get a bit water-logged. But generally - other than under- or over-salting - you can't really mess these up. With some practice, you'll get to know how long it takes for different kinds of beans to cook. I've found the timing also becomes more predictable if you buy beans from the same store. Once you get the hang of it, then you can move to cooking the beans overnight while you sleep, or while you're out of the house. This is why I love the slow cooker, and especially the slow-cooker function of the Instant Pot, which is what I use. It automatically goes into "keep warm mode" after the cooking time is up, which means you can eventually wake up to warm beans ready to eat! That might sound weird if you're not used to it, but - warm beans with eggs, salsa, pickled onions, and avocado is one of my ULTIMATE favorite breakfasts :).

My favorite Black Beans "recipe" (this is barely a recipe - more of a suggestion)

Ingredients:

dry black beans, I usually do 2 cups
water
3 tsp kosher salt (start with a ratio of 1tsp salt per 1cup beans and add more as needed)
cinnamon stick or dash of ground cinnamon
dried chipotle pepper or dash of ground chipotle
1-3 cloves of garlic, smashed and peeled
piece of fresh (or frozen) ginger, cut into a few pieces

If making a bigger batch than 2 cups, increase amounts of flavorings

Instructions:

Pre-soak beans in salt and water for 2-3 hours, if you have time. If not, that's ok too.
Add flavorings and more water/salt as needed and slow-cook for 2-4 hours until tender and creamy.
Store in cooking liquid in the fridge for about 1 week.

My favorite ways to eat beans:

any Mexican style beans - with eggs, salsa, avocado, pickled onions or skip the eggs! or in tacos
any neutral beans like chickpeas, cannellinis, etc - add to salads for more heft!
Italian-ish beans like cannellini - make beans and greens, or beans and greens and sausage, or add to an Italian-ish pasta with garlic and lemon and olive oil and/or tomatoes
in the summer, add to a tomato salad, or a marinated salad!
warm up separately in a small pot and add to saute bowls (if you know, you know!)
plain and warm with hot sauce right after they are done!!
in the winter, added to soups and stews

Note: if eating in salads or otherwise, make to sure rinse off the cooking liquid just as you would if they were from a can, and drain well.

Other favorite bean recipes/ideas:

If you don't have a slow-cooker, try this slow-cooking-in-the-oven method. (Although - if you do - I would use an oven-proof pot and boil on the stove for 10 mins before slow cooking in the oven rather than doing her drain/boil water /add back boiling water suggestion).
This is my FAVORITE hummus recipe and a different way to cook chickpeas that really breaks them down, although I also sometimes slow cook them my normal way and save half/use half for hummus.
If you want to simulate slow-cooked beans with canned beans, this recipe seems like a good way to do it, although I haven't actually tried it myself.

Last but not least...

If you are worried about flatulence when eating beans... there are all kinds of supposed "tricks" for reducing this. The one I have found to be true is that the more you eat beans, the less they affect you. I have eaten a LOT OF BEANS and I can tell you they don't cause any issues for me! :)

Happy bean cooking! Please report back!

Love,
Jess

If you like this email, I would LOVE IT if you forward along to your favorite food-loving friends, or better yet, forward and then cook something together! Wannabe subscribers can sign up here. Thanks for reading!
In case you missed out, here are a few past issues to check out:

July 24: is there hidden cash in your trash can?
July 17: Crunchy spices + refreshment?! YES and I’m OBSESSED
July 10: lingering onion or herbs? make my catch-all summer dish - MARINATED SALADS
June 26: 5 ingredients, 5 minutes - a favorite summer salad
June 19: to shuck, or not to shuck peas?!
May 8: It's been one year of FFTF!
April 17: I’m 100% sure you can do this veggie trick
April 3: my dad’s surprising vitamin advice

Hi, I'm Jess! I help health-conscious, busy people transform their cooking from "chore" to "whippin it up!" through intuitive cooking, which I teach through online classes, free content, coaching and more. This is my newsletter, Food for Thought Fridays, where I share highly actionable tips and inspiration to help you cook more intuitively (which makes cooking feel easier and SO much more fun!). Once a month, I share a recipe that's really worth making, and I only share those with my email subscribers.

I currently work + live on land that is the unceded territory of the Ramaytush Ohlone. And I can't wait to eat at Cafe Ohlone when they reopen someday! Check out this article about them.