Basics- Beans

Beans (or legumes, if you want a fancier more encompassing word) are an excellent source of non-soluble fiber (keeps your digestive system in top notch condition), amino acids (proteins), vitamins, and minerals. And since they are dried and can be stored for long periods of time they are an excellent item for food storage. Yes, beans are wonderful.

If you know what to do with them.

Beans are easily added to soups, salads, entrees, marinated, and even baked goods. I’ll try to get a couple more bean recipes up in the next few weeks to help you out. But for starters, let’s learn how to cook them.

Super short, easy way: Get a pressure cooker. Follow the instructions.

Longer, but more common way: Rinse you beans, and pick out any debris in them (aka small rocks). Depending on the bean it will probably need to soak. To soak beans, put them in a pot and add water. Leave it over night, or 6-8 hours. For quicker instructions put beans and water in a pot and bring it to a boil, then turn off the heat and let it sit for 1 hour. To cook, drain water and bring to a boil in fresh water; then lower the heat and simmer until tender, adding more water as needed. Make sure to not add any salt or acid until beans are fully cooked or they will not soften.  See the chart below for helpful bean specifics.

Variety	To soak or not to soak?	Water-bean ratio	Cook time after soaking	Cooked quantity for 1 cup dried
Azuki beans	Soak me!	3:1	¾ to 1 hour	3 cups
Black beans (turtle)	Soak me!	3:1	1 ½ hours	3 cups
Black-eyed peas	Nope	3:1	½ hour	2 ½ cups
Chickpeas (garbanzos)	Soak me!	4:1	1 ½ hours	3 cups
Fava beans	Soak me!	3:1	¾ to 1 hour	3 cups
Kidney beans (red or white)	Soak me!	3:1	1 to 1 ½ hours	2 ¾ cups
Lentils, brown	Nope	2:1	½ hour	3 cups
Lentils, red	Nope	2:1	15-20 minutes	3 cups
Lima beans	Soak me!	3:1	1 hour	3 cups
Mung beans	Soak me!	3:1	¾ hour	3 cups
Pinto beans	Soak me!	3:1	¾ hour	3 ¼ cups
Soybeans	Soak me!	4:1	2 hours	2 ¾ cups
Split peas, green	Nope	3:1	¾ to 1 hour	1 ¾ cups
Split peas, yellow	Nope	3:1	½ hour	2 ¼ cups
White beans (navy, cannellini, etc)	Soak me!	3:1	¾ to 1 hour	2 ¾ cups

Now, cooking beans is a lot of work. Therefore, I would cook a whole bunch at the same time, then spread them on a cookie sheet and freeze them. After they’re frozen put then in gallon ziplock bags and use as needed.