How to Cook Dry Beans from Scratch (2024)

FAQs

Do you have to soak beans before cooking them? ›

They'll cook within 5 to 20 minutes without any soaking time. Nearly all traditional cookbooks tell you to soak dried beans before cooking them. Modern cooking websites often say it doesn't matter. In a way, they're both right.

Beans can be cooked by using the stovetop or a multicooker/pressure cooker. Place soaked beans in a large pot; cover with fresh water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer gently until beans are tender but firm. Most beans will cook in 45 minutes to 2 hours depending on the variety.

Just take your favorite beans (pinto, black eyed peas, chickpeas, lima beans) and cover them with your favorite broth or stock or even water seasoned with salt, spices, herbs and other aromatics like onion and garlic, and cook on low for 3 to 4 hours.

Water is perfectly good for cooking beans, but if you want extra flavor, why not add another liquid? You can cook beans in any kind of stock, for example, or any kind of combination of stock and water that you want. You can also add some wine or beer for more flavor.

If you forgot to soak your beans the night before you plan to cook them, the hot soak method can come to the rescue. Cover the beans with water, bring to a boil and boil for three minutes. Remove them from the heat and let them soak in the hot water for an hour. Then drain, rinse, add fresh water and cook.

Sprinkle in some baking soda

As it turns out, baking soda significantly decreases the levels of raffinose, the gas-causing sugar present in beans. When should you add baking soda to beans? It works best with just a pinch (about 1/16 of a teaspoon) sprinkled into dried beans while they soak in water before cooking.

Overnight Soak for Beans: Soaking your beans overnight is the most traditional method, and it yields the best results. It allows you to cook beans on the stove quickly without sacrificing flavor or texture. To soak beans overnight, put the beans in a pot and cover with water by about two inches.

Those aromatics in the pot will revolutionize the beans' final flavor. The aromatics I tend to use are onions, carrots, garlic, and celery, and then heartier, woodsy herbs, like rosemary, sage, and thyme, which marry beautifully with the earthy-sweet flavor of beans.

Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and a very gentle simmer. You should barely see the water moving. Leave the lid off for firm beans meant for cold salads and pasta dishes. Cover the pot with the lid slightly ajar for creamier beans for soups, casseroles, and burritos.

Fun Fact: Discarding the soaking water and rinsing beans can help make cooked beans more digestible. Some people choose to save the soaking liquid because some nutrients are leeched from the beans into the liquid during soaking. We prefer to drain our soaking liquid but you can decide what works best for you.

What happens when you add salt at the beginning of cooking beans? ›

As the beans soak and cook, sodium ions in salted water will gradually replace some of those calcium and magnesium ions, which in turn allows for greater water penetration into bean cells. This is particularly true of the tough outer skins of beans.

Always rinse beans before cooking, and check for stray rocks, twigs and leaves. Leave substantial time for bean soaking (either overnight or using our shortcut method) and cooking. If you are short on time, choose lentils or adzuki beans, which cook quickly and don't need soaking.

Transfer the soaked beans to a large pot and cover them with 2 inches of water. If you're using unsoaked beans, rinse them in a fine mesh strainer before you add them to the pot. Bring the water to a gentle boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 30 minutes, discarding any foam that rises to the surface.

It is possible to soak beans for too long before cooking. Beans should soak for 8 to 10 hours overnight. If they are soaked for longer than 12 hours, they can lose their familiar flavor and become overly mushy.

An overnight soak before boiling is the default method because hydrating beans before cooking improves their quality, plus eliminates some of the starches that cause gassiness. But, an 8-hour overnight bath isn't always convenient. Enter quick-soaking, a technique that will shave about 7 hours off your task.

Soaking beans is critical to ensuring a safely canned product. Do not can dried beans without soaking.

Canned beans are packed in a solution of water, salt, and starch. That solution can leave a glossy film on the beans, interfering with not only mouthfeel (slimy beans are a little off-putting), but also the ability of the beans to cling to other ingredients in the dish and absorb those flavors.

To quick-soak dried beans, simply bring a pot of beans and water to a boil and let them sit for an hour. It takes only about 5 minutes of your attention and works for any type of bean. Step one: Sort and rinse. Pour the beans out onto a sheet pan or somewhere else you can spread them out easily.

You can cook dried green peas without soaking them in liquid, but they will take far longer to cook. Unsoaked green split peas will take approximately 35-45 minutes; unsoaked whole green peas take up to 75 minutes to cook.