Talk Beans with Me!

[MommaRhe]

I'd like to start incorporating more beans to our diet - other than the grean bean side dish - and would like to use dried beans. But I'm clueless.

So, speak to me: how do I store them? what do I do with them? how do I cook them? do they need to be soaked first?

And anything else you know about beans.

Aside from side dishes my only real experiance with beans is my 2-3 times a year huge batch of chili in which I use canned kidney &/or navy beans.

[pneumaphile]

They need to be rinsed, picked (looking through them for any stray rocks or other non-bean objects) and soaked overnight. Though there is a "quick-soak" method if you forget to soak the night before - I think it takes an hour.

DON'T put any salt in the water until the end of the cooking time (that toughens the skins and they won't cook properly).

Otherwise, they're easy-peasy. I use chickpeas to make hummus, as well as in chickpea recipes and you can substitute a lot of chicken casserole recipes with chickpeas (LOVE chickpea curry!).

Black beans - I use them in tacos, burritos, and on nachos. Or you can make a black bean dip out of them (like the chickpeas for hummus).

Pintos - chili. Beans and ham if you do meat. Beans and cornbread. Good addition to vegetable soup. Or pasta salad.

Red beans - I love cajun red beans and rice. Also, good in chili, with the pinto beans.

Lentils - you don't have to soak these. I make "lentil loaf" - like meatloaf - mix with eggs, breadcrumbs, and parmesan, top with tomato sauce and bake. I also like lentil soup, especially with chard or spinach in it.

Just boil them, season them, and eat them - they're really easy and so cheap!

[Oliveshoots]

My mom always soaks hers. DH never does. They both taste great to me :shrug I've *heard* that the soaking reduces the chance of, ahem, (flatulence). But I'm not sure.

One thing I do know is that they increase in bulk ALOT when they cook. I had a friend who filled her crock pot with dry pintos and water and it overflowed.

DH usually uses a small bag (or the equivalent), cleans them (picks out the rocks and bad beans), puts them in our large stock pot almost full of water, adds some garlic powder and a touch of comino (uhhhh cumin), salt and sometimes 1/4 cup oil (lately he's been leaving out the oil.) Sometimes he substitutes a little soy sauce for the salt. He boils them for a while (I think) and then reduces to a low simmer for several hours.

Sometimes he refries them with eggs or fideo or meat and it's YUUUUMMMMMYYYY!!!!

My mom used to cook soy beans when we were little (my uncle grew them) and they were pretty good just cooked!

Love lima beans and butter beans (big limas pretty much), but I like them with lots of butter or margarine, so it's not that healthy. :shrug

[momaich]

Hi, I've been adding beans in our diet too. I'm trying to get us away from meat. BUT!!! I cannot use dried beans. I soak them and soak them, cook them and cook them but they do not soften! I did a search and one suggestion was to add baking soda to them because we have hard water, but yuck, that sounds nasty and plus the report said it gives beans a soapy taste.
BTW If you soak your beans for 3 days- even changing the water several times- and go to church and come back 2 hours later...um... your house smells!!!!!!
LOL