5 bags (ea) of (dry) black-eye peas & white beans
 

My grandmother gave us quite a bit of food when we went to visit her. :highfive :tu She gave us 5 bags (each) of black-eye peas & white beans. I don't cook with dry beans as much as I'd like. I'm not good at it. Usually I can get them soft (usually!), but they are always bland. :( Any advice on how to cook these? Thanks!

Re: 5 bags (ea) of (dry) black-eye peas & white beans
 

I use white beans for white chili. They are used for baked beans,too and they aren't usually hard to cook.

Re: 5 bags (ea) of (dry) black-eye peas & white beans
 

oohhhhh sounds good... care to share the recipie. :P~

Re: 5 bags (ea) of (dry) black-eye peas & white beans
 

Last time I used a white chili packet. I had never seen it before and I'm pretty sure it's not vegetarian. But, my dh really liked it. I just used that and a can of green chili's because we really love them.

Normally I just use a white chicken chili recipe and I just don't use the chicken. I like to add extra green chilis and garlic! It's pretty easy. I use half pinto and half white beans. It's best if it's been in the crockpot all day.

Re: 5 bags (ea) of (dry) black-eye peas & white beans
 

I can always get the beans soft, but I have trouble with blandness. I always soak them for about 12 hrs and then cook them on low for several hours.

I always put onion and garlic in the beans to give them some flavor. My dh was always telling me that the beans tasted fine, but they needed more salt to bring out the flavor. We have conflicting tastes on the amount of salt that food needs (he likes a lot, I like none or very little), so I didn't believe him at first because he says EVERYTHING needs more salt. So I was lamenting again that my beans were too bland and my dh was trying to convince me they were absolutely perfect once he added salt (while adding 2x more salt to his bowl of beans than what I put in the whole pot). So he convinced me to taste his modified version of my beans. I was expecting to have a mouthful of salt, but instead I was surprised that they tasted just right with the extra salt. So now I let him salt the beans because I am so afraid of oversalting the food, and now they aren't so bland anymore.

Re: 5 bags (ea) of (dry) black-eye peas & white be
 

Thanks for the tip! :tu