How to Cook with Dried Beans + Bonus Recipe! - Your Choice Nutrition (2024)

Have dried beans but don’t know how to use them? This guide will show you how to cook with dried beans and even shares a recipe for slow cooker spicy black bean soup!

Today’s post is a continuation from my previous post on how to use more whole foods in your diet and less processed foods. In this post we are talking about beans, folks. Yep, you know the things that some people hate because of the oh-so-dreaded side effects. We will talk about these nutrient packed little nuggets, including how to soak them, what to do if your recipe calls for canned and you want to use dried, and I’ll even give you a bonus recipe to kickoff your cooking with dried beans adventures!

I get people in my office whohave never cooked with dried beans – they have only ever seen beans being used from a can. This is actually more common than you might think in today’s fast paced world. We want convenience and canned beans give us just that because there is no waiting for the beans to be soaked – they’ve already done that for you.

The tradeoff is usually high sodium content in the canned version, a more mushy textureand a little more pricey than what you would be paying if you did the soaking yourself. Learning how to cook withdried beanstakes morethan simply opening a can, but theend result is certainly worth theeffort.

What are the Health Benefits of Beans?

How to Soak Dried Beans

1. Before soaking, sort through the beans to remove any tiny stones, dirtor debris.
2. Place the beans in a colander and rinse well, combing through the beans touncover any bits of dirt.
3. Movethe beans to a bowl large enough to hold them when they’ve rehydrated and doubled in size. Add enough cold water to cover the beans by about 2 inches.
   • In hot weather, prevent the beans from fermenting by refrigerating them while they soak.
4. Soak the beansovernight or until they’ve swelled to about double their size. Thisusually takes around4 hours, but they can be soaked for up to 24 hours.
   • If you want to reduce soaking time by about half, cover the beans with boiling water.
5. Priortocooking, drain the soaked beans and rinse them again. Discard the soaking water and cook the beans in fresh water.

Short on time?

Try the quick-soak technique: Combine the beans and water in a pot and heat it to boiling, then cook the beans for 3 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat, cover tightly, and set aside for 1 hour, then drain and rinse the beans.

Cooking Facts

• Slow soaking ensures that the final product is fully cooked, not crunchy or underdone.
• In a chili or bean stew, a few broken beans are not a problem, but if you want the beans to remain pretty and whole for a recipe like bean salad, use the long-soak method.
• Dry beans should always be cooked in soft water or they will be tough (you can remedy this byadding a pinch of baking soda to the pot if you have hard water).
• Adding salt to beans at the beginning of cooking toughens the skins andlengthens cooking time.

Other Tid-Bits

• Dry beans have a shelf life of one year
• Store dry beans in an airtight container in a cool, dry place
• Store leftover soaked or cooked beans in their own liquid and refrigerate for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 6 months

How do I know how much dried beans to use in place of canned beans?

If your recipe calls for canned beans and you want to use dried beans instead, have no fear! Below I have created a conversion chart to help you make the switch! Cans of beansare usually15-ounce cans, while most smallbags of dried beans are about 1 pound. All numbers are approximate, of course, but seem to work well.

*Bonus Recipe*

Have Iconvincedyouto cook with dried beans yet?Take a look atthis bonus recipe!

I wouldn’t leave you hanging with all this newfound knowledge on how to cook with dried beans and not provide you with anything to use them in! As promised, below is a great recipe using dried beans. I first made this recipe back in my dietetic student days at USU for a health fair. I cooked it upwith a few of my dietitian-to-be classmates and served it to our fellow Aggies. I don’t want to brag or anything, butit was kind of DELICIOUS! It is so simple yet results in a great flavor. Go ahead and give it a try!

Spicy Black Bean Soup (in the slow cooker)

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Still wanting to learn more about beans? You can find more information here.

Have a question for Brittany? Go ahead and ask her now!