Mastering Cooking with Dried Beans - Real Mum story on MoM

6 Comments

Well I finally weaned myself off tinned beans (you know tinned kidney beans, chick peas etc.). While I’m convinced tinned beans can be washed of their salt and come up very healthy, they still work out really REALLY expensive compared to dried beans. Also the quantities in the tins aren’t always what I want – too much or too little – and I have known for a while that dried beans are the way to go, but have found it hard to wean myself off the tins.

I have finally discovered a method that makes it a breeze to use dried beans. There are 3 basic steps:
1. Soak the beans in water overnight.
2. Cook for about 10-15 minutes on the stove until come to boiling.
3. Turn off stove, cover the beans and leave to cool for about 1 hour (they continue to cook and come out as soft as you want them too. This is quite useful if you’ve become used to the mushy tinned beans!).

Once the beans are prepared they can be used or chilled and stored in the fridge. Having some beans handy in the fridge makes it really easy to add a very healthy (and really cheap) source of vegetable protein to any meal or snack; or use them as the main source in a vegetarian meal itself.

So glad I finally transitioned from the tins!

Posted by mom176887, 30th August 2016

6 Comments

- - mom19782016 said
  - 30 Oct 2016
    1:48 pm
Thanks for this tip. I’ve come to the same conclusion myself!

- - mom90758 said
  - 01 Sep 2016
    1:59 pm
And there are some pulses, like red lentils and French lentils, that don’t even need soaking overnight and they cook in just 20 minutes.
- mom93821 replied
  
  15 Sep 2016 , 4:46 am
  Love lentils and they are perfect for budgets.
- - mom81879 said
  - 30 Aug 2016
    6:28 pm
I use canned beans too. I can pick up a can of kidney beans for 99c so I didn’t think they were too expensive. If there’s more in the tin then the recipe asks fir, I just add extra beans. But it’s good to learn how to use the dried beans
- mom176887 replied
  
  31 Aug 2016 , 10:37 am
  per 100gm of cooked bean I think it is more! but I’m a bit of a bean counter!
- - mom93821 said
  - 30 Aug 2016
    2:29 pm
Good on you for finding a method that works for you. I love beans in many forms and served in many ways.