Bean (Legume) Cooking 101

The Vegan RD says we need at least three servings of legumes and soy foods per day. When I’m eating well, I cook a pot of beans nearly every day. Even though I’m a lazy cook I nearly always cook fresh (or rather dry beans) rather than using canned for three main reasons:

1. They’re cheap
2. They aren’t high in sodium
3. Most importantly, I don’t like the taste of canned beans!

Because I live at 9000ft/2700m elevation I pretty much have to use a pressure cooker for cooking dry beans. I think it’s a good method at any elevation. That said, don’t use my cooking times, I generally double the recommended cooking times compared to someone at sea level. My pressure cooker instruction booklet has guidelines for adjusting for elevation. If you aren’t at sea level you might look for similar guidelines for your cooker.

It’s easiest, and best, to soak the beans overnight. When soaking dry beans there should be enough water in the bowl so the beans can at least double in volume. Some varieties will expand more than this. Your bowl should accommodate at least triple the volume of the dry beans (quadruple for Limas) so the beans aren’t all over your kitchen counter in the morning.

The quick way: For many reasons not as good as an overnight soak, but if you’re having a bean emergency, put beans and plenty of water in the pressure cooker. Bring up pressure, then turn off the heat and let the pressure come down using the natural release method. No, you cannot save time and cold-water release in this case.

Rinse the soaked or pre-cooked beans well. You should probably check for rocks/pebbles too, if you didn’t already. If you soaked overnight, any clumps of sand/dirt should have dissolved so they’ll rinse away.

Put the beans in the pressure cooker and cover with about twice as much water. Bring up the pressure and then turn the heat to low. Depending on your stove you may need to double-up grates so the pressure doesn’t continue to build. Cooking time will vary with the type of bean. Pintos, red, black, white, kidney all have a similar cook time. Garbanzo’s take longer. Most Limas cook very quickly and are easy to overcook. Check your pressure cooker manual.

After the prescribed cooking time, turn off the heat and let the pressure drop naturally. The beans will continue to cook during this time. When your cooker has depressurized, you can remove the lid, and you’ll have a nice pot of unseasoned beans.

Lately, I’ve been simmering my beans most of the day and tweaking for each meal. If I’ve started early enough I may have a serving for breakfast. For this batch I added a little beer (wine is good too), a veggie bouillon cube, a little dry basil, onion, sweet pepper and 4-5 cherry tomatoes. This was lunch.

By dinnertime the flavors had really concentrated, and I needed more veggies for the day, so I added frozen broccoli and mixed veggies and simmered 10-15 min. Lunch was a little more soup like. This is basically a veggie, bean stew.

I usually don’t cook the same type of beans two days in a row. My regulars are pinto, northern white, red, kidney, black. Occasionally I’ll have Lima or garbanzo. I also vary the basic seasonings from day-to-day, with a rough pattern of beer/wine (if I have any I need to use up), veggie bullion and spices. Cumin, basil, oregano, tumeric, paprika, chili powder, thyme, rosemary, sage are some I use frequently. Not all together. I like to add some sort of flavorful vegetable if I have anything. Partially dried tomatoes, peppers (sweet or hot), onion are good choices. A good combo is beer and chipotle pepper, dried or from a can. Anyway, there are endless varieties. Try some of your favorite things. And, if you’re like me, you’ll never have exactly the same thing twice.