Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Beans Do's and Don'ts

Bean Do’s
• Lightly rinse packaged dry beans; sort through them and remove any pebbles, seed pods, leaves or twigs.
• Soak your beans! It reduces cooking time by about one half, and saves vitamins, minerals and proteins which can be lost during prolonged heating — exceptions are lentils, split peas and black-eyed peas which may be cooked from their dry state.
• Soak beans in plenty of water. Use a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio of water to beans.
• Place presoaked beans in a pot and cover with fresh, cold water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, partially cover and simmer them for the indicated length of time until they are soft and tender.
• Store dry beans in the refrigerator.

Bean Don’ts
• Add baking soda to hasten soaking or cooking time as it will decrease the nutritional content of the beans.
• Add salt or any product high in calcium, magnesium or acid to the soaking or cooking water or beans will not soften (products with these elements should be added to cooking water or any recipe calling for partially cooked beans only after beans have reached desired tenderness).
• Use microwave to cook dry beans - microwaving is fine for reheating beans that are already cooked, but dry beans need to be simmered slowly in lots of water to soften, tenderize and rehydrate properly.

*Info From FoodStorageMadeEasy

2 comments:

  1. for those that have issues with gas, try freezing the soaked beans before cooking it can help the body process them easier without loosing nutrients. :)

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  2. I have also found that if I rinse the beans a total of three times, it reduces gas. I bring the beans to a boil, cover and remove from heat and soak for an hour. I then rinse and repeat the process. Rinse once more and cook until done.

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Did you try it? What did you think?