How to soak, cook, and freeze dried beans

When it comes to frugality and health, choosing dried beans over canned is a smart choice. They can seem intimidating if you aren’t used to working with them though, so today you are getting a tutorial on how to cook dried beans.

I batch cooked a two pound bag of black beans, which yielded me about 12 cups of cooked beans. A can of dried beans is about 1.5 cups, so I was able to freeze eight bags of ready to eat black beans for future use, which saves major time and money. It took only a few minutes of hands on time, and I now have eight bags of ready to eat beans that I can use on a busy night.

Preparing beans is easy, but important for proper digestion and cooking. If beans sit hard on your stomach or cause digestive distress, try a long soak and see if that helps. Canned beans are not soaked properly and can cause tummy problems. Give dry beans a try!

Soaking

Rinse your beans, sort through them to make sure there is no debris.

Pour them in a bowl or pot and cover them with WARM water about 2 inches above your beans.

Add 1 T of your acidic medium of choice (apple cider vinegar, liquid whey, lemon juice) per 1 cup of beans and stir.

Cover and let stand at room temperature for 18-24 hours. You can soak them a less amount of time, but they will benefit from a longer soaking time.

Cooking

After the elapsed time, drain and rinse the beans.

Put them in a pot with water covering the beans about 1-2 inches.

Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and gently cook for about 2 hours or until beans are tender but not mushy. It may take longer or shorter depending on your bean and how high you are cooking them.