I love beans.  That’s both a blessing a curse.  Blessing for me, sometimes not so much of a blessing for those around me, :) .  But it costs like 1.29 – 1.79 per can, which is really about 1-2 cups of beans.  If you’re on a budget and you notice that you can buy a small bag of beans for like 79 – 99 cents, you might want to adventure off and cook your own beans.  So I went ahead and did that.  My mother had always made black beans from the dry bean and cooking those little suckers down until they softened up.  I tried a couple of times and was hovering over the beans to see if the were softened yet.  That is not what the bean experience is about.  If you want to cook a bag of beans, which amounts to probably 8-9 cups of beans – then like making your own chicken broth, pick a day where you’ll be in and around the house for a few hours (it’ll take between 2-4 hours).  Here’s what you do.  First wash the beans and pick out anything that doesn’t look quite right – including rocks.  I haven’t actually found rocks in my beans, but I’ve read in enough places to check for them – which means some unfortunate cracked tooth people are out there that learned that lesson the hard way.  After rinsing them, place them in a stock pot and add enough water so that you have 4 inches of water above the beans.  Bring to a boil, reduce to a fast simmer and stir very occasionally.  In about 2 hours you’ll want to start checking for softness.  If you taste it and wonder if it’s soft enough – it’s not soft enough.  You shouldn’t have to wonder if it’s soft enough.  When a bean is done, it’s soft to your bite and there is nothing crunch in it.  The length of time it takes to cook the bean will vary depending on the type of bean – but usually it’s between 2-4 hours.  That’s it.  Then keep the beans you want to use in the refrigerator, and freeze the rest.

What do you like to do with beans?

I’ve made beans many different ways.  There’s the soak overnight method (leave beans in a bowl of water for 24 hours before cooking).  There’s the bring to boil, turn heat off and let sit for 6-12 hours before cooking.  I’ve added seaweed to it, and onion to it while cooking.  The truth is that I’ve never noticed a difference.  The times that beans haven’t turned out well have been when I cooked them at a low simmer and not long enough – or when I cooked them almost at a boil and then parts are crunchy and it doesn’t really work itself out.

Sausage Chili

Sausage Chili using cooked dried beans and homemade chicken broth

If you do make beans and they are not quite as soft as you wanted, you can always put them in a blender with some spices (garlic, tomato, salt, pepper, hot peppers, and cheese) then blend them up and stick them in the microwave to heat them up.  Voila you have a dip and blending it up got rid of the consistency.

You can also cook them and then place them in Tupperware or a mason jar with the liquid they cooked in and let it sit overnight – that will help to soften them up more.

I made kidney and black beans the other day (I cooked them in separate stock pots because the kidney beans cook faster than the black beans) and made a tasty sausage by sauteing one and half cups onions and two large bell peppers.  Let those soften up, then I added a head of garlic that I had roughly chopped.  Cooked that up for a minute, then I added 2-3 cups of the mixed beans (kidney and black), as well as spices (salt, pepper, paprika, dried chipotle powder, chili powder, some smoked cumin), a cup of homemade broth and a can of whole tomatoes (crush the tomatoes in hand, or blend – but break them up), some sausage that I had left over from the night before, and some chicken that I had left over from the night before.  I didn’t put in any spicy pepper (except for the chipotle powder), just in case my daughter got a wild hair and wanted some (which is rare – but it happens).  Cooked that for about an hour at a medium simmer.  It was a delight to eat topped with some shredded cheddar cheese.