How to Cook Dried Beans

Dried beans are super cheap, and they look so nice sitting in jars on your counter. If you’re like me, that’s all they do. Recently, I made a goal to learn to cook beans, and I am loving the results. They have a fresher taste when you make them at home, and the process is pretty simple.

Step 1: Soaking the Beans

Basically, you can do this one of two ways:

Overnight soak: To do this, just put your beans in a pot, cover them with water, put the lid on, and leave them. When you wake up, you’re ready to skip to the cooking process.

Quick soak: This is my preferred method, since I never remember to put the beans on the night before. To quick soak, place your beans in a pot, cover them with water, and bring them to a boil. Allow them to boil for 1-2 minutes, then cover them and leave them for an hour.

Step 2: Cooking the Beans

After soaking, you need to drain your beans and rinse them. I dump them into a colander in my sink and run cold water over them.

Next, put them in a very big pot. For 1 lb of dried beans, I use my largest soup pot. If I were making any more than 1 lb, I would need something more like a stock pot. This is because you need to add 6 cups of water for every pound of bean. You can also add a tsp of vegetable oil to keep the pot from boiling over. I don’t like the taste the oil gives the beans, so I just put a wooden spoon over the pot to make sure it doesn’t boil over. Bean juice on the burner will make your entire house smell nasty!

This is also a good time to put in any seasonings you may want. Peppers and onions go great with pintos, and garlic and salt are good bets with any type of bean.