In the interest of passing on some culinary wisdom (!), here are my thoughts about beans. I can’t think of anything more comforting on a cold winter’s day than a thick bean soup. Can you?
Time was when I bypassed the cans of cooked beans on the supermarket shelf in favor of packages of dried beans. Hard as pebbles, dried beans require hydrating before they can be cooked, and while this is an easy process, it takes time. Lately I have relaxed and started relying more and more on canned beans.
I still think the texture of beans you soak and cook yourself is slightly better than that of the beans that come from a can, but the difference is slight and in the interest of saving time and making a busy life easier, I use canned beans in most of the recipes in this book.
If you want to soak your own, please do so! You may have a few sacks of dried beans in the cupboard you want to use up, or you just might prefer to start “from scratch.” If so, figure that 1/2 cup of dried beans (black beans, kidney beans, navy beans, chickpeas) will swell to 11/2 cups after soaking and cooking. This is the equivalent of one 15-ounce can of beans. If you have a one-pound bag of dried beans, they will cook up to equal four 15-ounce cans.
How do you soak beans? Put the dried beans in a large bowl or similar container and cover them with cold water with an inch or two to spare. Let them sit in the water for at least six hours and for as long as overnight. Beans are forgiving and don’t demand a lot of precision at this point.
Once the beans have soaked, at which point they will be visibly plump, drain them and put them in a large pot. Add water or stock (depends on the recipe) to cover by three or four inches (again, the amount will depend on the recipe) and bring to a boil over high heat. Skim any foam that rises to the surface, turn the heat to low, and simmer gently until soft but not mushy. The time depends on the kind of bean but most beans need between 45 and 90 minutes to cook. Lentils, split peas, and black-eyed peas don’t require soaking.