You really do not need to soak overnight - you can do a quick soak by covering the beans with three inches of water, bring to a boil, remove from heat, cover, and let soak for just one hour.

The fast way to cook beans is in a pressure cooker, and I believe you do not need to soak the beans at all when you cook them this way, and they can be cooked in 30 minutes. They will not be done in 30 minutes without a pressure cooker unless you are cooking lentils or perhaps split peas.

I generally season beans after they have been cooked, although I will add herbs and chilies to some beans while cooking, depending on the bean.

I bought a pressure cooker mainly so I could cook beans quickly, and I also got an induction burner to go with it so that the kitchen does not get hot when I am using the cooker. I made sure that I got a pressure cooker that was compatible with the induction burner.

Which beans are you most interested in cooking? I mostly cook garbanzos, pintos, lentils, and red beans. Occasionally I will cook black beans (especially Cuban style), as well as Lima and fava beans. I go through garbanzos and lentils the fastest - garbanzos because I have so many recipes for them, and lentils because they are quick, but now I can cook garbanzos in 30 minutes using a pressure cooker.

Lars

Lars - thank you for answering so quickly. It has been a long time since I had a pressure cooker. My husband was alive and we had family at home. There is just myself and I think I would rather have a pressure pan if they are available I liike plain old navy beans, also the old-fashioned butter beans but you know you aways had a ham hock or some such thing and on the low sodium diet that would be a no-no. Since I am so limited in what I can eat I may just see about ordering one, if available. Thanks so much. Barb

I often cook parboiled beans and vegetables in the oven with an unsmoked pork hock. It gives it a meaty flavor without any salt or nitrates.

This post was edited by ruthanna on Thu, Jun 6, 13 at 20:31

Ruthanna - what are parboiled beans. Sounds interesting. With what kinds of vegetables? Barb

Barb, you can get a 4-quart pressure cooker, which is what I generally use. When I bought this, it came with an 8 quart pan, an optional glass lid, and a steamer insert, but I pretty much only use the 4 quart pan. It's great for artichokes, and will quickly cook rice and potatoes, which I also like.

Butter beans are the same as Lima beans, aren't they? I love those and generally buy them frozen, which is more expensive, but I also have dried ones, but the frozen ones have more flavor.

Lars

Here is a link that might be useful: 4 quart Fagor Pressure Cooker

I don't have a pressure cooker so I use the quick soak method Lars mentioned at the start of his post. Then I drain and add fresh water, bring them to a boil and turn the heat down to a medium- low temperature, cover and gently cook for about an hour for great northerns or dried limas. I drain about 2/3 of the liquid off, let them cool down and refrigerate up to 3 or 4 days.

That way, they're a bit firmer but nearly as soft as the texture of canned cooked beans.

I'll cut up some vegetables like onions, celery, carrots, rutabagas, garlic, leeks, etc. I like most types of root vegetables with beans. In the pic, I used leeks and carrots.

Drain the beans, add the vegetables, and put in a casserole dish. Then add enough liquid to moisten them. I usually mix some of the bean water, beer or wine with molasses and herbs and/or spices, cover and bake them.

I don't often use a recipe any more but Mollie Katzen's cookbook Vegetable Heaven has great bean recipes, which got me started on making beans with different flavors.

Yum, I love beans. I usually cook them all day in the crockpot, so they are ready for supper. I don't soak them at all, just plop them into the crockpot with diced onions, celery, carrots. I usually add a bay leaf and some freshly ground black pepper, but usually not salt. Grandma used to tell me that adding salt before cooking would make beans "tough" and they would stay hard, so I've never salted beans while cooking them. It may not be so, but I don't argue with Grandma's rules, LOL.

I've cooked beans in my home canned chicken stock, which I can with no salt, and like ruthanna, I add unsmoked pork to beans for flavor. I also make white bean chili with chicken, it's strongly enough seasoned that I don't need salt. I like this recipe from Eating Well, and their notes specifically state that you can cook your own beans, which I do.

Pork, White Bean & Kale Soup

From EatingWell: September/October 2007

6 servings, about 1 2/3 cups each

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil•1 pound pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons paprika, preferably smoked
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper, or to taste (optional)
1 cup white wine
4 plum tomatoes, chopped
4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 bunch kale, ribs removed, chopped (about 8 cups lightly packed)
1 15-ounce can white beans, rinsed (see Tip)

1.Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add pork and cook, stirring once or twice, until no longer pink on the outside, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate with tongs, leaving juices in the pot.

2.Add onion to the pot and cook, stirring often, until just beginning to brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Add garlic, paprika and crushed red pepper (if using) and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add wine and tomatoes, increase heat to high and stir to scrape up any browned bits. Add broth and bring to a boil.

3.Add kale and stir just until it wilts. Reduce heat to maintain a lively simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the kale is just tender, about 4 minutes. Stir in beans, the reserved pork and any accumulated juices; simmer until the beans and pork are heated through, about 2 minutes.

•Tip: While we love the convenience of canned beans, they tend to be high in sodium. Give them a good rinse before adding to a recipe to rid them of some of their sodium (up to 35 percent) or opt for low-sodium or no-salt-added varieties. (Our recipes are analyzed with rinsed, regular canned beans.) Or, if you have the time, cook your own beans from scratch.

I usually make a pot of beans and then use them for several days for different dishes. Tomorrow I'll be at the farm all day so I'll put a pound of pinto beans in the crockpot. Elery and I will have them tomorrow night, probably with some corn bread. In the next few days some of the leftovers will be used as bean dip or bean burritos and some will probably make it into pot of vegetable soup.

I usually cook a pound at a time and use them for baked beans, for burritos, for white bean and kale soup. They are all strongly flavored/seasoned enough that you don't really miss the salt.

Don't pass up bean burgers either, they are definitely not hamburgers but they're good, as long as you don't try to convince yourself they'll taste like a hamburger. They won't, of course, but they are good in their own right. I also had a sloppy joe kind of sandwich once, made with beans instead of ground meat. I liked them, but I also like baked bean sandwiches, so that may be a bit excessive for most, LOL.

Elery does cook beans in the pressure cooker but I like just putting everything in the crockpot and then walking away for 8 or 10 hours.

Good luck and have fun. Fortunately, beans are relatively inexpensive and so you can experiment with them more comfortably than something like lobster or tenderloin.

Annie

The wide world of beans and their many uses..... :-)

-Check the public library for bean cookbooks as well as low-sodium cookbooks. One of my favorites is "Country Beans" by Rita Bingham. I also found a copy of "$3 Low-Sodium Meals" by Ellen Brown recently that has a good recipe for Old-Fashioned Pork and Beans. Each serving contains 72 mg sodium - compared to upwards of 500 mg sodium for canned pork and beans. Make a batch and freeze them in user-friendly portions.

-You can use all kinds of things to flavor beans - add a few peeled garlic cloves, a bay leaf, some parsley sprigs, halved chile peppers for Hispanic dishes, some slices of ginger, chopped onion to the water you cook beans in.

-The last time I made navy beans I sprouted them first, then cooked them without any seasonings. Cooking takes only a fraction of the time after they are sprouted. Sprouting also increases the nutrition, makes them easier to digest, and takes the (ahem) "noise" out of them. Then I dehydrated them. I use the dehydrated beans instead of bread/crackers in tuna or salmon patties or salmon loaf. I season the patties with sodium-free lemon pepper.

-I mill small white beans and add the bean flour to baked goods to increase the protein profile. Small white beans have the least amount of bean flavor so they are the better choice to use as bean flour.

-Bean burgers are another favorite food at our house and they are seasoned with salt-free SPIKE.

-I nearly always sprout lentils first, so they don't have to be cooked at all, or only light cooking. I like to add sprouted lentils to salads, use in chili (instead of beans), toss into stir-fry, made into a Sloppy Joe type mixture, and if there are any left after a couple days I'll dehydrate them. Dehydrated sprouted lentils can be rehydrated by soaking in hot water for awhile. Add dehydrated sprouted lentils directly to soup. I often season sprouted lentils with Mrs. Dash Salt-Free Southwest Chipotle seasoning mixture, then dehydrate them as an out-of-hand snack food. Add them to a salad instead of croutons for a little crunch. I also use sprouted lentils to make Oat & Lentil Waffles (gluten-free) and Lentil Granola Bars.

-You can make a quick salad from cooked pinto or black beans and rice (2 c. cooked pinto beans, 1 c. cooked brown rice), diced celery, diced sweet pepper, cumin, salsa and mayonnaise. Serve on a bed of lettuce, sprouts, or in a pita.

-I often use unseasoned cooked beans or sprouted lentils like you would pasta in a pasta salad. Chopped fresh veggies - cucumber, tomato (small, quartered and seeded), chopped peppers, green onions or fresh chives, cooked pinto beans, white cannellini beans (which are white pinto beans), black beans or sprouted lentils, and dressed with Italian OR Ranch Dressing and McCormick Salad Supreme Seasonings.

Check out the recipes at the link below for some new ideas.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Low-Sodium Bean Recipes

Grainlady, when you sprout beans, how much do you sprout them? Is there just a little bit of root sticking out of the bean, or do they look more like the bean sprouts found at salad bars?

As for salting beans before and after, I'm rather confused about that. My Deborah Madison book says not to salt before cooking, but America's Test Kitchen says TO salt before cooking, and it seems for the same reason. Madison says, as Annie's Grandma did, so they don't get tough. ATK says to salt them first, so they don't get mushy.

I don't use pork or any meat to flavor my beans, but I do use plenty of veggies such as onions, garlic, carrots, celery, and herbs such as sage and savory and bay. I'll add a squeeze of lemon juice just before serving. I do salt my beans towards the end of cooking. Smoked paprika could add a good smokey flavor, and I'll use that when I have it on hand. I'll add chiles and cumin if I want chile beans, which I frequently do in the winter.

Sally

Well, like I said before, if you want answers, just post it on the Cooking Forum and you will get answers. That is not always true of other forums. Thank you, I feel like you are all a part of an extended family. That is the way it should be Barb

Sally-

You can sprout them as much or as little as you like, according to how the bean is going to be used. Mung beans (like those you find at salad bars) tend to be long because that's how we use them in Asian dishes, raw in salads or on sandwiches, but you can stop the sprouting process at any stage. Most other beans I only sprout a little. There are a lot of advantages to these pre-digested foods - easier to digest, improved nutrition, faster cooking.

For more information, check out the SproutPeople.org - (link below - includes videos and lots of great information), "The Sprouting Book" by Ann Wigmore (any of her books are great) and anything by Steve Meyerowitz (aka the Sproutman - check out his web site).

Brining the beans, rather than the conventional approach of soaking them in plain water, allowed the salt to soften the skins but kept it from penetrating inside, where it could make the beans mealy.

Another ATK test "showed that gently cooking the beans in a 250-degree oven produced perfectly cooked beans that stayed intact."

I also use passive heat methods such as the thermos method, Thermal Cooker, Wonder Oven, and the solar oven.

So many ways........... :-)

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Sprout People

I don't ever soak beans, I just wash them really well and sort. Bring a pound of beans, a small peeled onion, lots of peeled garlic and approx. 6 cups of water to a boil. Turn the heat down to simmer, and let simmer for maybe 1.5 - 2 hours. Check from time to time in case you need to add water. I don't add spices or salt until the beans start to get somewhat soft, maybe an hour into the cooking process. Am currently on an Herbes de Provence kick, so I've been using that. But since we don't like the little spikes of rosemary in the food, I grind it before throwing into the beans. I also like to add some good quality smoke seasoning, it really enhances the taste.

If you do not like spikes of rosemary in the food, you can use a bouquet garni - I make some of mine out of cotton batiste or even polyester chiffon or organza, depending on what I have on hand, although I do not waste silk organza on them. Cheesecloth works well, but I never have any of that, since I don't make cheese.

Alternatively, you can use a tea ball or tie the herbs (if all the leaves are on stems) with a piece of string. I generally use the string method for fresh thyme - the tiny leaves fall off (which is what I want), but the stems are then easily removable. I make my bouquet garni bags using my overlock machine.

Lars

Barb, I hope you found lots of ways to season your beans. I have to thank you for this thread, as it caused me to make a pot of pinto beans in the crockpot, which we ate for supper.

There are leftovers, so I'll either be making bean dip or some spicy bean burgers with the leftovers with this recipe from Cooking Light:

Southwest Pinto Bean Burgers with Chipotle Mayonnaise

Cooking Light JANUARY 2005

Yield: 4 servings
.
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons minced seeded jalapeño pepper
2 tablespoons reduced-fat sour cream
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
2 cups cooked pinto beans
1 (8 3/4-ounce) can no salt-added whole-kernel corn, drained

Chipotle Mayonnaise:

1/4 cup low-fat mayonnaise
1 teaspoon canned minced chipotle chile in adobo sauce
Remaining ingredients:

1 tablespoon canola oil
4 (1 1/2-ounce) whole wheat hamburger buns, toasted
4 romaine lettuce leaves

To prepare burgers, combine the first 10 ingredients in a large bowl. Add pinto beans and corn; partially mash with a fork. Divide bean mixture into 4 equal portions, shaping each portion into a 3 1/2-inch patty, and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

To prepare chipotle mayonnaise, combine mayonnaise and 1 teaspoon chipotle in a small bowl; set aside.

Heat canola oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add patties to pan, and cook 4 minutes on each side or until thoroughly heated. Place patties on bottom halves of buns; top each patty with 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, 1 lettuce leaf, and top half of bun.

Annie

Lars, I am not dedicated enough to make bouquet garni unless I can tie the stems. :o) These are bulk herbs from frontier, so quite small pieces. Don't have a tea strainer either, I just pour the tea through a small sieve when serving. The grinding works pretty well, you get the flavor and no annoying pieces, and don't have to fish something out of the finished product.

Barb, your thread got me in a beany mood and yesterday made a salad with cooked black beans, chopped onion, parsley, tomato and avocado. I made a dressing out of basalmic vinegar, olive oil, a little honey, chili powder and ground cumin and poured it over the bean mixture to let it marinate a few hours before serving.

There's a pic on the what's for dinner thread. Once made, bean salads can be kept in the refrigerator for an instant main course for lunch or a side dish.

Both Annie's and Ruthanna's recipes sound good. Thanks for posting them.

Thanks, also, Grainlady. You are such a wealth of knowledge.

Sally

This post was edited by sally2 on Sun, Jun 9, 13 at 10:05

I sometimes add liquid smoke to beans instead of ham or bacon. My No Pork & Beans are delicious.

Colgin's is a good brand, some brands are really rank.