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The Kitchen Table

Two cooking questions: beans, carrots

11 years ago

About the "quick cooking" method for dry beans (as opposed to overnight soaking)--I read that it's not necessary and you can actually put them right in the soup and they will cook up ok. What do you think?

Is it just me or is it difficult to get a good tasting carrot? Often they are just like eating roots with no carrot taste.

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Comments (12)

anne_ct
11 years ago
Dried beans...yes they will cook OK but the cooking time...in my experience...takes a little longer. I find investing the hour soaking time to be worth it...both for taste and cooking time. Plus the soaking gets rid of some of the starch...which is a plus in my book.

Carrots...are terribly bland these days. The only taste improvement I've found is to buy the organically grown varieties. They're worth a little more money. Beyond that...if I had the room...I'd grow my own. ;-)

Anne
mboston_gw
11 years ago
I use Lysander's dry bean soup mix and it suggests either soaking overnight or at least 4 hours, which I do. Then you boil 1 min. let sit for another hour. From there you add the rest of your veggies and seasonings. Still takes awhile but beans are soft but not mushy.
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I pick and sort for stuff in my dry beans. Much cleaner then they used to be I've noticed. Used to be a pebble in most every bag but I've not found a rock or dirt clod in years. Still a weed seed now and then. I rinse them to remove dust. Chop up an onion into a pot of water and add the beans. Bring to a boil and then simmer for a couple hours. Got beans! More gas then those that soak them but gas is good for your digestive system. After two hours you have cooked but firm beans. Six or eight hours and you have soft beans. Reheated the next day and you have bean mush... my favorite! When they break down they take on lots of liquid. Use low heat and stir often when reheating soft beans as they burn to the bottom of the pot. In a hurry? Nuke them with some water for about 20 minutes for a pound package with two cups of water. Check after ten minutes and add more water if needed. Use fresh beans! After a year beans take on a bitter flavor. My grandfather taught me to throw out last year's beans as they are not worth eating. Watch where you buy them... I grabbed a package without looking at Meijer's and they were over a buck a pound! Local grocer is about half that price... not that fifty cents kills my budget. I'm eaten several pounds of dry peas recently cooking them the same as the beans. I'm using up some ham but a couple drops of liquid smoke would do as well for flavor. I love a sliver of habenera pepper... not enough to make them hot but it gives a nice tangy note. I think dry lentils are my most common food of these types. Just lentils and an onion makes a good filling energy providing food. A side note I just past the 15lbs lost mark from about the start of last November. A couple holidays and many beers so I'm really happy with my diet. Beans, peas, lentils, and rice have been major "filler" foods that help me feel full with lots of energy for work. Wing your chili and never look back! I love kidney beans and cabbage with hot peppers... some cumin and you could call it chili. Garlic if you want it sweet. Good tomatoes really help but I've used a squirt of ketchup when in a hurry. Either I've got a magic touch or chili is really hard to make bad. I make everything from skillet chili which has almost no liquid to chili soup that is mostly liquid. If I made vegatarian chili for someone I'd probably go a half pot of tomatoes, quarter pot of beans, some onion, squash, couple mildly hot peppers, bit of garlic, few shakes of cumin, tablespoon of chopped cumin seed, and maybe a handful of corn. I salt and black pepper it to taste at serving time. Making for just myself I pour on the hot peppers but that is my taste. good luck! : ) lyra
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I'm the exception to the "normal" cooking methods when it comes to bean preparation because I sprout them first to remove the (ah hem) "noise", make them easier to digest, and to increase the nutrition. They also cook faster when they are sprouted first. I also dehydrate sprouted beans/lentils/peas which rehydrate and cook quickly, too. I keep buying pressure cookers thinking I'm missing out on something or an improved method of food preparation, and then giving them away. I just really don't like the high-heat process or the end product, but that's just me. Luckily there are all kinds of methods to choose from. I often serve a small amount of beans with a small amount of meat (not a full 3-oz. serving of meat) in order stretch the high-costing meat and still serve a full serving of protein. I store, and use, a large variety of beans as part of our home food storage and we eat a LOT of beans/peas/legumes breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I even made a recipe of (Refried) Bean Fudge at Christmas, and you can also use bean puree in baked goods as a fat substitute and increase the protein. Here's a How To for Sprouting Beans: http://www.insonnetskitchen.com/how-to-sprout-cook-beans/ Another interesting method for preparation is a passive heat method (aka fireless cooking) by soaking and "cooking" in a Thermos in boiling hot water (for a small amount) - or a Thermal Cooker (for a large amount), and Wonder Oven or a Hay Box methods. I also cook beans in quart jars in one of my solar ovens (the jars are painted black on the outside with heat-resistant paint to absorb heat from the sun). Thermal Cooking is great during the hot months to keep the heat out of the kitchen: http://www.thermoscooking.com/ You can also brine beans, which aids in keeping them from shredding/exploding and keep the inside creamy and tender. Here's a video from America's Test Kitchen for a How To: http://lifehacker.com/5906564/brine-beans-for-the-best-possible-flavor-and-texture Another great web site for bean info. is The Prudent Homemaker and her article "How to Eat Beans Every Night" - http://theprudenthomemaker.com/blog?view=entry&id=330 I also love the book, "Country Beans" by Rita Bingham. This link has some information and recipes from the book: http://realfoodliving.com/reviews/book-reviews/country-beans-by-rita-bingham -Grainlady
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I also like Corona beans. I cooked some last week in my pressure cooker, and I did do a quick soak first - simmer for a couple of minutes and then allow to sit covered for a couple of hours. I added a sprig of rosemary (because I have so much of it in my yard) and some Italian sausages to the pot, and I cooked it for 9 minutes at pressure and then allowed the pressure to go down by itself. Eight minutes might have been enough, but the beans were not overcooked. If I use rosemary again, I will put it in a mesh bag to make it easier to remove. All of the rosemary leaves came off of the stem, and so when I removed the stem, the stem was all I removed. I cooked one cup of dried beans, and that only made two servings - I was expecting more. Kevin wanted more the next day, but they were all gone.
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prairie_rose
11 years ago
I soak mine overnight, so I cannot comment on the beans.

As for carrots....store bought are YUK. I had a very poor year in the garden last year, spring was too cold for too long. I didn't get much for carrots. I use store bought for color only right now. I either roast them with spuds and parsnips, or boil them up with some peas and corn.
blfenton
11 years ago
I know nothing about soaking/not soaking beans but I agree that the carrots are atrocious. They're so limp and dry and tasteless to the point that I wonder if there is any nutritional value left in them.
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
11 years ago
I have found if I just scrub the heck out of carrots and leave the peel on there's so much more flavor.

I soak overnight usually but when I forget I use the hottest water and soak for at least an hour. I would not put dry beans in a regular soup and expect them to be done in time, I don't want to risk it.
sushipup1
11 years ago
Avoid the little shaped carrots, so-called "baby" carrots. They are not baby or small or anything bu machined from large old carrots. I buy the regular carrots, but I can't compare them to organic or home-grown. But I know that the little ones are really lousy.
socks
Original Author
11 years ago
Maybe the way to get tasty carrots is to go to the local farmers market. I've tried to grow them but didn't do well with that.
alisande
11 years ago
Ditto Sushipup on the "baby" carrots. I'm surprised the manufacturers can get away with it.

I've been happy with organic carrots. Our Weis supermarket sells a big 5-lb. bag for $5. Walmart's organic carrots come in 2-lb. bags, I believe, and are even cheaper per pound.
Sue_va
11 years ago
I'm not the one to give help with cooking advice, because I cook like my Mama cooked. Dried beans were always soaked overnight, and why not, they just sit there in a pot of water! And back then you had to pick out the little rocks.

Carrots. A couple weeks ago I made a pot of potatoes, carrots, cabbage and onions. And of course they were seasoned with Streak o' lean, also known as Salt Pork. Delicious!

I agree that baby carrots are yucky and have no flavor, but folks keep buying them. Kroger has the best loose carrots. They are longish and thinnish and look like they just came out of the garden. 99cents a pound.

Sue
morz8 - Washington Coast
11 years ago
You can make beans without soaking them, they will take a little longer to tenderize so keep sampling, plan on them not being ready in the normal amount of time.

I know the consensus is mixed on whether or not soaking, then rinsing helps with the after effect of beans - the gas. I've had them unsoaked (my mother never soaked beans), quick soaked, and soaked overnight.

Beans can sometimes be a problem for us. We like them, they don't always like us in amounts for a main course. I'm trying to be discreet here, and not give you more information than you are interested in ;)

Just a couple of weeks ago I soaked flageolet and pinto in a bowl of cold water in the refrigerator almost 24 hours, rinsed well the next day, made my bean and ham dinner.. The beans were flavorful, tender, we enjoyed them very much two nights in a row - no after effects. Maybe a coincidence, maybe we've increased our daily fiber and are more used to it, and it had nothing to do with the beans soaking....but chances are, I'll do the cold water long soak. Just hope I'm not soaking all the nutrients out of them :)
susanjf_gw
11 years ago
i'm the lazy one here...my sister turned me onto RANDAL jar'ed beans years ago and have never looked back. not mushy and we love them...add diced tomato, chunks ham and cornbread on the side....

as for the carrots? have tried the tiny baby ones but as with everyone else? slight flavor...we use them the most often in stew...
lucillle
11 years ago
Check out the health issues with lectins and dried beans. There's a lot of different info, some of it conflicting.

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