Comments on: How to Soak Dried Beans: Your Questions Answered

By: rob

rob — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 21:15:31 +0000

@Rena: I freeze mine, and as far as I can tell they last forever. Of course, I use them up pretty quickly, so “forever” means “until I use them”. I’ve had beans comfortably last a year in a glass jar in my pantry.

By: Rena

Rena — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 20:30:32 +0000

Now that I have all these wonderful beans; how to store them? How long do they last in the refrigerator and can they be frozen?

By: Randy Claussen

Randy Claussen — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:22:24 +0000

What elevation above sea level are you?
Higher elevations require more cook time.
Try a pressure cooker – this geatly reduces cook time of beans or any other food product.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 05:13:19 +0000

I am having the same problem as Kathy my beans remain hard they increase in size a little but I have soaked them for over a week and have cooked them for 4 hours and they are still hard. This has happened before an I ended throwing them out so this time I soaked them a week and like I said have cooked them for 4 hours.

By: Maura

Maura — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:57:01 +0000

I always soak in fridge and rinse to cook in fresh water. Often the cooking water is retained for recipes. What do you know about the cooking water being a safe broth the keep and use?

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:56:55 +0000

Kerry:

Re: storage of dried beans. Take a leaf from your “flour & weevil” experience and put your dried beans in sealed bags in the freezer. When it is “bean prep” time, just grab a bag and start soaking. It adds almost nothing to soak time, guarantees the beans will be as fresh as they day you bought them, and saves on storage space (I keep mine in my chest freezer).

By: Joan

Joan — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 13:37:38 +0000

I’ve been experimenting with beans for months now, and am delighted to have found this site. For Kathy who is not having success with the beans softening, how much water are you using? You should be using about 3 x as much water as beans, and definitely do not refrigerate them.

For Jeremy who finds the beans too bland, I’ve had success with adding a little chopped garlic to the soaking water. The beans absorb whatever flavour is in the water as they soak. I’ve also tried adding ginger, but added too much I think, the result was a little strong.

Has anyone experimented with sprouting the soaked beans instead of cooking them? I first learned to sprout mung beans, but have also successfully sprouted chickpeas. I do the same soak, then drain, rinse, add fresh water but not as much of it – so that the beans are basically sitting on water but not in water – and leave them for another 6-12 hours. My understanding is that sprouting increases the nutrition and eating the sprouted beans raw makes the digestive enzymes more available. But I don’t know if that’s true or not, and wonder if anyone else has any experience with this.

By: Kerry

Kerry — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:36:36 +0000

@Kathy Did you beans expand in size, at all?

By: Kathy

Kathy — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:52:03 +0000

I live in Charleston, SC. The last 3 attempts to overnight soak dried pinto and/or navy beans left them as hard as they were originally. The quick soak still did not soften them. What am I doing wrong? Help!

By: Kerry

Kerry — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 04:09:35 +0000

@Adam I’ve never put my soaking beans in the fridge. If you live in a warm climate though, I can see how this would slow bacteria growth. I’ve never had a problem though, and I soak a lot of beans.