When I started this blog I decided to try soaking and cooking beans instead of relying on canned beans. We eat a lot of beans at my house so it wasn't exactly a perfect transition. Well, it was perfect in the sense that I haven't had canned beans since I started blogging, but it was imperfect in that sometimes I forgot to soak the beans the night before and I had to make do with what I had on hand.
The soaking part is easy, I set beans out to soak almost every night now as part of my before bed routine. I am also in a routine of setting up the slow cooker in the morning and slow cooking my beans all day. This works great if you only need 1 type of bean per day. However, if you need multiple types, I do not recommend soaking them and cooking them all together in a slow cooker. I learned that lesson the hard way.
So that means it is time for me to learn to cook beans the traditional way - on the stove top. I like to start my new bean adventures with garbanzo beans because they are my favorite. If something doesn't work out quite right, I will probably still eat them anyway because I like them so much.
I soaked them over night and rinsed them well. Next I put them in my big chili pot on the stove with water on high. I brought it to a boil and then reduced the heat to medium low for 2 hours.
While they were cooking, this is what was going on in my kitchen. Since I had my camera with me I decided to document for you why this blog is called Zoey's Kitchen. She is the star of the show:
Two hours later I had these. Given the option I would still rather slow cook my beans because I like the idea of not worrying about them while they are in the slow cooker. There was something about having the stove burner on for 2 hours that kept me feeling like I was on guard. They did turn out great though, and I am looking forward to using them in chili.
9 comments:
great job w/ the beans!
zoey is tooooo cute!!!!
I also slow cook my beans, too, but maybe I'll try to do it on the stove top. I know what you mean about being on guard while the burner is on! Zoey is so adorable! Thanks for the video!
I always forget to soak my beans the night before...
And I don't like how long they take utility/energy-using-wise. Luckily I have a pressure cooker now, but I'm a little bit scared of that thing...
And I know you don't like it, but why don't you freeze beans? When I do it, I make a big pot and freeze in one cup portions. Beans freeze great!
I LOVE cooking my own Beans but I weighed up the price of buying a jar versus the price of using the fuel to cook them and it's rather a false economy for me. I still have bags of dried Beans in the pantry which I will use up especially now that it's getting cold in the house and I won't mind about using the gas stove as much as it doubles up as warming the place up.
It's a shame jarred Beans have so much Salt and Sugar added to them really 'cos apart from that they would be perfect!
I love cooking beans in the crocker, though I've never tried to do multiple types together. Now I'm curious to know what happens.
Zoey's adorable, by the way.
Crockpot cooking is pretty energy efficient; check out this chart for some info on energy usage of various appliances. For example, a crockpot uses about 100 watts per hour, while cooking on a large (electric) burner on a stove uses 2400 watts. So cooking for eight hours in a crockpot uses 800 watts, one-third the amount used on the stove for one hour. Of course these are just average numbers and will vary, but it seems to be very cost effective energy wise.
One strategy I use to deal with both the energy usage one and the possible need for various types of beans is to always cook a LOT of beans at a time and freeze the ones I don't use right away (1-1/2 cups or 3 cups to a container). That way I almost always have a variety of beans that just need to be thawed out; almost as convenient as cans. You're going to take the time and use the energy anyway, you might as well take advantage of it. Thawing is simple, set it in the fridge the night before, thaw it in the microwave, or for many recipes you can just dump them into whatever liquid you're using and they'll thaw while the dish is cooking. (Plus keeping your freezer full helps it run more efficiently, another energy savings.)
I want to start a Zoey fan club! She's so adorable!!
I'm a lazy canned bean eater, I should start soaking and cooking my own though.
Zoey is so cute! She is so well behaved compared to my bad bad kitties.
I have to get out my crock pot and start cooking my beans from dried. Or get a pressure cooker (which sort of scares me).
I wonder if people cook their beans, then can them. Sort of a strange concept.
forgot to mention why I think a pressure cooker would be energy efficient. around 10 minutes to cook beans. though i'm not sure about nutrient loss. though can't be much differen than canned beans that I currently use.
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