My husband grew up in El Salvador.  One morning after we were first married we woke up and he said he felt like a great big breakfast with eggs and b….  I expected him to finish off the word with bacon.  But no, he said beans!  Beans for breakfast- how weird is that!  I have since learned that beans are great anytime.

Beans are an amazing food!  They are high in dietary fiber, and are a good source of plant based protein which makes them a good alternative to meat.  They have no fat, and a low glycemic index for help managing insulin.  They promote healthy bacteria in the gut and they are packed with vitamins and minerals.  It’s no wonder that nutrition experts encourage using more beans in our diet.

Besides all the health benefits of eating beans, they are just yummy and can be used in all sorts of cooking.  I love to put them in soups, or throw some into a salad.  We all have our favorite chili and chip dip recipes.  In this post I will just talk about cooking beans, but in other posts I will show you how to make good refried beans not the paste you get out of a can.  For more ideas on using beans check my links at the end of the post.

 

 

Beans are easy to cook

Beans are healthy, versatile, and on top of all that they are really cheap.  By buying dry beans and cooking them yourself, not only can you save money, but you can also control what is in them.  They won’t be packed with sodium or have any weird ingredients that you can’t pronounce. And most importantly they will taste much better!

For some reason people have gotten a crazy idea that cooking beans is tricky.  It is not.  It will take quite a while to cook, but the prep time is really quick and not at all complicated.  The most important thing to know when cooking beans is that they need plenty of water.  As they cook they will expand and absorb the water.  If they do not have enough they will remain hard.

When I cook beans I use a large crockpot.  You will need to use 3 times as much water as beans, so in my big crockpot I use 4 cups of beans and 12 cups of water.   Set your crockpot to high and leave it there about 6 to 8 hours.  To test them just take one out and eat it.  If it is soft then it is done.  Add salt for your taste. I use about 2 tsp for a batch of beans.  That is all there is to it.

Crock-Pot 6-Quart Cook & Carry Manual Portable Slow Cooker, Stainless Steel

I usually use pinto beans or black beans but you can cook any beans the same way.  They may absorb different amounts of water so as they are cooking you may want to occasionally check on them.  If it looks like they are running out of water you can just add more.

Ways to use beans

Generally I cook up a batch of beans every couple of weeks.  Some of them I will use to make refried beans, some of them I will keep whole, some of them I turn into chili.  They freeze really well so I divide them into smaller containers and keep them in the freezer so that I have beans ready at any time.

Great Refried Beans

 

 

Quick and Easy Chili

 

Refried Beans with Rice and Fried Eggs