Beans belong to those “long-playing” vegetable plants, which should be boiled only after preliminary preparation - soaking the grains. Then the beans will reveal all their taste, and the beans will retain their shape.
Preparation of beans for cooking
- The beans are carefully picked, removing shriveled, unripe and darkened, as well as other impurities.
- Grains are washed in cool water, changing it several times.
- Then soaked in a large amount of cold water and leave for 6-8 hours. To prevent the grain from souring, you need to change the water several times. After all, even a slight deterioration in the quality of the beans will affect their final taste after cooking.
- Soaking time depends on the variety and the shelf life of the beans. Freshly harvested beans swell faster than old ones.
- After soaking the beans, rinse thoroughly.
How to cook beans in a saucepan
- Beans are poured with clean cold water in a ratio of 1: 3 and set on fire.
- Cook the beans at a low boil, which should not be interrupted, under a closed lid.
- Cooking time ranges from one to two hours.
- Beans are salted 10-15 minutes before the end of cooking.
- Beans are checked for readiness. Cooked grains become soft and increase in size by 2 times.
- Finished beans throw in a colander.
How to cook beans in a slow cooker
- The beans are washed and soaked for 5-6 hours in cold water.
- Then the beans are washed again.
- Put the multicooker in the bowl and pour cold water over it so that it has more beans twice.
- Cook, putting the program “Stewing / Soup”. Ensure that no foam is formed. In this case, the cover of the multicooker can not be closed.
- Cooking is continued for 1, 5-2 hours, until the beans are soft.
How to cook beans in the microwave
- The beans are sorted, washed well and soaked in cool water for 8-9 hours.
- Wash again before cooking.
- Place the beans in a bowl and pour enough water to cover the grains by about 5 cm.
- The container is closed with a lid and boiled at high power for 13-15 minutes.
- Then the power is reduced by half and cooked for another 20 minutes or longer, until the beans are soft.
- Salt at the very end of cooking.
Helpful Tips
- Since the beans are boiled for a long time, the water boils away strongly. You can not add cold water, because with a sharp temperature drop the beans can crack. Such beans do not become soft for a long time. Therefore, if necessary, add only boiling water or at least hot water.
- Many housewives add baking soda to the water to make the beans cook faster. She really helps fast boiling beans, but at the same time takes most of the vitamins.
- If salt is added at the beginning of cooking, the beans are not boiled soft and remain hard. Such grains can be used to make salads or soups.
- For soup, the beans are first boiled, and the water in which it is boiled is poured. If the soup is cooked in the same water, its broth will be cloudy and tasteless.
- And also such a dish will become a source of excessive gas formation in the intestine. Indeed, during cooking, the substances that cause fermentation come out of the beans in the water.
- For the same reason, one cannot eat undercooked beans, much less raw. It is fraught with indigestion.
- The boiling time of the beans depends on the quality of the water. It is believed that if the beans are poured with chilled boiled water, then it will cook faster.
- If you need a tomato, tomato or vinegar to add to the beans, then this is done after the beans are cooked. But a bunch of greens or other spices can be put during cooking. They will improve the taste of beans.
- If beans are used for the dishes of different varieties, each of them is boiled separately, drained and then mixed.
- Beans can be white, colored, monochromatic and colored motley. White beans are used to prepare the first dishes (so as not to spoil the appearance of the broth). From the colored beans cooked dishes.
- White beans boil faster than red. It will be ready in about 40-50 minutes after boiling, therefore, so that it does not turn into porridge during cooking, you need to keep an eye on the process. Red beans, if boiled according to all the rules, are usually ready in 1-1,5 hours.
So that the dish of beans does not cause negative consequences, do not neglect the rules of cooking and artificially accelerate this process. Health is more expensive than the extra hour spent near the stove.
