Monday, November 8, 2010

Soaking Beans

Here's a good article about how you don't need to soak dried beans before cooking them. I've always had the same problem as the author - I can't be bothered to plan a day ahead for a dish involving beans. I think the overnight soaking thing came about because people are used to having their beans completely mushy. I have found that if you just simmer the beans for long enough they are perfectly edible but may have a little give, not unlike al dente pasta. Frankly I prefer the al dente style over the mushy style anyway. And if it's less work, so much the better.

1 comment:

eve said...

Your blog posts show up on facebook without an author credit, but I've gotten pretty good at guessing when it's Matt, Rebecca or Amy. :) I've always done beans this way -- no soaking overnight. In the South they traditionally overcook veggies and beans, the German Mennonites I grew up around did, too. Funny that it takes some of the cookbooks or recipes a while to catch up with newer cooking ideas.