I know cooking your own beans can seem too much trouble or annoying, ie. all that remembering to soak the beans overnight! But this recipe is just as easy as opening a can of beans and they are so much better. Beans cooked from scratch have so much extra flavour, plus you know exactly what goes into them. You can soak the beans ie. cover them in water for 4 to 12 hours if you wish but mine took only just over an hour of cooking from dry anyway. Recipe is adapted from the “Whats Gaby Cooking” website.
Ingredients
- 500 gm dried beans
- 1 brown onion, diced
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled
- Chilli of choice ie dried chilli flakes or mild chilli’s
- Salt
- Olive oil
- Pepper to taste
Directions
Sort through the beans to make sure there are no debris or small rocks etc. Place in a colander and rinse under cold water.
If you have time to soak the beans, put them in bowl and cover well with water, let sit for a a few hours or overnight.
Put the beans into a large pot along with the onion, bay leaves, garlic and chilli. Add enough water to cover the beans by about 10 cm.
Cook over medium high heat until it starts boiling, cook at a boil for 15 minutes. Then reduce the heat to low. Cook with a lid slightly ajar for 1 – 3 hours. Check every now and again, adding extra hot water if needed and checking the beans are cooked. The beans will take longer to cook depending on size and age.
Add the salt, olive oil, pepper and remove the bay leaves.
Don’t drain the beans as they keep better stored in their cooking liquid. You can keep them in the fridge for up to 5 days or freeze in individual serving for up to 3 months. 250gm of drained beans are the equivalent to one tin of drained beans and use them anyway you would a tin of beans. So tell me do you like beans and if so what is your favourite thing to do with them? And as always if you give this method of cooking beans a go don’t forget to leave me a comment so I know how you got on. Enjoy. Sheryl x
