Beans, Beans the Magical Fruit, The More You Eat The More You... SAVE!

Okay, okay that is a little corny and we are dealing with beans here.  I've been busy today.  (Actually by the time this post is done it will probably be tomorrow.)  Last night before I went to bed I decided I would actually finally do something with the almost ten pounds of beans in my pantry.  I pulled out pound bags of chickpeas (garbanzo beans), pinto beans, black beans and light red kidney beans.  I poured each bag in it's own bowl and filled the bowls with water.  WHY??  Well, I can easily go to the store and buy canned beans.  You can find the generic brands fairly cheap and if you catch a sale even cheaper.  Ever taken a look at the dried beans though?  For dried they are less than $1 a pound.  You can buy them bulk through Winco or other stores for cheap.  You can even find them online through organic companies like Azure Standard.  (That link goes directly to beans.)

Beans provide a great deal of nutrition.  My kids love to snack on whole beans and my husband loved hummus and baked chickpea snacks- which I will post recipes for.  They have a great amount of fiber and protein and are low in fat.  They are one of the easiest things to incorporate in to your diet without making huge changes and can lower your cholesterol, lower your risk of breast or prostate cancer, and lower the risk for heart disease among much more!  You can easily toss a handful of beans in to a salad to add protein, have baked chickpeas for a snack instead of chips, swap out meat for black beans in a dish or add them to soups.  The list is endless.

So back to today.  When I woke up I pulled all of the floating material off the beans- skins and pieces that had come loose- and I threw it away.  Then I dumped the beans in to a colander and rinsed them really well. That is where the photo above comes in.  I had to decide if I wanted to freeze the soaked beans, cook them and freeze them, can them or EAT THEM ALL!  Just kidding that would be way too much to eat!

So here are your options and pros and cons:

Freeze Soaked Beans

• Easily accessed beans that are ready to cook that you just pull out of the freezer with no need to soak.
• Frozen pre-soaked beans cook faster than regularly soaked beans.
• Very convenient if you are like me and forget to soak beans the night before or the morning of a meal.
• CON- You still have to cook them so not as convenient as canned beans.

Freeze Cooked Beans:

• Easily frozen with cooking liquid to add to dishes.
• Quick thawing by placing container in microwave or sink.
• You decide how and what you want in each batch of beans you freeze. 
• Beans are pre-cooked so they are fully ready to go when you need them.
• You can use a pressure cooker to cook them cutting the time dramatically. 
• CON- You have to cook them and let them cool in order to freeze them.

Can Soaked Beans:

• When you can your own beans the canning process and cooking process are the same.  
• You decide what you want in your beans.
• Beans are cooked and shelf stable and can be stored in the pantry like store bought beans.
• Cost is still low.
• CON- Canning takes a little longer and requires a pressure cooker.
• You MUST use a pressure cooker in order to kill off bacteria inside the beans and cook properly.

I chose to freeze some soaked beans, cook some soaked beans and can some soaked beans today depending on how often I use them and for what.  This is my first batch that I actually cooked to eat.  They are garbanzo beans and they are in the pressure cooker ready to be cooked.  I add 1/2 tsp of oil to the water to keep them from foaming up in to my lid because I read that was a good idea.  Having no experience otherwise I do not know if it is true or not but it won't hurt your beans a bit so I did.

Freezing Soaked Beans

• Put a layer of beans on cookie sheets and freeze them for 1 hour then transfer them in to freezer storage bags.  No need to freeze the beans with fluid.
• Store beans in the freezer until ready to use.
• Thaw beans when ready to use and cook normally.  The beans should cook a little faster.  

Pressure Cooking

Time Table:  Bean/Legume Cooking Times for Pressure Cookers

(Bean pressure-cooking instructions are below the time table.)

Bean/Legume	Soaked Natural Release [4] (minutes)	Soaked Quick Release [2] (minutes):	Unsoaked Quick Release [2] (minutes)	Pressure Level
Adzuki	2 to 3	5 to 9	14 to 20	High
Anasazi	1 to 2	4 to 7	20 to 22	High
Beans, black	3 to 6	5 to 9	8 to 25	High
Beans, garbanzo (chickpeas)	9 to 14	13 to 18	30 to 40	High
Beans, great northern	4 to 8	8 to 12	25 to 30	High
Beans, lima, baby	2 to 3	5 to 7	12 to 15	High
Beans, lima, large	1 to 3	4 to 7	12 to 16	High
Beans, navy or pea or white (haricot)	3 to 4	6 to 8	16 to 25	High
Beans, pinto	1 to 3	4 to 6	22 to 25	High
See our pressure cooker Bean and Chickpea Recipes
Beans, red kidney	5 to 8	10 to 12	20 to 25	High
Beans, soy (beige)	5 to 8	9 to 12	28 to 35	High
Beans, soy (black)	16 to 18	20 to 22	35 to 40	High
Beans, white kidney (cannellini)	6 to 8		30 to 40	High
Chickpeas (chick peas, garbanzo bean or kabuli)	9 to 14	13 to 18	30 to 40	High
Cranberry (romano or borlotti)	5 to 8	9 to 12	30 to 34	High
Gandules (pigeon peas)	2 to 5	6 to 9	20 to 25	High
Lentils, French green	-	-	10 to 12	High
Lentils, green, mini (brown)	-	-	8 to 10	High
Lentils, red, split	-	-	4 to 6	High
Lentils, yellow, split (moong dal)	-	-	4 to 6	High
Peas, split, green or yellow	-	-	6 to 10	High
Peas, dried, whole	4 to 6	8 to 10	16 to 18	High
Peas, black eyed	-	-	10 to 11	High
Scarlet runner	8 to 10	12 to 14	17 to 20	High

Pressure-cooking time chart Fagor, Presto, Kuhn Rikon, Magefesa, Fissler, Lagostina pressure cooker

NOTE:  For T-Fal, WMF, Chef's Design, electronic pressure cookers, the 8 psi pressure Lagostina Endura, low cost “no name” pressure cookers and other pressure cookers that are less than 15 pounds (psi) pressure, add additional time to the cooking times in the charts below (check the pressure of your pressure cooker).  For a 12 psi pressure cooker, add about 20% more time to the 15 psi pressure cooker cooking times.

Bean Pressure-Cooking Instructions:

	For the most efficient cooking method, use the natural release method [4] rather than the quick release method [2] for pressure-cooking soaked beans.  As this method is not wasteful, it will lower your electricity or gas bills.  The natural release method of pressure-cooking soaked beans reduces the amount of time the stove is on and is using electricity or gas.  When the stove is on for less time, less heat is given off by the stove.  This will also give you the most comfortable room temperature in your kitchen as the room will not heat up as much.  If you use air conditioning, the natural release method will reduce how hard your air conditioner needs to work in order to remove the heat generated by your stove.  The cooking times for this method are shown in the natural release column in the table above.
	Do not soak lentils or dried split peas.  Before pressure-cooking, soak dry beans in four times their volume of water for four to six hours (don't exceed 12 hours—beans that are soaked for long periods are best for soups or purées as they easily break up).  You can start soaking the beans before leaving for work so they will be conveniently ready for pressure-cooking in the evening.  Do not add salt to soaking water as it will cause the beans to toughen and inhibit hydration (water absorption).
	If you have forgotten to soak the beans, no problem.  The pressure cooker can still cook beans that have not been soaked!  The trade-off is that it is not as quick and increases the energy used (makes your kitchen hotter) due to the longer cooking times of unsoaked beans.  Speed-soaking (also know as quick-soaking) beans is a faster method than pressure-cooking unsoaked beans.  You can speed-soak beans by cooking them on high pressure for one minute and then reducing the pressure by the quick release method [2].  Compared to using the automatic release method [3], using the quick release method reduces the chance that the beans skins will separate from the beans.  Drain the water, rinse beans and soak in fresh water for one hour.  Then pressure-cook the beans normally using the standard “soaked” cooking times.
	Place beans/legumes in the pressure cooker.  Add 3 cups (750 ml) of water for each 1 cup (250 ml) of beans/legumes.  If you have an old-fashion jiggler valve pressure cooker such as a Presto, add 1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 ml) of vegetable oil to the water in the pressure cooker.  The oil reduces foaming and the possibility of clogging the vent tube on these old pressure cookers.  Do not add salt until after cooking.  Watch the cooking time of whole lentils carefully.  Whole lentils will turn to mush if cooked too long. We have found that it is better to bring the pressure cooker to pressure by using medium heat rather than full heat.  This reduces the chances that the skins of beans will split and come off the beans.
	Pressure-cooking times vary according to the quality and age of the beans, legumes or other pulses.  If the pulses are still hard after pressure-cooking for the recommended cooking time, return to high pressure over high heat and then immediately reduce the heat to the lowest possible level in order to maintain pressure.  Cook for a few more minutes.  Alternatively, you can continue cooking the pulses uncovered.  Add additional water, if necessary. *This information is from Fast Cooking

Freezing Cooked Beans:

• Retain some of the liquid when the beans are finished cooking.  
• Use containers or freezer bags to store the beans.
• Fill containers/ bags about 75% with beans covered in liquid to allow for expansion during freezing.
• Pull from freezer and thaw when ready to use.  You can thaw in the sink or microwave to make the process faster.  

Because I chose to can some of my beans I selected the pint jars I wanted to use.  I typically only use one can of beans at a time so pints worked best for me.  You can just as easily can quarts just increase the cook time to 90 minutes and put 1.5 cups of beans in each jar.

Canning Beans:

• Sterilize your canning jars and equipment and get your lids in a boiling water bath.
• Once jars are sterilized fill with 3/4- 1 c soaked beans and fill the jars with water to 1" above beans.
• Gently add a lid to the jar and screw on lid making sure the lid isn't too tight or too loose.
  You will know if it is too loose if it bubbles when you put it in the water bath.
• Put the jars inside of the pressure cooker and cover with water until there is 1-1.5 inches of water over the jars.
• Put the lid on the pressure cooker and get it started.  Use 5 lbs of pressure on the pressure regulator and cook for 75 minutes for pint sized jars. 

Sterilize lids and prepare them by boiling them.

Sit jars inside of pressure cooker with enough water to cover them with 1-1.5 inches above.

Put beans in jars and fill with water.

Put on pressure regulator with 5 pounds of pressure.  

I am sure I will likely add more to this later.  For now though I am finishing up for the day happy that I have plenty of beans canned, cooked or just soaked and frozen.  I won't be running out too soon but I still have another six pounds of beans in the pantry to add to my soaked collection.  From now on this is how I plan to keep my beans and I won't be buying another can of beans from the store again!