How to cook beans from scratch?

 

This is the simple and convenient method I use to prepare from scratch dried chickpeas, and other dried beans, by cooking them in the oven, without soaking time.

Many cooking methods call for the dried beans to be soaked in water prior cooking. But I do not do this any longer since reading Russ Parsons’ article Don’t soak your dried beans! Now even the cool kids agree published in the LA Times in September 2014.

Parsons suggested that there is no real need to soak dried beans prior cooking. He also argued in favour of cooking the beans in the oven instead of on the stove. I have been doing this method for a while now, and it works well.

So below is the method I use for cooking from scratch chickpeas (garbanzo beans), black beans, navy beans, white beans and fava beans. (I have not tested the method with other types of beans yet, but will update this post as it happens!)

Ingredients

• Dried beans
• Salt (for 1 cup of dried beans, I use ¼ teaspoon of salt)
• Garlic, onion, spices, or dried herbs (optional)

Preparation

Spread the dried beans on a plate and remove any small stones or dirt. Rinse them in fresh water several times.

Transfer the beans into a cooking pot with a lid and which is suitable for the oven (I use a heavy pot).

Cover the beans with 4 cm of water, and add the salt, and (optional) some garlic, bay leaves, onion, spices…

Cook covered in the oven for 70 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. Check if the beans are cooked and tender. If not, bring back the cooking pot in the oven for 20 minutes more. Carry on like that, by checking every 20 minutes, until the beans are fully cooked and tender. (The cooking time varies tremendously with the age of the beans. Beans which have been picked a long time ago will take longer to be cooked than fresh beans. It can takes anywhere between 90 minutes up to 180 minutes for the dried chickpeas I buy here to be cooked.)

Drain the beans, and let them sit – covered with a clean tea towel, at room temperature to cool completely. Then, store them in a food container in the fridge and use within 3 days, or freeze them (if the chickpeas are used for hummus, keep the cooking liquid. They can be frozen with it).

Quantity of dried beans vs. cooked beans

1 cup of dried black beans = 3 cups of cooked beans

1 cup of small dried chickpeas (I used only small chickpeas) = about 2 ¼ cups of cooked beans

1 cup of dried navy beans = 3 cups of cooked beans

1 ½ cups of dried white beans = 4 cups of cooked beans