Cooking Dried Black Beans!

Since I don't have a job and I haven't magically made any money I have been thinking of ways to save money so that what I do have lasts longer. I decided to cook up a bag of dried black beans. It's not hard to do, it just takes a little bit of time.

The other day it was the plan that Aleks would make his chili. So I had bought the bag of beans so he could use that. He had had a rough day the day before and was not feeling well so he had spent the day in bed. I was taking care of the baby and hanging out. It was mid-day and I realized that I hadn't cooked the beans and I didn't want to not have them ready for the chili.

1. Of course, I read the package and I remember my sister telling me that she didn't use the recipe on the bag of beans but one from her cookbook so I went online, seeing as I don't have a cookbook. I read a few blogs and articles and realized what my problem has been all those times I tried to cook them in the past. They always turned out kinda hard. I didn't understand why until now. The package directions tell you to add salt when you are cooking them. When in all reality the salt clogs the pores of the beans and they can't retain the water. So now I don't salt the beans till after they are done and they are nice and soft.

First step, sort the beans. I hadn't done a very good job in reading the recipes and it wasn't until after I started soaking the beans that I realized that I was right at first. I was taking out the beans that were broken in half but there were so many that I thought I shouldn't do that. Now that I look at the end product I wish I had taken them out of that second half. But it is ok. They still taste good. Anyways, sort out the half beans and any withered ones or little pebbles. Then rinse them.

If you are like me and forgot that you needed to have cooked your beans and need them that day then this is what you do but if you have time then cover the beans in a pot over night. For the "quick" method this is what you do. For every cup of beans you cook you should use 2 1/2 cups of water. Add the water to the beans and put it on the stove on high. Wait for the water to come to a boil then time it for two minutes then turn the stove off and let soak for one hour.

When the hour is up, rinse the beans, remeasure the water and put the beans on to cook for two hours. The water should be simmering not boiling. When the time is almost up check a couple beans to see if it is the right consistency. When it is, take off the stove and let cool.

I think I let my beans sit on the stove too long after it was done cooking. So they got a little mushy. This is fine because I will be using them for chili, mexican food, black bean fritters, quinoa and black bean burgers, or whatever else I think of. What do you use black beans for?

After they cooled I separated the beans into four zip lock sandwich bags,There would have been more but I used a lot for the chili that night. Otherwise there would have been 5 or 6 bags. I took as much of the air out of the bags as I could then flatted them out and threw them into the freezer for future use.

It was really easy and I saved money. Plus there were no preservatives added and not that much sodium. I only shook the salt over the separate bags. I hope you try this and if you do, please leave a comment and let me know how it goes.