Spill the Beans

Is it easy to cook your own beans? Absolutely!

I say that because I tend to meet with disbelief when I promote the topic of home-cooked beans.

What many people don't realize is that on top of being simple to prepare, home-cooked beans taste delectable. They pack nutritional wallop -- especially in terms of iron, and they are an excellent source of fiber. The last time my doctor reviewed my lab values, she was surprised to hear that I don't take iron to supplement my mostly-vegetarian diet. I told her it must be the fresh-cooked adzuki and garbanzo beans I like to eat.

About flavor: You know how most chili recipes call for canned beans? You dump the beans into the cooking chili and know beforehand there is no reason tasting the pot because the beans will taste terrible until they've picked up the chili flavorings. Well, that's all different with fresh beans.

Even without having any salt added to the pot while cooking, beans I cook myself always taste delightful; the subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle differences among beans really pop out to let you appreciate them. I'll find myself sneaking a spoon into the pot for one more bite before I set cooked beans into the refrigerator. Since I'm not a devotee of salt, these are mighty naked beans I am finding so tasty.

In addition, beans are probably the cheapest source of protein you can find. Check out the price of beans in your store's bulk food section, and you'll see what I mean.

Here's how I cook beans:

1. In the morning, I pour a cup of dried beans into a quart-size tupperware bowl, then I add sufficient cold water to drown the beans by several inches. I set this bowl out of the way for the day.

If you want to be all Suzy Homemaker, you could cover the bowl with a very cute kitchen towel, but remember it's just cold water and beans. I enjoy leaving the bowl open because if I'm home and popping in and out of the kitchen, I get to see the beans swelling in size and that's often fun. (I am easily amused.)

2. Eight hours later, I grab the bowl and dump the beans into a strainer over my sink, rinsing just a bit. Then I find a large lidded saucepan and pour the drained beans into the pan. I pour between 3 and 4 cups of fresh water onto the beans, put the lid on the pan, and set it on the stove over high heat until the water starts to boil.

3. When the water has started to boil, I turn the heat down to a low simmer -- low enough to keep the water moving but not so that bubbles crawl all the way up the sides of the pan. I'll simmer as follows:

• adzuki beans, 50 minutes


• garbanzo beans, 2-1/2 hours


• navy beans and kidney beans, 1-1/4 hour


• black-eyed peas, 1 hr

I usually set the timer on the low end of time and check the beans partway through the cooking process, adding the full time if necessary. Depending on the weather, how long I've presoaked the beans, and how I've set the heat, I'll have slightly shorter or longer cooking periods.

When done, I pour off the cooking water and use it for other purposes -- to add nutrients to my dog's food bowl, for example.

You can add a stick of kombu (dried seaweed), some sprinklings of sage, or some sea salt to the cooking beans towards the end of the cooking time to add flavor, but it's really not necessary!

Cooking lentils is just the same as cooking beans, without the eight-hour presoak. Simply rinse the lentils well before adding water and cooking. Lentils typically cook in about 35 minutes.

Enjoy and thrive!