# I'm frightened of these beans, please help!



## doigle (Dec 3, 2004)

Well, no, not actually frightened. I was given some dry red kidney beans and some dry pinto beans. I'm not very savvy with beans, though I would like to be. (Been watching a few documentaries lately that are pretty scary concerning our food supplies and such) Can anybody help me with such things as: Are they interchangeable in most recipes? 

There are a lot of recipes on the net, too many. I'm confused. I want to make beans and rice like you get in a Mexican restaurant. We all like those, but when I look up beans and rice they're always throwing hambones in or something that doesn't sound right. 

Can any of you experienced ******* give me some pointers? I would like to start using less meat and more good inexpensive food. And these free beans are a great place to start. I"m just intimidated by these ---- beans!


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## Nico DeMouse (Feb 25, 2008)

I don't think I'm a bean "expert" by any means, but....I interchange beans a lot in recipes,just based on what I have on hand. After you do some cooking with them, you'll start to learn what you prefer in different recipes.

I like a ham bone or ham stock with most of the beans I cook...it adds a very nice flavor. But I also cook them a lot with chicken stock as well. To me, the meat stock adds some depth to the flavor. YMMV, of course and I'm sure there are plenty of delicious vegetarian bean recipes.

Here's a black bean soup recipe I made the other day. We thought it was very good, although I added salt and cumin. I also cooked it in the pressure cooker to reduce the cooking time. 

I've also done beans in the crockpot, if I think ahead enough.


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## praieri winds (Apr 16, 2010)

you can use some leftover bacon fat to season with if you don't want to put hamhock in them the beans in a mexican resteraunt are nothing but runny refried beans most of them come out of a can not fresh made and the rice is from a mix also very few places have the time to make everything from scratch anymore


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## upnorthlady (Oct 16, 2009)

There's nothing to be afraid of cooking with beans. The best way to cook them is: rinse and sort them the night before, taking out anything that looks dry or little pieces of stone, etc. Then cover the beans with water and let them soak overnight. The next day, cook them slowly until they are tender. Drain and use in whatever recipe you want. (Chili, soups, casseroles, etc.) You know beans are tender and done when you pick up a spoonful of them, and blow gently on them in the spoon. If the skins split, then they are done - but taste to be sure! 

To make beans and rice, there are lots of different recipes for this. You can cook up a batch of rice with onions and tomatoes (or tomato bullion ) and add the cooked beans and green peppers or chopped olives or whatever you like.  Sometimes I make a sauce with tomatoes (my own home canned), onion, chopped celery, chopped green pepper, garlic and seasonings, then add the beans and let this simmer gently for about 30 min. Put a big scoop of rice in a bowl, and then ladle over the rice, this tomato sauce. 

You can add cooked beans to pasta and spaghetti, make bean soups, add them to salads, make bean salad by itself, and make bean patties. To make bean patties, cook the beans very well until they are quite tender. Then mash them up and add some bread crumbs, eggs, salt and pepper, and maybe some salsa and onion. Form into patties and fry in butter in a skillet. You can also make your own "refried beans" - by mashing well cooked beans in a skillet with a little bit of liquid and salad oil or butter and keep cooking and stirring and mashing and adding liquid until you have the consistency you like. When you make burritos and tacos from this, you will never go back to canned refried beans! 

If you search for recipes on the internet you will find plenty of ways to cook with these. What are you afraid of? If beans don't agree with your digestive system, there's a product called beano. But I have found that the more beans you eat, the more your system gets used to them. There is also the theory that discarding the soaking water and cooking the beans in fresh water will help to cut down on the gassiness of beans. If you want a really nice, pure product - do what I do and raise your own beans for drying! That way, you don't ever get stones and junk in your beans because I sort them myself before I store them in jars. There are so many different varieties of beans to grow you don't have to limit yourself to pinto and white. I grow about 6 or 7 varieties of beans for drying and use them in so many ways.


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## doigle (Dec 3, 2004)

Thanks everybody! I'm going to first try just adding them to my regular chili. Yes, I will soak and cook them first. But I wish I could get back in the kitchen of our local Mexican restaurant. They are just the best rice and beans ever! The patties you mentioned sound interesting. I'd like to try making those for sure. Searching for recipes on the internet gets my head swimming more than usual. Just too much to look at!

Oh hey Nico DeMouse, you have what looks to be a very interesting blog. Well surely check it out tonight. 

And upnorthlady, I'm not afraid of gas, well not much anyway. Thanks again, and anyone with any killer bean recipes, please post!


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## Mulegirl (Oct 6, 2010)

Here's one of mine--you'll notice I use a different prep method than PPs. This is partially because, well, it works for us, and partially because it seems to work particularly well with the new dried beans we picked up from a local guy this fall. The times I've got in here are for new dried beans--older ones may take longer.

A note on this: if you drink alcohol, this meal goes particularly well with good dry hard ciders like Henny's. If you go with a wine, go with something fruity; for beers, consider some of the not-too-sweet fruit beers out there.


*Bean and Ham "Simmer"*

Tastes rather like Campbell's Bean with Bacon soup, and makes enough for dinner for two adults and one one-year-old, plus a lunch-size serving. It takes about 3 hours total, depending how coordinated a cook you are.


Ingredients
1/2 lb navy beans (dry)
4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch bits
2 medium onions
1/3-1/2 lb smoked ham (use a wet ham, not a dry country ham) chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
2 large carrots
2-3 large cloves garlic
~3-4 whole canned tomatoes
~1/2 c. tomato juice from the canned tomatoes.
1 large bay leaf (I used fresh, but I doubt dry will be that different)
~1 tbsp chicken broth concentrate (I used Better Than Bouillon) thinned out with 1/4 c. hot water
Salt and pepper to taste
Water as needed

Pick over the navy beans to find any small rocks that made it into the bag, then rise them and put them in a 3-quart or so pot. Dump in 2 to 2 1/2 quarts of water, put a lid on, and turn the whole thing on high. When it starts boiling, set a timer for 5 minutes and let it boil. At the end of the 5 minutes, turn off the heat and let the whole thing sit, lid on, for about an hour.

In the meantime, start chopping. Chop the bacon and ham if you haven't yet, chop the onions into small pieces, chop the carrots into small pieces (I do chunks about the size of my fingernails), and mince the garlic finely. Keep everything separate; you'll be dumping them in one at a time.

About 15 minutes before the end of the beans' hour-long soak, put the bacon pieces in a large, 3-4 quart saute pan, and cook them until crispy (or however you like your bacon). Scoop out the bacon and drop it into a paper-towel lined bowl, keeping as much of the fat as possible in the pan. Put the onions into the pan, and keep the heat high enough that they sizzle nicely, but don't caramelize too fast. Once the onions are softened and starting to brown, dump in the ham bits, then after a minute, the carrots. Saute all this for about 5 minutes, then drop in the garlic. Cook it all, stirring, just long enough for the garlic to get fragrant, then drop in the tomatoes, squishing them around so that they become small squashy bits. After that, pour in the tomato juice, the thinned bouillon, and the bay leaf. Leave that to simmer for a couple of minutes while you drain the beans, then dump in the beans, and pour in enough water (preferably warm) to cover the solids by at least a half inch. Stir in a bit of salt (underestimate a bit if you're unsure) and probably a half tsp. or so of pepper (fresh ground if you've got it). Put the lid on the whole mess, and let it sit and simmer for an hour and a half or so (make sure you check the water levels every once in a while!). Once the beans are softened to the texture that you find pleasant and the broth is reduced to a saucy but not soupy consistency, you're ready to go. Serve in bowls with the reserved crispy bacon sprinkled over top, assuming you didn't snack it all away while you cooked.

About a half hour or 20 minutes before the beans are done, start the fritters.



*Corn Fritters*

Super easy and super cheap, these are one of the most awesome fried foods ever. I mix in the water by feel, which is why I can't give a firm amount below. This recipe makes about a dozen 2 1/2 inch fritters, again, enough for two adults and a one-year-old (with none left over).

Ingredients


1 c. corn meal (I use a half and half mixture of fine and medium, but it works with all of either)
1 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
Boiling water
Enough olive oil (or oil with a similarly high smoking temp) to cover your pan with about a half inch of oil
A 12-inch cast iron or other heavy-bottom frying pan
A splatter screen (optional, but definitely recommended)


Mix the dry ingredients together. Pour in enough boiling water to make the mixture flow, but not so much that it gets runny. I usually do a little at a time, starting with maybe a half cup, mixing it in to see what the consistency is, then adding a little more and stirring it in, then a little more, until it's just about right. It needs to be able to mound up a bit in the pan, but not be so sticky you have to shake it off the spoon. If it's too runny, it'll just break apart in the hot oil, but if it's too dry, the fritters will be heavy. Yes, this does take a bit of practice to get right.

Once the batter is juuust right, let it sit for a few minutes while you heat up the frying pan and oil. When the oil flows like water around the pan and shimmers a bit, it's probably about right. Spoon the batter in, making the lumps the size you want them (I usually do about 2 or 2 1/2 inch rounds). The oil should sizzle and spit as you drop the batter in; if it doesn't, don't put any more in until it does. Keep an eye on the fritters, and when you see golden-brown edging the bottom, slip a spatula under them and carefully flip them over (you do NOT want to splash hot oil on yourself!) before squishing them a bit flatter (we usually end up with 1/2 or 3/4 inch thick fritters). Fry them until they're nice and golden-brown on both sides, then drain them on a paper towel. Serve them warm alongside the bean and ham simmer, and warn folks that the fresh ones will burn their silly mouths.


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## Nico DeMouse (Feb 25, 2008)

doigle said:


> Oh hey Nico DeMouse, you have what looks to be a very interesting blog. Well surely check it out tonight.


Thank you! I don't update it as much as I'd like, as my 3 year old son and various home/garden projects keep me pretty busy. I'm glad you enjoyed looking at it!


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## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

OK, nobody else has answered. No recipe for rice and beans. It's by gosh and by golly.

You want to use the pintos for this. Kidney beans aren't for Mexican dishes.

Wash and clean the beans (pick through them carefully).

Put the beans into the crock pot with a small boneless chuck roast. Add a couple of dried Ancho peppers and a pinch or two of cumin powder and a diced onion. If you can't find and Anchos, substitute chili powder for both the Ancho and the cumin because chili powder has cumin in it.

Simmer until the beans are very tender and the meat is fall apart tender.

Cook the rice separately. I add fresh diced onion and some chili powder and a bit of onion powder to the rice. I also use brown rice, so it takes longer to cook. Long grain white rice works fine.

Take a scoop of the rice and a scoop of the cooked beans and mix them together and serve. I like to melt a bit of cheese over the top, after it is served onto the plate.

The chuck roast out of the beans gets shredded and used as taco filling, enchilada filling, burrito filling, to go with the beans and rice.


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## doigle (Dec 3, 2004)

Hi Beaneaters! Thanks for the input. Rats, I don't have free pinto beans! Anyway, got sidetracked with trying yeast breads again for a few days, and other less nice projects that I won't discuss in the cooking board. So I'm back to beans today. Soaked a bag of them overnight (kidney). Have them cooking for about 2 hours now. They are not very inspiring to look at. Making chili today, but have enough of the canned chili beans if I don't think these will work. I always make a giant vat when I'm making chili. These dry beans really grow as they cook don't they? 
Thanks oregon for pointing out not to use them in rice and beans. That's the kind of stuff that really confuses me. If the beans turn out completely inedible, I can always ration them out to the chickens for extra propulsion off the roost. Wait, maybe I should go over to the poultry board and ask about that first. Nah, not right now.

I hope I can get comfortable with cooking more from scratch. I think it will be a necessity quite soon. Scary world lately.

Thanks again all


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## doigle (Dec 3, 2004)

Oh yeah, do you think the kidney beans would work in the bean patties that Upnorthlady talked about?


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## sticky_burr (Dec 10, 2010)

kidney beans .. CHILLI om nom nom.. well thats what pops into my mind


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## upnorthlady (Oct 16, 2009)

doigle said:


> Oh yeah, do you think the kidney beans would work in the bean patties that Upnorthlady talked about?


Yep - You can make bean patties out of pretty much anything. Black beans make a sort of gray patty, which is not so appetizing to look at, but it tastes good. I very often make bean patties out of red kidney beans. I like to put a little salsa in the bean patty mix, which not only adds flavor, but a nice color as well. Navy beans and Great Northern beans make a bland patty, so you need to add a lot of seasonings. On of my favorite beans for patties is an heirloom bean called Jacob's Cattle. I grow these myself, and you can get the seeds from several seed catalogs. You can also make a mixed bean patty if you have several kinds around, but not much of each. It is very versatile.! Experiment!


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## Topaz Farm (Jan 27, 2005)

I wouldn't feed those beans to your chickens. At least I heard that they weren't good for chickens, because they can't pass gas.


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## ladytoysdream (Dec 13, 2008)

I feed beans to the chickens quite often. A cheap source of protein. No problems with them eating them. Just don't feed them any dry ones, only cooked. If I am short a jar or two when I am canning a load, I usually put some beans in a jar and can them up.


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## Ciffer (Sep 13, 2010)

Beans are as interchangeable as you want them to be. I prefer garbanzo beans and lentils over other beans and will use them instead of pintos or kidney beans.

Make the recipe, if you and your family like it, they were interchangeable.


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

I wish I had a source for free red beans, thems is yummy things! When I am working with dryed beans, either pinto or the red kidneys, I start a day ahead of time. I sort and clean them first, then cover with plenty of water and bring them to a boil, let boil for 15 to 20 minutes, turn the heat off and let them sit, covered, overnight. The next day I drain off the water, and start over, bringing them to a rapid boil, then simmer til tender. I found years ago that this preboiling and sitting overnight not only lets them get tender much quicker the next day........ it eliminates about 90 percent of the usual gas issues usually associated with beans. 

Once you have your beans degassed and boiled til tender... simply use them as you would canned beans in whatever recipe you like. For beans and rice, kidneys are fine. I start with a pint jar of my home canned salsa, (very mild) and a cup of rice, bring to a boil, turn down heat, cover, and let simmer till rice is done, then add a cup of those precooked beans.


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## Merit (Jul 15, 2009)

Did your beloved Mexican restaurant use pinto beans or black "turtle" beans? I lived in Mexico in a 'black bean'-region. The beans were made (pick over/wash/soak overnight in water plus a very small amount of an acid --lemon juice, vinegar, etc to neutralize the phytic acid, I believe. Enzymes which inhibit nutrition) Anyway they were cooked with lard. Towards the end onion rings were sauteed and added, along with masa (tortilla 'dough') to make them nice and brothy. Delicious. Addicting. Fresh dried beans MUCH better than small shrivled old dried beans..


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## rightathome (Feb 10, 2009)

Two of the best tips I ever got for cooking beans -

#1, Cooks Illustrated, where they test recipes and cooking methods, recommends to add salt not vinegar to the soak water (makes the skins soft, such creamy tender beans!) and

#2, soak til the beans begin to sprout, not just overnight, rinse as needed when you see the gas bubbles floating on the surface of the water - sprouting the beans has improved the digestibility SOOO much that my husband no longer complains after a bean dinner, lol. Sprouting also decreases phytates so that the minerals in the beans are available to be absorbed by the body (like soaking with vinegar, but vinegar can make the skins tough).


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

I'm canning Kidney beans today, we go through a LOT of Kidney beans, Southern style Red Beans and Rice, Japanese beans and rice, Bean patties (with shredded potato and carrots), Bean soup (using liquid Smoke instead meat), Chili, Enchiladas.

I appreciate the tips shared in this thread.


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## lucyp (Jan 30, 2011)

Beans are so wonderful, easy and cheap. I don't know why more people don't use them. I am no bean expert, but I cook them a few times a week because I love them, and my husband is a vegetarian. Thus, lots of beans and no ham-hocks to worry about.

Typical refried beans at a Mexican restaurant do contain lard and/or chicken broth. So you can use either of those if you like, but in short, they tend to be cooked pinto beans and then mashed along with a little broth and often lard as mentioned and spices. (Similarly, Spanish rice that you would get in a typical Mexican restaurant in the U.S. contains chicken broth and some variation of tomatoes and spices.) I cook pinto beans often but don't usually bother with refried beans. A super easy pinto bean recipe is below. You can use the same recipe and instructions for black beans if you prefer those.

Rince the beans in a colander and remove any stones or beans that don't look quite right (like the others). Cover the beans in water by an inch or more and soak over night. If you are like me and have cats, best to set them in the microwave where they won't get into it. 

I do not add vinegar or salt to the beans during soaking, as I heard long ago that doing so (and actually adding salt before the beans are almost entirely cooked) actually increased the flatulence-inducing nature of beans. I haven't experimented to determine whether this is true and have no opinion on whether waiting until the beans sprout also helps, as I haven't tried. We are good as is, except for split peas. Some day I will figure out what to do with them. Anyway, back to pintos. 

When you are ready to start cooking the beans, drain the soaking water and rinse them again. This is particularly helpful with red and kidney beans to removing the gas-producing stuffs. 

Regardless of the method of bean cooking, add the following to the beans when you begin cooking (assuming 1 lb of dried beans):
Water to cover
2 tsp ground cumin
1 onion chopped to desired thickness (For this type of bean, I like chopped into about 1/2 inch pieces. I also prefer sweet onions, but it is all a matter of preference.)
1 pint of salsa. (Fresh, canned, hot, mild, tomatillo or tomato -- whatever you have and like.)
Additional hot peppers chopped finely, if you want them.

If you are using a slow cooker, assume that you need to cook on high for most of the day, so start in the morning. To add a meaty flavor, I would also add a little Liquid Smoke in hickory flavor, but not more than about a teaspoon and not earlier than about an hour before serving.

If you are using a regular stove-top pot, assume that you need to bring the beans to a boil and cook the whole concoction at a simmer for an hour to two hours.

If you are using a pressure cooker (my favorite for speed and energy efficiency), add 1 TBS oil to the above, and cook on high pressure for about 10 minutes, allowing the pressure to decrease naturally after. 

As for bean patties/burgers, they are easy too. It's a matter of cooking the beans and then adding whatever veggies you want and binder, mixing it all up, and then I like to use my immersion blender or food processor to grind it all up together. Then I make a patty and pan fry the patties. In theory, they could be grilled, but they seem either too goopy or too crumbly to me for actual grilling on a grill. As for veggie additions, I like onions, shredded carrots, mushrooms, bell peppers, banana peppers -- any combination and always caramelized or cooked down to some degree, with any bean, though spices vary. I find that rolled oats and egg work best for me as binder. Spices are endless as to the direction you can go. Thanksgiving spices (thyme, sage, rosemary, marjoram) or Mexican (cumin and peppers) or Indian (curry spice or garam masala), etc. My best guess is about a cup of rolled oats, 2 eggs, 2 cups of beans and a cup of whatever other veggies and spices would make good patties. It's trial and error, and really, the only problem you will run into is something that is too crumbly (needs more binder, like eggs or oats) or too runny, in which case you need the opposite. 

Oh, and another option for patties is to add a little shredded cheese and liquid and decrease the eggs a little. One good option is cheddar and barbecue sauce. The patty should be about the consistency or ever so slightly thinner than cookie dough.

Kidney beans are great for chili -- vegetarian (without any additional protein, with TVP, TSP or tofu) or with meat. Chili is super easy in a slow cooker and a good start for a new cook for beans. If you are interested, I can add some ideas for those. I wouldn't try for Mexican beans with these. They are doable, but just not ideal. Pintos or black beans are ideal for those. 

I do like kidney beans for red beans and rice, which is fairly easy, but I don't make it often and cassoulets which is time consuming but worth the effort with a nice glass of wine.

Beans are the perfect food! Protein and fiber and oh so versatile. Loves me some beans.


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

I canned the Kidney beans and had some leftover and didn't want to run the canner with just three jars so I made up my favorite vegetarian 'Bourbon Street Red Beans and Rice'.

I lost the recipe some time ago so I just basically wing it.

~Red Beans and Rice~

Red Beans
Vegetable stock to cover
1 onion
1 green Pepper
1 Jalapeno
2 stems Celery
1 tsp. Thyme
1 tsp. Cumin
1/2 tsp. Sage
1 tsp. Oregano
1 Bay leaf
squeeze of hot Pepper sauce
shake of Cayenne
capful of liquid smoke (may need more)

Simmer all until beans are slightly over cooked. mash some to provide a gravy type sauce. Salt to taste. Serve over Rice.

SO TASTY!


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## lucyp (Jan 30, 2011)

Marinemomtatt: I am making this tomorrow, adding some zucchini and spinach that are going to go bad if I don't do something with them soon. Thanks so much for posting it. It looks great. I think you and I cook a lot alike.


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## doigle (Dec 3, 2004)

You guys are great. Thought I'd peak back in this thread and say thanks. I've got pinto beans on the stove right now and thought about this thread. I'm not nearly as scared of the beans anymore!


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## Guest (Mar 30, 2011)

I was in a town called New Bedford, Mass, there was a local favorite there called "jag" short for jagacida, a Portugeuse dish, made of rice, lima beans(or butterbeans), sausage,onions, and sometimes tomato sauce or paste. Nowadays, I'd expect salsa. Good stuff. I like using speckled butterbeans whenever possible, and also a lot of pink-eye purple hull peas, both of which grow real good around here. And we never drain out the juice, we keep adding as it cooks, so that there is never too much juice, but what there is is an almost soup-like consistence.


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## AmberLBowers (Nov 28, 2008)

Do you have a slow cooker?? Instead of soaking the night before, I just wash and look over my beans in the morning and then put in my crockpot with a half an onion, a bay leaf, and about an inch cut off the bacon in the fridge. YUM!!


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## RedDirt Cowgirl (Sep 21, 2010)

Can you explain a bit about soaking the beans? I left beans soaking longer than just overnight once, but they tasted sour :yuck: and never sprouted. Too warm? Dead beans?

I like soaking the beans in salt water too for getting soft but still intact beans - maybe pouring off the soaking water carries away some of the stuff that causes gas? On the other hand, for pinto beans, it seems to carry off flavor and color too, and I like them to kind of fall apart and get thick. I just use those Beano drops.



rightathome said:


> Two of the best tips I ever got for cooking beans -
> 
> #1, Cooks Illustrated, where they test recipes and cooking methods, recommends to add salt not vinegar to the soak water (makes the skins soft, such creamy tender beans!) and
> 
> #2, soak til the beans begin to sprout, not just overnight, rinse as needed when you see the gas bubbles floating on the surface of the water - sprouting the beans has improved the digestibility SOOO much that my husband no longer complains after a bean dinner, lol. Sprouting also decreases phytates so that the minerals in the beans are available to be absorbed by the body (like soaking with vinegar, but vinegar can make the skins tough).


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