Beans are such a healthy addition to your diet. Because a 1/3 cup of cooked beans contains around 80 calories, no cholesterol, lots of complex carbohydrates, and little fat, many recipes include them.
The recipes will call for cooked or soaked dry beans. Soaking dry beans is an easy process:
- Clean the dry beans by sorting them and discarding unwanted material.
- Rinse the beans with water.
- Soak the dry beans in a pan with 3 cups of water per cup of beans. A pound of beans is about 2 cups requiring 6 cups of water.
- Let the beans soak overnight in the refrigerator.
- Drain the soaking water and rinse the beans again.
- The soaked beans need to be cooked if the recipe calls for cooked beans instead of soaked beans. Cook the soaked beans in about 1 cup of water per cup of soaked beans. Use a heavy pan and bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat. Simmer the beans for 1 hour or until tender. Keep an eye on the pot and add more water as needed to prevent burning. Nothing smells worse than the smell of burnt beans.
When I was growing up and my mother was teaching me her cooking tips, one of the best was the faster, quicker way to soak dry beans. Follow steps 1 through 3 above. At Step 4., place the dry beans in the right amount of water in a heavy pan. Bring the beans to a boil and cook for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let it stand covered for one hour. Drain and rinse the beans again. Your beans are now ready to cook.
1 cup dry beans = 2 – 3 cups cooked beans.
1 (19-oz) can cooked, drained beans = 2 cups.
1 (16-oz) can cooked, drained beans = 1 3/4 cups.
1 (15-oz) can cooked, drained beans = 1 1/2 cups