Adventures in Dried Beans

In the past, I have avoided certain ingredients due to fear of the unknown, usually because they seem too complicated to deal with and I’m not prepared (or lack the necessary time) to learn. I resolved in the past year to no longer face new ingredients with fear and instead to charge ahead, try my hand at them, and see what happens. Until recently, my cooking with beans involved mostly canned beans, and not beans in their dried state. The only dried beans that I had used were lentils, because they did not require a pre-soaking period. It was the pre-soaking period, as well as the seemingly numerous instructions surrounding the use of dried beans (pre-soaking, skimming foam from the top of the cooking beans, etc.) that had given me pause for thought on using them in the first place. I eventually cast my fear aside, performed the necessary research and got started on incorporating dried beans into my cooking repertoire.

In my first attempt with dried beans used great northern and navy beans in a soup. I followed the pre-soaking directions that I had read in one of my bean-centric cookbooks. The results were great; the beans had a great flavor and a nicer texture than I’ve obtained in the past using canned beans in a similar application. Dried beans were a hit.

The next time I used the dried beans, I attempted to mimic a cold bean salad that I had tried from the Whole Foods salad bar. It was a white bean salad, with some red onion, fresh dill and lemon. This time, I was a little short on time so I decided to use what’s known as the “quick soaking method” for soaking the beans. This method involves bringing the beans to a boil in a large amount of water, turning off the heat and letting them sit in the hot water for a couple of hours. This is supposed to accomplish the same effect as the longer soak in the cold water; some of the more potent starches in the beans (that cause gastric and intestinal upset) are supposed to be dissolved in the soaking process (and the long and quick soak are supposed to be equally effective). So, I followed the quick soaking method and then cooked the beans as usual. I combined the rest of my chosen ingredients for the salad and chilled it for a few hours to meld. We ate dinner a few hours later, with this salad as a side dish to a main that I cannot remember. At the time, the verdict was good; the texture of the beans was soft yet firm, and the flavor of the salad was great.

Until the next day. Although we really both liked the salad, mysteriously neither of us even touched the leftovers. A few days later, when I was performing refrigerator clean-out, I mentioned to Jim how neither of us ate any of the bean leftovers. Then I asked him: did they get to you like they got to me? Yes. Both of us struggled for over a day with some of the most irritating intestinal upset either of us had ever experienced, but had not mentioned it to each other. Well, the full container of leftover bean salad was enough of an indicator that there was something wrong (usually I’ll eat any leftovers; in this case, I was just plain scared of those). I think I’ll do the long cold pre-soaking from now on; better safe than sorry (and gassy).

For Friday night’s dinner this week I decided to make a black bean soup using a bag of black beans that I recently purchased. This was my first time using dried black beans. I got up plenty early in the day, to ensure the 8-hour minimum pre-soak that would ensure intestinal peace. By evening time, the beans had soaked long enough so I began the rest of the soup preparation.

I sautéed one diced sweet yellow onion, three ribs of celery (diced), three diced carrots, one diced red bell pepper, one diced poblano pepper and two small slices of Canadian bacon (diced finely) over medium heat until they were softened. I added 10 cloves of minced garlic and two seeded, de-ribbed and diced jalapeno peppers, and cooked the mixture about one minute longer. I then added about 1 T of dried oregano, 2 t of ground cumin, 1 t of ground coriander, 1 T of New Mexico chili powder, and a dash of garlic powder (for a little extra shot of garlic…because 10 cloves clearly is not enough). I then added the 1-cup of pre-soaked and drained beans, and about 4 cups of chicken stock and two bay leaves. I brought the mixture to a boil, covered the pot partially and let it boil gently for about an hour and a half.

I intended to add tomato and sherry (of course) to the beans, but waited until most of the cooking time had elapsed before doing so. I have read in many places that acids added in the early stages of bean cooking will cause the skins to toughen and increase the cooking time. The last thing I wanted was undercooked beans, so I waited until the beans were about a half hour away from being done before adding about one-half can of diced tomatoes and one-half can of crushed tomatoes (this was just because that’s what I had on hand; one whole can of either would probably do just fine). I let the beans continue to cook for another half hour or so, adding a little more spices and herbs to taste. I then added about ½ of chopped cilantro, and some extra chopped poblano and jalapeno peppers. Then, I whipped out the immersion blender (pictured below, for reference). We wanted a fairly chunky soup, but I did want a thicker broth than we had at that point. So, a short blending with this fine piece of equipment did the trick. After blending I added some additional chopped fresh cilantro, some chopped green onions and some more chopped peppers. I served diced red onion, additional cilantro, chopped avocado, additional green onion and sour cream as garnishes.

We also had crab quesadillas with our soup. I had some left over crab quesadilla filling in the freezer from the Super Bowl, so I added the left over crabmeat from last night (because I didn’t use the entire 16 ounce cup on the pizza) and some extra cilantro to the leftover filling. The leftover filling basically consists of a diced yellow onion, cooked over low heat. I added some flour and then a little low-fat milk and broth to make a roux. I cooked this for a bit and then added some light cream cheese. Off heat, I added crab, a ton of chopped cilantro and some hot peppers. Used as a filling in whole-wheat tortillas, it cooks up very nicely in a large omelet pan, and the final product will hold (wrapped in foil) nicely in the oven for a good amount of time.

I, of course, also had a side salad (not pictured), with some salsa and a dash of light sour cream for a dressing. Now, we’ll just keep our fingers crossed that the 8-hour pre-soaking time was enough to keep us in the clear for the next day.