How and how much to cook beans?

Beans can be cooked not only in a regular saucepan, but also using a microwave, multicooker or double boiler. The cooking time for each of these options will be different. Combines all the ways the process of preparing beans. Beans must be soaked and sorted.

How to cook beans in a regular saucepan:

• after soaking, the water must be drained, and the beans must be filled with new liquid at the rate of 1 cup of beans a glass of water (the water must be cold);
• the pot with beans must be put on low heat and brought to a boil (with high heat, the cooking speed will not change, and the moisture will evaporate faster);
• after the water boils, it must be drained and refilled with new cold liquid;
• continuing to cook over medium heat, the beans do not need to be covered with a lid;
• vegetable or olive oil will give the beans softness (you need to add a few tablespoons of oil during cooking);
• it is recommended to salt the beans a few minutes before cooking (if you add salt to the beans at the beginning of cooking, the amount of salt will decrease when the water is first drained).

During the cooking process, special attention should be paid to the liquid level. If the water evaporates, then it must be topped up so that the beans are completely immersed in it. Otherwise, the beans will not cook evenly.

The soaking process for beans is usually 7-8 hours, but this process can be accelerated. To do this, pour the beans with cold water, after having sorted them out and rinsed them. Then the container with beans and water must be put on low heat and brought to a boil. Boil the beans for no more than 5 minutes. After that, the beans must be left for three hours in the water in which they were boiled. Thanks to this technique, the soaking process will be more than halved.

The nuances of cooking beans in a multicooker:

• the ratio of water and beans does not change when cooking in a multicooker (1: 3);
• the beans are cooked in the “Stew” mode (first, the timer must be set for 1 hour, if the beans are not cooked during this time, then the cooking must be extended for another 20-30 minutes).

Beans take longer to cook in a double boiler than other methods. The liquid in this case is not poured into beans, but into a separate container. Red beans are cooked in three hours, white beans are cooked about 30 minutes faster. It is important that the temperature in the steamer is 80 degrees. Otherwise, the beans may take too long to cook, or they may not cook smoothly.

In the microwave, the beans must be boiled in a special dish. Beforehand, the beans must be soaked in water for several hours. Beans are poured with liquid according to the traditional rule: there should be three times more water than beans. Cook beans in the microwave at maximum power. It is best to set the timer to 7 or 10 minutes first, depending on the type of beans. The first option is for the white variety, the second for the red variety.

Asparagus (or green beans) are cooked for 5-6 minutes, regardless of the cooking method. If an ordinary saucepan is used for cooking, then the beans are laid out in a boiling liquid, and in other cases (multicooker, microwave) they are poured with cold water. The readiness will be indicated by a change in the structure of the pods (they will become soft). If the green beans are frozen, they must first be defrosted and cooked for 2 minutes longer.

How to cook beans

Cooking time for beans depends on their color and variety. Red beans take longer to cook than white varieties, and asparagus beans take a few minutes to cook. The average cooking time for white or red beans in a regular saucepan is 50-60 minutes. You can check the readiness by taste or with a sharp object. The beans should be soft, but not mushy.

Cooking time for beans depending on the cooking method:

• regular saucepan 50-60 minutes;
• slow cooker 1,5 hours (“Quenching” mode);
• in a double boiler 2,5-3,5 hours;
• in the microwave for 15-20 minutes.

You can shorten the cooking process of beans by pre-soaking them.… The longer the beans are in the water, the softer they become as they absorb moisture. It is recommended to soak the beans for at least 8-9 hours. The water can be changed, because during the soaking process, small debris can float to the surface of the liquid.