Preparing Beans for Maximum Flavor
and minimum toot.
We live quite happily and health-fully in our forest home on a primarily plant-based diet, deriving approximately 85% of our nourishment from plant sources. We aren’t strict vegans, or strict vegetarians, or strict anything really. But Juan and I definitely see the connection between our own food choices and the health and well-being of other people, animals, and the Earth. I mean, if we are going to profess this whole regenerative living thing, we better walk our talk right?
Besides, as we’ve come to learn, it is entirely possible and very enjoyable to prepare and eat food from plant sources. We want to encourage and inspire others (without beating them over the head with it) how to do the same. If you are concerned about meeting your body’s protein needs with a plant-based diet, one the best and easiest solutions is to learn how to incorporate more legumes (aka beans) into your diet.
Properly prepared, beans (aka legumes or pulses) are tasty, satisfying, nutritious, and easily digested. Improperly prepared, they are bland and make you feel like a big balloon. Preparation is always important, but with beans it's really important.
Let’s get into it. First, here’s how to soak beans the right way.
Yes, there’s a right way. And most people don’t know it. The wrong way to soak any dried legume (lentil, garbanzo, black-eyed or split pea, etc) is to put them in a bowl of water and let them sit in that same bowl until you cook them. No wonder you are looking for the Gas-X.
Bean Soaking Instructions:
Begin your bean preparation at least 24 hours in advance of cooking them. 2 days is even better!
Put the beans or peas in a large bowl of water, at least twice as much water as beans, and preferably more. Stir them up with clean hands and pick out anything that isn’t a bean. Stones for example. If a lot of dust comes off the beans and the water gets murky, stir them around really well and then drain the beans through a colander and put them back in the bowl with clean water. Do this a few times if necessary, until the water stays tolerably clear.
Put the beans back in the bowl after rinsing a few times, fill the bowl with room temperature water, give the beans a good stir, and let them sit for a few hours.
Return to the bowl. You will notice the beans have softened and gotten a bit larger. This means they have absorbed some of the water--and the oxygen in it. Beans are also seeds, and right now are in the process of germinating! This is good. It means they are converting tough starches into more digestible forms. Now they need more oxygen to sustain the process. Remember, if these seeds were outside, they would be refreshed by rain! So you have to provide the refreshment with fresh water.
Drain the beans through a colander. Put them back in the bowl and fill the bowl with room temperature water.
Rinse and repeat every 4 hours or so up until the time you cook the beans. No, you don’t have to wake up in the middle of the night to tend to your beans. It’s fine to “skip a shift.” Just keep the beans hydrated with fresh water several times before you cook them.
Kristen Krash is the co-founder and director of Sueño de Vida, a regenerative cacao farm and reforestation mission in Ecuador. Sueño de Vida works to educate and inspire everyday people about permaculture, sustainable living, environmental activism, and healthy living all in the name of living more in harmony with nature to create a better world for us all.
You can support the Sueño de Vida mission today by purchasing our cacao or contributing to direct reforestation.
Thank you.