Kidney beans are inexpensive, versatile, and delicious, especially when you cook them yourself from scratch! If you’re still into canned beans, I hope that this method proves to you that cooking beans from dried is really easy, all it takes is a little forethought.
Perfect Kidney Beans
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups / 250g raw kidney beans
- 1 ½ Tbsp. sea salt optional
Directions
- Place kidney beans and plenty of clean water in the pot you’re going to be cooking them in, and let soak overnight, or for at least 8 hours (Sarah B. tip: if it’s a workday, soak in the morning before going to work; if it’s the weekend, soak them before going to bed at night).
- After soaking, drain and rinse the beans very well, making sure to remove any stones or debris that may have slipped into the batch.
- Place beans and plenty of fresh water into the pot. With the heat on high, bring beans to a boil, then reduce to simmer. At this point, there may be some foam that sits on top of the water– remove it with a slotted spoon.
- Cook beans just until tender (this will vary greatly on your own beans, but for kidney beans you’re looking at approximately 45-60 minutes). Right near the end of cooking (10 – 15 mins before they're done!), add the salt and let beans simmer until they’re completely tender (adding salt too early in the cooking process will cause the beans to become hard).
- Remove beans from stove, drain, then rinse well. Make sure to save about 1 1/2 cups for the Gormeh Sabzi if you're following along in the Spring Rollover Menu!
- Store leftover beans in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days.
Notes
Makes about 3-4 cups
