Dried beans are so much cheaper than canned beans. But, they take work! Sure, you only have to put them on the stove for hours and hours, but honestly, I hate that. People who say that it only takes 1-2 hours, I don't have that luck. Maybe I don't cook them on high enough heat, because it always takes at least four hours in my house.
Because of this, when I cook dried beans, I want to make it worthwhile. It's not worth heating up the kitchen for 1/2 cup of beans. So, when I cook beans, I make a bunch. Then, I use what I need right away and freeze the rest in 2 cup baggies. That way, whenever I need 1 15-oz can of beans, I can just pull a baggie from the freezer and viola!
I also like to cook different kinds of beans together. Recently I made a chili that called for kidney beans and black beans. Rather than have one pot of kidney and one pot of black, I just tossed them in together and also added some pinto beans for good measure (and because I still have 10 pounds!!!). I only had to babysit one pot and it worked out fine. I then added what I needed to the chili and saved the rest.
(Well, not really: I accidentally forgot to put them away in the fridge and they got left out all night. I cried when I had to toss it all into the garbage. This is my second tip: don't do this!)
So, my tip: cook a bunch of beans at one time and freeze the rest until you need them. Be gone with the expensive cans of beans!
See lots more Kitchen Tips at Tammy's Recipes!
photo by Roger Smith
3 comments:
I started making and freezing beans a few months ago too. It is much cheaper and I think healthier.
You can also put them in a crockpot so you don't have babysit them at all.
I crockpot mine too, I do one night of overnight soaking and then one overnight cooking.
Pretty easy. And then freeze the rest.
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