Beans. I love them. Cheap, easy, nutritious, delicious. I used to cook mine in a pressure cooker, but the movers lost my pressure gauge last summer (which I totally don't understand, since the gauge was stored inside the locked pot...seriously, guys?!) and thus forced me to find an alternative method. It turns out that slow cooker beans are easier anyway. Who knew? Of course, they still require some planning. You still have to soak the beans overnight. Given the slow cooker method, you also have to remember to work on dinner during breakfast, instead of deciding to throw together some beans an hour before you want to eat them. I like that though, because you don't have to babysit a slow cooker like you do a pressure cooker. Anyway, I just thought I'd post my method here in case any of you haven't happened upon it yet.
Slow Cooker Beans
2 lbs. beans, soaked overnight and rinsed
4-5 C. water (enough to cover the beans by about an inch in your crock)
1/2 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
3 T. Better Than Bullion soup base (vegetable or chicken)
1 tsp. dried basil or oregano
pinch dried red pepper flakes
Salt and Pepper to taste (added post-cooking)
Add everything to the crock and cook on high for 3 hours. Reduce heat to low and continue cooking for an additional 3-4 hours, or until they reach your optimal level of tenderness. This cooking time may also vary slightly by bean variety (kidney will take longer than navy beans).
At this point, you've got options. You can add a side of cornbread and serve your beans as soup. You can strain the beans and mash them to make "refried", adding back in the cooking liquid to reach optimal consistency. You can also fill quart-sized freezer bags with the beans and freeze them for future use in soups or other dishes (making canned beans obsolete...and doing the happy dance because yours taste better!). I find it particularly helpful to freeze well-cooked navy beans. Pureed, they become an excellent way to add creaminess and body to any vegetable soup.
One last recommendation: mix it up. Different bean varieties contain different levels of various nutrients. In general, the more colorful the better.
Where can you buy better than bullion vegetable soup base?
ReplyDeleteSo I look this bean recipe and tweaked it using two Shepherd's Pie recipes I found online (http://afoodcentriclife.com/vegetarian-shepherds-pie/ and here http://afoodcentriclife.com/vegetarian-shepherds-pie/).
ReplyDeleteSince I'm one of those "throw things together and hope it turns out" kind of cooks, this was my thought process. To Sam's bean recipe I added tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, frozen veggies (cauliflower, green beans, peas, and corn), and basil. Of course I added the veggies at the end after the beans were mostly cooked. Then I added mashed potatoes on top (no butter, but I did use whole fat yogurt) with paprika on top for color. Then I put it in the fridge till it was almost dinner and the baked it for 20 min at 350 then broiled the potatoes for some crunch and added appeal. Cheese is optional (in my book of course).