Cooking Tips: Beans
Always rinse canned chick peas or other canned beans with hot tap water to remove any "tinny" taste.
Cooking dried beans is easy. Thoroughly rinse and pick through them, discarding any blemished, shriveled or broken beans and then soak them, using either the long soak or quick soak method.
For the long soak method, cover dried beans with three times their volume of water. Let stand in the refrigerator at least 12 hours or overnight. Drain. For the quick soak method, put the beans in a large pot and cover with three times their volume of water. Bring to a boil; boil for 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for an hour. Drain.
No matter which method you use to soak the beans, cooking them is the same. Place soaked, drained beans in a large pot. Cover them with three times their volume of water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the type and size of bean. Drain.
Avoid buying packages of dried beans that contain beans with tiny pinholes or that are shriveled or broken.
Store dried beans in a sealed container in the cupboard for up to a year.
Salt beans at the end of cooking time or they will toughen.
Fresh green beans will keep for about 4 days, wrapped in plastic bag or wrap, refrigerated.
When cooking kidney beans with tomatoes or tomato sauce, it is usually better to precook the beans, or the acids in the tomatoes may prevent the beans from softening.