How to Budget with Dried Beans
Stock up and save your wallet
I never bothered with dried beans, unless I was stocking up on them for pie weights. A bean-laden salad or chili recipe had me beelining for the canned stuff in the grocery store—who has the time to cook them from scratch? This was a Great Departure from my mother, an excellent cook. She diligently soaks and cooks black-eyed peas, garbanzo beans, lentils, kidney beans and more every week like it’s nothing.
But lately I’ve had my eyes opened. Now that my grocery bill is starting to read like science fiction with its ever skyrocketing total (thanks, inflation), I’m cooking more beans than ever. And I’m taking a leaf out of my Mom’s book and cooking them from scratch. Not only are dried beans gentle on the wallet, this beans evangelist has found more ways to let beans be the star of the show flavor– and texture–wise.
On average, they’re half the cost.
In this macroeconomic climate, you can’t oversell me on getting this pantry staple for almost half the cost. Shop your grocery store bulk bins or pick up pre-portioned bags—on the whole, if you’re adding beans to recipes on a weekly basis at least, you’ll come out ahead. Case in point: A 15-ounce can of small red beans costs me $1.39, while a bag that yields twice the volume once cooked is $1.99. And dried beans give me the flexibility to buy or use only what I need.
Canned beans give you greater control.
To be clear, I will never not buy canned beans. Their convenience cannot be beat, and we’ve waxed eloquent about all the ingenious ways we have to infuse additional flavor into the canned stuff, like microwaving them. But texture-wise, canned beans aren’t always a slam-dunk. For example, the chickpeas from Wegmans’ in-house brand are delightfully toothsome, but open a can of butter beans and you might find mushy, broken bits that have slipped out of their jackets. If beans have to carry a dish, I want a little more control. Which brings me to my next point.
If beans are the star of your dish, try them from dry.
This comes up for me most often when hosting. I made brothy beans for friends a couple weeks ago, and every bean needed to be tender, creamy, whole and perfect. Their only treatment was simmering them in a Parmesan broth. Dried beans? Totally worth it.
Here’s how I cook them.
Before we get into the the more nuanced aspects of flavoring, let’s review how to cook a basic pot of beans: Add your beans to a pot and pour in enough cold water so it covers the beans by a couple of inches. Leave them to soak for eight to 12 hours. If they haven’t significantly increased in size after soaking, they’re too old to cook (yes, beans can be too old). Save those for pie weights and get some fresher beans.
At cooking time, replenish your water to the same level (I don’t bother switching out what’s already in the pot). Add oil, salt and a pinch of baking soda—to help tenderize!—and bring the beans to a boil. Lower the heat once boiling to a gentle simmer; they’re ready when you taste a few and they’re cooked through and tender. Keep the heat low to avoid the beans splitting open. Once they’re cool, store the beans in their own cooking liquid for four to seven days in the fridge.
Okay, now the fun part. The salt and olive oil will flavor the beans, but you can add other flavorings to the water, too. Alliums, dried chilis, fresh herbs and spices, citrus rinds (not the juice!), Parmesan rinds, pancetta, miso, sausage, lemon grass, leeks. Go nuts. I’ve even swapped some of the water for veggie or chicken stock before. Just promise you won’t add acidic ingredients, like wine or tomatoes, until after the beans are done cooking to avoid toughening the skins.
Bonus: You can use the aquafaba!
That’s the fancy word for the liquid left over after cooking beans. Most people use aquafaba from canned chickpeas, but you can make your own—and you can use other beans as well, if chickpeas aren’t your jam. If I’m simmering a pot of garbanzo or cannellini beans, instead of draining the starchy liquid left behind, I’ll save it as an egg white substitute. Just whip to stiff peaks for meringues and baking. You can also use it in cocktails—just add it to a cocktail shaker where you’d use an egg white. Or, save the liquid for savory applications: Use it to thicken soups, stews and sauces. Freeze off what’s left so nothing goes to waste.
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