How to Cook Basic Beans with Steve Sando

Published on Sunday, January 2, 2011, by Meredith Arthur, Eric Slatkin, and Roxanne Webber / Edit Post

How to Cook Basic Beans with Steve Sando

By Meredith Arthur, Eric Slatkin, and Roxanne Webber

Steve Sando, bean impresario behind Rancho Gordo, outlines the steps from beans in a bag to glorious pot o’ beans. Dried beans may not be fresh per se, but they shouldn’t be more than two years old. Soak them first, and use the soaking water to cook them. A quick, hard boil and then a long, slow simmer will get them cooked up right.

You’re Doing It All Wrong is constructive criticism. Don’t take it the wrong way: Just learn the right way.

ALLYou're Doing It All Wrong
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  • Hmmm...I dunno. I've been cooking at home for about 35 years and I was a chef for about 10 years. I've cooked a lot of beans and I've always found them to be pretty forgiving. Over soaking? BS! Just yesterday I cooked some chickpeas that I had soaking in the fridge for a couple of days and they came out perfect. I added salt right at the beginning along with the cooking water. It's certainly...+READ

    Hmmm...I dunno. I've been cooking at home for about 35 years and I was a chef for about 10 years. I've cooked a lot of beans and I've always found them to be pretty forgiving. Over soaking? BS! Just yesterday I cooked some chickpeas that I had soaking in the fridge for a couple of days and they came out perfect. I added salt right at the beginning along with the cooking water. It's certainly possible to over cook beans but worrying about boiling for only 10 minutes and then just a simmer blah, blah, blah. Just soak the beans for as long as you want then boil them until they're done. The only beans I've ever had trouble with are black soybeans. I soak them as usual but the only way I've ever got them to properly soften is in the pressure cooker. For some reason boiling them the regular way, even for a couple of hours, leaves them too al dente for me. Just because we're foodies doesn't mean we have to over-think cooking one of the simplest of foods.-COLLAPSE

  • Do Not use soaking water to cook. The non-digestible proteins that cause flatulence are largely water soluble, while the nutritional proteins are largely not so much- nothing to lose but gas.

  • Unfortunately the video isn't working for me Today. However, I rarely cooks dry beans on the stove top because it requires more monitoring and still I usually scorch them.
    - The pressure cooker works for me. The trick is to estimate the optimum amount of water (since beans (unlike meat protein) expand during cooking. I try to slightly undercook then simmer off excess liquid if needed; this is...+READ

    Unfortunately the video isn't working for me Today. However, I rarely cooks dry beans on the stove top because it requires more monitoring and still I usually scorch them.
    - The pressure cooker works for me. The trick is to estimate the optimum amount of water (since beans (unlike meat protein) expand during cooking. I try to slightly undercook then simmer off excess liquid if needed; this is also a good time to add final flavorings.
    - Likewise, the slow cooker works fine. Most beans will cook on low in eight hours, quicker if you are around to check the texture. I've found that on high that they will go from crunchy to perfect in a heartbeat.
    - Oven baking should be good but I haven't tested that method.
    Stovetop, Nyet!-COLLAPSE

  • Pressure cooking is fine but it makes the beans denser (not always bad, but different) and the bean broth hasn't had a chance to evaporate so it's watery and stale compared to beans made in a pot. Still, a great way to enjoy beans if you're in a hurry.

  • An alternative method that works very well is the pressure cooker. One can go from stored, dried beans to vegetarian chili in less than an hour. One can "soak" beans in a pressure cooker in 4-7 minutes, depending on the bean and the quantity. And one can cook them thoroughly in 22-30 minutes, again depending on the bean and the quantity.

    So that's much less time, much less energy, and all the...+READ

    An alternative method that works very well is the pressure cooker. One can go from stored, dried beans to vegetarian chili in less than an hour. One can "soak" beans in a pressure cooker in 4-7 minutes, depending on the bean and the quantity. And one can cook them thoroughly in 22-30 minutes, again depending on the bean and the quantity.

    So that's much less time, much less energy, and all the goodness of a well cooked bean. Given those trade offs I'm tempted to say that Steve's doing it all wrong, but there's more than one way to cook a bean.-COLLAPSE

  • I just like seeing all these Chow videos filmed in actual kitchens where people do real cooking! So much more fun than those sterile sets.

  • I'm from Oklahoma and grew up on beans and hamhocks. Imagine my chagrin when I discovered, in my late 20s, that I had not inherited the bean-cooking gene. I found the legumes section in Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian helpful. Turns out I'd been cooking them to kingdom come and over-soaking them to boot. And salting them at the wrong times.

    I like the flavor of onions and garlic in...+READ

    I'm from Oklahoma and grew up on beans and hamhocks. Imagine my chagrin when I discovered, in my late 20s, that I had not inherited the bean-cooking gene. I found the legumes section in Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian helpful. Turns out I'd been cooking them to kingdom come and over-soaking them to boot. And salting them at the wrong times.

    I like the flavor of onions and garlic in my beans, but I don't actually want them in the finished product, so I just gently crush the garlic cloves and chop the onions in big chunks. My bean pot is oven-safe, so I just give the aromatics a short time in the oven until they smell
    lovely and then proceed with my bean cooking. I take the aromatics out near the end. Of course, I then dump a handful of chopped raw onion on my bowl of beans.

    Now if I could just get my child to eat beans other than sweet baked beans. . .-COLLAPSE

  • Mr. Bill, no, no, no...you don't want to add flour. It alters the flavor and the goodness of the texture, and who wants or needs the extra carbs??? Simply scoop out a small amount of the cooked beans and pop them in your food processor and give them a quick pulse, then return to pot for a wonderful thickening action. You also can use a stick blender, or a potato masher directly in the pot!...+READ

    Mr. Bill, no, no, no...you don't want to add flour. It alters the flavor and the goodness of the texture, and who wants or needs the extra carbs??? Simply scoop out a small amount of the cooked beans and pop them in your food processor and give them a quick pulse, then return to pot for a wonderful thickening action. You also can use a stick blender, or a potato masher directly in the pot! Breaking up SOME of the beans give it a great texture without adulterating it.
    Culinary Concepts-COLLAPSE

  • I've had good luck both with And without soaking, so I consider it an insurance policy against beans that have been in storage for an excessive time. For the most part, you cannot depend on the retailer to tell you the truth!
    For beans that tend to be hard like chickpeas, I'll use the pressure cooker.

  • Makes me want to put some beans on the stove right now!!!! Another great recipe for beans - frijoles de la olla, can be found at http://www.chanfles.com/comida/beans/frijoles.htm. This blogger is Mexican and says they don't soak their beans! I have tried this recipe and it comes out perfect. Thes best I have found. Step by step with pictures and good descriptions.

  • I agree - for softening onions, rather than browning, starting with a cool pan and then heating it and adding the garlic for a couple of minutes towards the end is optimum. Lovely to see Steve Sando on this great video.

  • About the onions and garlic- I always used to adhere to the practice of heating the oil first before adding onions and garlic. But after several years of working with Marcella Hazan recipes, I learned to add onions and oil/butter to pan, then add heat, then add garlic after the onions have softened, and only for a little while - maybe a minute or less, before adding the rest...

  • AK -- it's called sweating your aromatics, it's a not a saute. He's doing it just fine.

  • I love my legumes and I'm glad to see Rancho Gordo featured here! Quick question... during the simmer of the beans (2 hours or so, right?), do you leave the pot uncovered? Cover? If left uncovered, does it reduce too much where you need to add liquid?

    -Nico

  • Wow, thank you so much for this video! I will admit... I was doing beans wrong. I always pour off the soaking water and then give the beans a good wash before replacing them. And I'd be pretty lucky if all the beans/lentils/spices in the cupboard were bought within this decade, much less within two years. I think I'll try to get rid of some of the old stuff and buy smaller portions from now on....+READ

    Wow, thank you so much for this video! I will admit... I was doing beans wrong. I always pour off the soaking water and then give the beans a good wash before replacing them. And I'd be pretty lucky if all the beans/lentils/spices in the cupboard were bought within this decade, much less within two years. I think I'll try to get rid of some of the old stuff and buy smaller portions from now on. Really helpful video though. I loved the guy in it!.-COLLAPSE

  • StrawbrryF, check out our Nagging Question column on that very topic:

    http://www.chow.com/stories/11832

    Best,

    Deborah from CHOW

  • From what I understand, using soaking water ups the.. umm.. gas factor of the beans. Is that just an old wives' tale or is that true?

  • I agree with AKCarlson, you need to add the olive oil to the pan first, bring the heat up and then add the onions and garlic to the oil prior to the smoke point. I find soaking beans is dependent on the type and size of beans. Small beans (like black) 6-8 hours and larger beans (butter beans) 8-10 hours. Also using the soaking water or fresh water is a personal choice, I've tried both ways...+READ

    I agree with AKCarlson, you need to add the olive oil to the pan first, bring the heat up and then add the onions and garlic to the oil prior to the smoke point. I find soaking beans is dependent on the type and size of beans. Small beans (like black) 6-8 hours and larger beans (butter beans) 8-10 hours. Also using the soaking water or fresh water is a personal choice, I've tried both ways several times. If you want to thicken the pot liquor you can add some flour to the oil and aromatics.-COLLAPSE

  • If you're adding onions and garlic at the same time to a cold pan, then adding olive oil and *then* turning on the flame, you're doing it all wrong.

    Good video otherwise.