Slow Cooked Freezer Beans

I like beans in dips, with rice, in burritos, on salads, in soups and pretty much anywhere else, except in cans. Canned beans annoy me because they often leave me with random amounts of beans sitting in my fridge, going bad before I can think of something to do with them. Not to mention the extra salt from the canning process, or the rinsing, or the wasted packaging.

My solution? Slow-cooked freezer beans. I buy dried beans in bulk and then cook them in my crockpot. My particular appliance cooks hot enough that I don't have to soak the beans and can cook them in about 2 hours on high. You may need to experiment to see what works best for you. If you don't have a slow cooker, you can always cook the beans in a pot (see tips below). Once the beans are cooked, I drain them, cool them and freeze them in a large ziplock bag. They occasionally stick together and need to be broken apart. Taking a hammer to them while they are still in the sealed bag seems to work pretty well. The beans will stick together less if they are slightly undercooked. When you want to use them, you can measure out what you need and thaw them by pouring boiling water over them (in a pot or Pyrex bowl), or by boiling them for a minute or two in a pot. (Let's just get it out now: I don't use microwaves. I don't know how they work and they scare me. So you are on your own for microwave instructions).

The advantages of frozen beans are many. First, many gourmands claim that reconstituted dried beans are tastier and healthier than canned beans. Second, you always have beans on hand and can use as few or as many as you need, without having leftovers in your fridge. Finally, it's cheaper and there is much less wasted packaging as compared to canned beans.

So that's that. I will leave you now with some handy bean cooking tips:

1. Always rinse your beans before you cook them. This gets rid of some of the sugars that cause flatulence, and can rinse away some of the colour of darker beans so that your slow cooker (or pot) doesn't get stained.

2. Don't add salt or acidic foods (like tomatoes) to the cooking water. Add these things after cooking since they can make the beans tough, and keep them from cooking no matter how long you leave them in the pot.

3. Beans expand by two or three times when you cook them, so you need to add at least 3 cups of cooking water for every 1 cup of beans.

4. To cook beans in a pot, soak them for at least 8 hours. Drain them and rinse them. In a large pot, bring water to a boil (at least 3 cups of water for every cup of dried beans) and simmer the beans (the water has to be bubbling the whole time) for 1 - 2 hours, or until cooked. Lentils and split peas do not have to be soaked and only cook for 20 - 30 minutes, but they do not freeze well.