How to Speed Up Cooking Dry Beans & Tomatoes

White and red kidney beans require 4 hours of soaking to shorten cooking times.

Legumes are harvested then dried for preservation, which leads to long cooking times. However, soaking beans reduces cooking times by approximately 70 percent, depending on the size of the bean. Three methods exist to speed up the cooking time of beans: pressure soak, quick soak and long soak. Using the pressure soak method and cooking in a pressure cooker achieves the quickest cooking times; for instance, after pressure soaking great northern beans for 5 minutes, they will cook in 20 minutes. Tomatoes cook far more quickly than beans, even when using the pressure method. Add tomatoes to the beans in the last 15 minutes of cooking for ideal results.

Things You'll Need

• Colander

Instructions

Long Soak

1. Spread the beans in a single layer on a sheet pan. Remove any damaged or malformed beans. Remove any chaff or hulls. Carefully look for and remove any small rocks, stems or other field debris.

2. Place the beans in a colander and rinse with cool running water. Add the beans to a cooking pot.

3. Cover the beans with 3 inches of cool water.

4. Soak navy, white kidney, pinto, red kidney, calico, pink, red Mexican, Lima, great northern, adzuki and black beans for 4 hours and rinse well. Soak fava and ful nabed beans for 12 hours and rinse well.

5. Return beans to the cooking pot and cook according to intended method of preparation.

6. Precook the tomatoes and add them as the beans finish. Tomatoes do not hold up well to high heat for long periods of time, or the extensive the simmering required for legumes. Cooking the tomatoes just prior to the beans' completion and adding them in the last 15 minutes allows the tomatoes to remain fresh and intact without losing their color or muddling their flavor. Alternatively, use home-canned or store-bought canned tomatoes in place of fresh. Reputable producers, particularly those designated organic, employ sustainable methods of production and only expose the tomatoes to heat for pasteurization, which provides comparable texture and taste to fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes.

Pressure Soak

1. Sort through the beans and discard any deformed, broken or misshapen beans. Remove and hulls, chaff or field debris. Rinse well.

2. Add the beans to a pressure cooker. Cover with 3 inches of cool water. Place over heat and bring the cooker up to pressure.

3. Cook for five minutes and allow the cooker to depressurize. Drain the beans, rinse well and cook according to recipe or intended method of preparation.

Quick Soak

1. Place the beans on a sheet pan. Remove any damaged, broken or misshapen beans. Remove and hulls, chaff or field debris.

2. Add the beans to a heavy-bottomed pot, cover with 3 inches of water and bring to boil.

3. Boil the beans for 3 minutes. Place a lid on the pot and allow the beans to soak for 2 hours.

4. Drain the beans, rinse well and cook according to recipe or intended method of preparation.

References

• "The Professional Chef 8th Edition"; The Culinary Institute of America; 2006
• Miss Vickie: Soaking Beans
• Ellen's Kitchen: Dried Beans and Peas
• Recipe Net: Bean Cooking Chart
• Miss Vickie: Why do I Have to Soak Beans?