Chapter 13 · Plant forward proteins
13.2 Beans, lentils and peas: cooking legumes
Plant Forward Proteins recipes →
▶ LectureSort, wash and soak
A dried legume is a hard, dry seed. Soaking and cooking it puts the rules of starch and protein cooking to work, gelatinization above all. see chapter 7: Starch gelatinization
Before anything else, pick through the dried legumes and throw out anything that does not belong. Then wash them.
Soft water is best, for soaking and for cooking. Use 2½ to 3 cups of water for each cup of dried legumes. If the only water you have is very hard, stir in ⅛ teaspoon of baking soda for each cup of beans.
There are two ways to soak:
- The long soak. Cover the legumes with cold water and leave them overnight.
- The quick soak. Bring the legumes and water to a boil with no lid and boil for 2 minutes. Take the pan off the heat, put the lid on, and let them stand for one hour.
Plan ahead. In a teaching kitchen with a three-hour class, the beans have to be soaked before the class begins.
Cooking the soaked legumes
Pour off the soaking water. Cook the legumes in fresh water, or in broth if the recipe asks for it.
- Salt. Season the cooking water with ½ teaspoon of salt for each cup of dried legumes.
- Fat. Beans foam as they boil. One tablespoon of fat for each cup of legumes keeps the foam down.
Without a pressure saucepan, boil legumes gently until they are soft. see chapter 9: Moist heat: poach, simmer, steam
Using a pressure saucepan
Rules for a pressure saucepan:
- Fill the pan only partly with water, and always add 1 tablespoon of fat to keep the foam down.
- Cook at 15 pounds of pressure. Start timing only when the pan reaches that pressure.
- Bring the pan up to pressure slowly, and let the pressure fall slowly too. Do not cool the pan under running water.
How long each legume takes
Cooking times for some common legumes:
| Legume | How it is cooked | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Black-eyed peas, soaked | gentle boil in broth | about 15 minutes, then 15–20 minutes more with rice, until just tender |
| Lentils, not soaked | gentle boil in broth | 25–35 minutes, until soft |
| Split peas, not soaked | gentle boil in broth | 20–25 minutes, then 15–20 minutes more with vegetables |
| Lima beans, soaked | boil in salted water | 30–35 minutes, then longer with vegetables |
| Chickpeas, soaked | 15 lb pressure | 12 minutes |
| Kidney beans, soaked | 15 lb pressure | 18 minutes |
| Black beans, soaked | 15 lb pressure | 18 minutes |
| Pinto beans, soaked | 15 lb pressure | 18 minutes |
| Soybeans, soaked | 15 lb pressure | 22 minutes |
Cooking times by legume.
Frozen shelled edamame, which are young green soybeans, need no soaking at all. Put them in a skillet with a little boiling water and a pinch of salt, cover, and cook for about 2 minutes to thaw them. Take off the lid and cook about 2 minutes more, until the water is gone and the beans are hot.
Salt, acid and the cooking liquid
Not every recipe salts at the start. A lentil soup can leave out the salt and the vinegar while the lentils cook. Both go in at the end, to taste, once the lentils are soft. When salt and acid go into legumes is worth noticing in any recipe.
Keep the cooking liquid. For pinto beans, strain the beans, boil the liquid down until only 3 or 4 tablespoons are left, and pour it back over them. For hummus, thin the chickpea purée with a few spoonfuls of the liquid until it is as smooth as you want.
Many legume dishes add a second protein food to go with the beans. Hopping John cooks black-eyed peas with rice and a little ham. A soybean casserole bakes the beans in a milk sauce with bacon. A Spanish bean salad tosses chickpeas with Cheddar cheese.
How much a cup of dried beans makes
Dried beans swell a great deal. One cup of dried legumes gives about 2¼ cups once cooked, or as much as 3 cups; a pound (2 cups) of dried beans makes 6 cups.
Kinds of dried bean
| Bean | What it is like | Good in | Can be swapped for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azuki beans (adzuki, aduki) | sweet, gentle on digestion, tastes like red beans; loved in Japan | soups, rice dishes, salads | red, pinto or cranberry beans |
| Anasazi beans | sweet, quick to cook; used in the American Southwest for centuries | soup, refried beans | pinto or cranberry beans |
| Black-eyed peas (cowpeas) | a dish of the southern states, cooked with ham bones or bacon and eaten with hot sauce | soups, salads, fritters, casseroles, Hoppin' John | none given |
| Black beans (black turtle) | strong and earthy; a staple in Latin America and the Caribbean | side dishes, soups, dips, salads | appaloosa or calypso beans |
| White beans: cannellini (white kidney beans) | smooth, with a nutty taste | Italian minestrone, bean salads | navy, great northern or red kidney beans |
| Cranberry beans | creamy, tasting a little of chestnuts; popular in northern Italy and Spain | not given | cannellini, great northern or pinto beans |
| Fava beans | meaty and strong; peel off the skins after soaking and before cooking | side dishes, soups, salads | lima, chickpeas or soybeans |
| Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) | take seasoning well | falafel, hummus, soups, salads | none given |
| Great northern beans | mild but distinctive | cassoulet, stews | navy, cannellini or lima beans |
| Kidney beans | useful in many dishes | chili, refried beans, soups, salads | cannellini, navy, red or pinto beans |
| Lentils | brown, green or orange; everyday food in the Middle East and India | side dishes, soups, stews, salads | none given |
| Lima beans (butter beans) | starchy and buttery | as a side dish, in soups, with corn as succotash in the South | soy, navy or fava beans |
| Mung beans | small and green; often sprouted for bean sprouts; skinned and split they turn flat and yellow and are called moong dal | not given | azuki beans |
| Navy beans | the bean in canned pork and beans | soups, salads, chili, Boston baked beans | cannellini, lima or great northern beans |
| Pinto beans | popular in Spanish-speaking countries; often eaten with rice | chili, refried beans, burritos | red kidney or cranberry beans |
| Soybeans | very nutritious; made into oil, tofu, soy sauce, soy milk, cheese and meat alternatives | soups, stews, casseroles | none given |
| Split peas | green or yellow field peas that split as they dry; yellow ones are milder | thick soups and stews | none given |
Dried beans: what each is like, what it is good in, and what can replace it.
Keeping cooked beans safe
A big pot of bean soup or chili is hard to cool. Cooked food must fall from 60°C down to 20°C (140°F down to 68°F) in two hours or less. It then has four hours more to get from 20°C down to 4°C (68°F down to 40°F). A pot of 4 liters (1 gallon) or more of soup or stew can take a day or longer to get cold in a cooler. To cool it fast, spread it in shallow pans no more than 5 cm (2 in.) deep, leave them uncovered and unstacked, or stir the pot in a bath of ice water.
Hold cooked beans hot at 60°C (140°F) or hotter. To reheat them, bring them to at least 74°C (165°F) for 15 seconds within two hours, on the stove or in the oven, and only then put them in the hot holding unit. Reheat leftovers only once. Throw out potentially hazardous foods not used within three days of being made.
Sources
This chapter is written from these open textbooks:
- Fruits, Vegetables and Farinaceous Products — Thibodeaux & Bienvenu, Chef John Folse Culinary Institute, Nicholls StateCC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- Basic Scientific Food Preparation Lab Manual — Dept. of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Iowa State UniversityCC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- Food Safety, Sanitation and Personal Hygiene — BC Cook Articulation Committee, BCcampusCC BY 4.0