I'm trying to incorporate more beans into my diet and am finding it quite difficult to get my beans the way I want them to be. I'm curious to hear your guy's standard bean recipes. Do you guys use canned or dried beans? Stovetop or microwave? Any secret ingredients?

Here's what I'd call my standard bean procedure.

  • First, I start with canned beans. Dried beans are a bit firmer it seems, but I don't feel like dried impacts the flavor enough to be worth the soak time.

  • If I have it, I'll grate half of an onion into the beans. I don't like onion crunch.

  • Microplane dried mushroom into it for extra protein and flavor

  • Salt, pepper, granulated garlic, paprika and chili flakes. I don't really like how garlic powder works with the beans and don't feel the need for fresh garlic. Fresh ginger is really fire in it though. I add things on top of this usually for more flavor, but this is just my standard bean.

  • Microwave for 3 minutes

I'd do more if it made a difference in flavor, but so far I can't seem to make anything really make the beans pop. What do y'all do?

  • bubbalu [they/them]
    ·
    11 months ago

    You need a little acid in there! Lime juice, hot sauce, and apple cider vinegar are my favorite ways about it.

    Normally, I cook em from dry in my instant pot since energy is free in my apartment so its ~8x cheaper than canned and I can make them less salty than canned beans. I usually make chili, refritos, and baked beans this way. Cooking from dry used to take me 2-4 hours with presoaking, but now it takes me about an hour from the time the beanlust comes on me.