Drying Cooked Beans for Easy Later Use

This is not so much a recipe as a some notes about what I did... which was to dry some cooked beans in our food dryer for later use. About 20 years ago there was a brief period of time when you could get "instant bean flakes" at health food stores. I don't know, maybe you still can but my impression was that they went over like a lead balloon and disappeared from the market quite quickly. Too bad. As instant food they had a lot to recommend them.

I've been cooking our beans in the Instant pot lately, and these were no exception. I gave them 18 minutes after bringing them up to a boil then soaking them for several hours. Then I changed the water, added salt, and cooked them. They were small beans and this years crop, so 15 minutes would probably have been enough; they were overly soft and frequently split.

Then they were rinsed and thoroughly drained. I put a mesh liner over the drying racks or they would never have stayed on. They were dried overnight at a fairly low temperature; a short time as dried foods go and they seemed completely dry so they are a quick and easy thing to do. I put them in a jar for storage but I have to admit I used them within the week...

It's not just that I overcooked mine; I think in general these dried cooked beans will be best for things like soup, refried beans, dips, and casseroles, because they are going to be softer and flakier than just-cooked or even canned beans. Really, that just means they won't be ideal in salads but otherwise, they'll be fine. Also, excellent for camping or road trips generally.

To reconstitute them for soup, I just put them in a measuring cup and poured boiling water over them to cover them. They were very soft and ready to go in about 5 minutes. 

So why did I want to do this? A couple of reasons: I'm trying to eat more beans and having them only 5 minutes and pot of boiling water away from being ready to use is a good thing. Yes, I could buy canned ones and no doubt I will, occasionally.

But I am also trying to use my own homegrown beans, and even beyond that, I suspect in terms of environmental footprint this type of advance bean prep and storage is considerably better than putting them into cans with a lot of liquid, to be then be shipped around and the can discarded (even if recycled). It's amazingly hard to know for sure, but this strikes me as more than likely, since if you buy dry beans the shipping involves no liquid and no metal, just a relatively small amount of plastic especially if you buy bulk. I can't see how the amount of energy involved in my instant pot and food dryer will outweigh that whole discarding-a-metal-can thing.

Posted in: Ontario Food