Guess What? You Don't Actually Have to Soak Beans Overnight (2024)

FAQs

Guess What? You Don't Actually Have to Soak Beans Overnight? ›

Takeaway: You don't have to soak your beans; but if you do, cook the beans in their soaking liquid. Myth 3: If you don't soak overnight, you should at least quick-soak. Man, people are just really attached to this idea of the presoak.

Modern cooking websites often say it doesn't matter. In a way, they're both right. Soaking beans can help improve the texture of the final product once the beans are cooked and reduce the gas produced when the food is being digested. But it isn't necessary to soak them.

Just take your favorite beans (pinto, black eyed peas, chickpeas, lima beans) and cover them with your favorite broth or stock or even water seasoned with salt, spices, herbs and other aromatics like onion and garlic, and cook on low for 3 to 4 hours.

Overnight Soaking

To soak beans the traditional way, cover them with water by 2 inches, add 2 tablespoons coarse kosher salt (or 1 tablespoon fine salt) per pound of beans, and let them soak for at least 4 hours or up to 12 hours. Drain them and rinse before using.

Do you have to soak beans? No. Soaking them reduces cooking time somewhat (this can be especially important with beans that have been sitting in your pantry for a year or longer), but cooking without soaking may result in better flavor (interesting article on this topic here).

It is possible to soak beans for too long before cooking. Beans should soak for 8 to 10 hours overnight. If they are soaked for longer than 12 hours, they can lose their familiar flavor and become overly mushy. For the best result, refrain from soaking them for too long.

Soaking beans can give very old beans a jump-start to softening, but unless you're cooking a dusty bag of pintos from the back of the pantry, this shouldn't be an issue. Plan for one to four hours to cook the beans depending on their age (most are done around the two-hour mark).

Consumption of common beans (e.g. green beans, French beans) and other beans (e.g. red kidney beans, white kidney beans) without proper processing may cause poisoning due to the naturally present toxins lectins (e.g. phytohaemagglutinins). Acute poisoning symptoms may include vomiting, diarrhoea, and abdominal pain.

Soaking beans is critical to ensuring a safely canned product. Do not can dried beans without soaking.

Do beans go bad if left out overnight? ›

After cooking a pot of beans, you'll have about two hours' time of them sitting out before you have to worry about bacteria – that's the safe time outlined by the USDA in their “Danger Zone” range.

Transfer the soaked beans to a large pot and cover them with 2 inches of water. If you're using unsoaked beans, rinse them in a fine mesh strainer before you add them to the pot. Bring the water to a gentle boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 30 minutes, discarding any foam that rises to the surface.

You can cook dried green peas without soaking them in liquid, but they will take far longer to cook. Unsoaked green split peas will take approximately 35-45 minutes; unsoaked whole green peas take up to 75 minutes to cook.

If you forgot to soak your beans the night before you plan to cook them, the hot soak method can come to the rescue. Cover the beans with water, bring to a boil and boil for three minutes. Remove them from the heat and let them soak in the hot water for an hour. Then drain, rinse, add fresh water and cook.

Most beans and legumes contain a high amount of phytic acid. However, studies have shown that soaking beans before eating them significantly reduces their phytate levels.

Black Bean Soup with Chile-Lime Crema. The short answer to this question is no. You don't have to soak your dried beans overnight. We'll get to what you can do instead in a second, but first, a note about why we soak beans.

Most beans will cook in 45 minutes to 2 hours depending on the variety. Periodically, try a taste test or mash a bean against the side of the pot with a fork or spoon. Check occasionally if you need to add more water.

You can soak beans for several days, but you must be sure to replace the water twice a day so that pathogens do not grow in the water. Use room temperature water, rinse them well twice a day, and you should be fine.

Soaking thoroughly cleans accumulated buildup on the surface of the bean, such as dirt, pesticide residue or contamination from rodents and insects. Soaking also allows beans to cool evenly. Like grains, soak at room temperature for 4 hours or overnight in the refrigerator.