Cooking beans takes quite minimal effort (yes more effort than opening a can of beans) and you’ll end up with a better result. You’ll see a lot of information about the importance of soaking beans overnight, but this is only something I’ve found is necessary when the beans are many years old or are a generic grocery brand (you really don’t know how long they’ve been around!). Our beans were all harvested about 4 months ago - this is really fresh. And since they are so fresh, I think they turn out worse if you soak them.
I also don’t like to cook our beans in a pressure cooker (the only exception being tepary beans). I tend to cook a whole pound of beans and use them throughout the week but I also recognize that is a bit aggressive. Cooking half a pound to start works well too.
A note on salting your beans: I like to add salt to the bean pot in the middle of cooking. Add the salt too late and you’ll just end up with salty water for the beans to be in. Add too early and it can affect the cooking time. If you can time it right (around 35ish minutes with most of our beans), you’ll be able to add salt when the beans are about halfway to ⅔ of the way cooked so that the salt gets taken in by the beans while they finish.
Add beans to a pot (I like a dutch oven), cover with about 3 inches of water and turn heat to high. You can add aromatics like herbs, chopped onion, garlic, or dried chiles, but the majority of the time I just make the beans plain so I can use them in multiple dishes.
Bring beans to a rolling boil and let them boil for 15 minutes.
Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until beans are tender. You’ll probably have to add more water as you cook the beans (I like to have an electric kettle of hot water nearby while cooking them).
Cooking time depends on the bean but can be anywhere from about 45 minutes to 1.5 hours. I would start tasting them at the 45 minute mark. You want to be able to eat about 5 beans in a row and have them all be fully cooked to ensure the pot is ready (That’s a Samin Nosrat tip!).
Store the beans in their cooking liquid in the fridge and add them to different dishes throughout the week.
