I converted to dried beans last year when I was put on a doctor ordered low-sodium diet. I have had great success substituting dried for canned in a wide number of receipes. It jsut takes a little more planning for soaking/coooking, but in the end, they work great in everything form salads to casseroles!

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AND... dried beans are incredibly cheap. Taste great, healthier, cheaper. All good things.

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Just two hours? Not bad. I always figured it would be worse. I work late, so it probably isn't a weekday thing for me.

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I grew up on dried beans the tsate cant be beat and the price too! Its worth the time just takes some planning. Soaked overnight for pintos cuts the time in half. Dont forget the smoked or fresh ham hock!

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I love, love, love dried pinto beans. Bean nector is the greatest thing on earth.

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And don't forget you can portion them out and freeze them too. I think about 1.5 cups is close to a can of beans. If you're adding them to soup, you don't even need to defrost them.

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I didn't know you could just simmer them. I thought you HAD to soak them. Is that just for when they are part of a recipe, like bean chili? I've always shyed away from them out of inexperience, but sure would like to jump into dried the bean world.

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Soaking cuts down the cooking time by about 1 hour but when you go to reheat them, they are not as firm. Also, do not add salt until the beans are fully cooked, as my mother always said. You can add your garlic cloves or onions at the beginning for that extra flavor as well.

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When I cook about any kind of dried legume, I always throw in an onion. a clove of garlic and a bay leaf. I can remember eating navy (white) beans solo this way as an impoverished student and loving it.

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Your crock pot is your friend.

Rinse and pick over beans, put 2/3c. dried beans per quart of capacity in the crock pot between 8 and 10pm, along with salt/spices/onion or garlic to taste, and fill to just below the lid ridge with water or stock. By 8am the next morning, you have fully soaked, fully cooked beans ready to rinse and then use as you would canned beans in any dish.

Several times a month I make a pot of beans overnight, put half back in the pot with meat and veggies for chile or beans and rice or something similar to cook during the day, then put the rest in the fridge to use later in the week in a lighter dish. The crockpot method takes a lot of the nuisance waiting time out of the process!

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OK, so who's got a good baked bean recipe using dried beans? Most of the recipes I've seen online use canned beans and/or a crock pot...I'm looking for one using dried beans and a bean pot...

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Here in Brazil, dried beans are our diet basis with rice. It's really difficult find one home that lunch or dinner the family doesn't eat them.

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Actually, the soaking does a whole lot more nutritionally over and above reducing the cooking time. It helps in starting to sprout the beans, making more nutrients available to you. Just let them soak in the slow cooker overnight and turn it on in the morning. No need to rinse. Same goes for oatmeal soaking overnut, and especially nuts overnight before you toast them the next day. Your body will thank you right down to the cellular level.

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My recipe for baked beans -
soak cannellini beans overnight
drain beans, add to slow cooker
pour in about the same volume of chopped tomatoes (fresh is best, but canned works OK)
throw in a couple of whole peeled garlic cloves, chopped fresh sage, and season to taste (I usually throw in a couple of dried chillies, if you're that way inclined).
Slow cook for a couple of hours.
that's it!

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P.S. I don't know how to reply to you directly, Marissa, but a thought has been nagging at me for weeks now. I enjoy your blogs immensely. You give me tremendous inspiration that your generation is turning out better than I ever hoped -- mostly. I'd love to see your review of Sally Fallon's "Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats." Of my over 50 linear feet of cookbooks, this is my most beloved, tattered and overflowing with sticky notes marking important pages and recipes -- nevertheless the well-documented nutritional information, and most revealing "Know Your Ingredients" segments. (Most of them prick your most cherished "can-you-believe-you-ever-believed-or-ate-this-crap traditions. It completely confirmed all the things I believed and practiced(think what your mother did; heck, I'm old enough to be your mother and followed all those same hippie precepts); has visibly improved my health and weight; and finally freed me of any PC crap that kept trying to tell me butter and chicken fat and eggs, and everything low-fat, fake-sugar anything was My Friend.

This book is so much more than recipes, however. I look forward to hearing your thoughts. I'm sure there are probably some discounted copies available on amazon.com, but I've found most people REFUSE to part with their copy once they get their hands on it.

To yours -- and everyone who admires you -- good eating, good health, and happy lives.

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PPS: To clarify: most people still suggest you drain beans after soaking. I don't because 1) I'm lazy; 2) I always wash them first; 3) I get organic (pesticide and herbicide free beans; or 4) all of the above, emphasis on number 1. Well, probably the rest as well.

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