Mastering Dried Beans

Ingredients

1 pound dried beans
Optional but yummy: one white onion, garlic, herbs, dried chiles

Directions:
Sort your beans! Look for twigs, rocks, and bad beans. The beans that are a different color are not bad, just look for ones that are shriveled up.
Then at beans to a pot like a Dutch oven, or one with a lid. Cover with about three inches of water and turn the heat to high! This would be a good time to add your aromatics. Boil on high for 15 min. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 45 min – 1.5 hours. You may need to add more water, so it’s helpful to have a kettle running. The rule is that if you can eat 5 beans in a row that are ready, you are good to go!

Store them in their cooking liquid. Either frozen or in the fridge. Great to prep ahead.

Can be easily turned into refried beans by adding them back to a pan, adding your aromatics, cooked onion, and garlic, and using a masher or the back of a fork until smooth. Cook for 3 more minutes,

Always and I mean ALWAYS, salt your beans.

Pro tip from Mel and science: don’t put tomatoes of any kind in with your beans while they’re cooking. Because they are acidic, it will prevent the beans from cooking in a reasonable amount of time and make the skins tough.