Hey Nissa, I would be interested in a head-to-head of stove top vs. InstaPot. InstaPot better on time of course but does it change the flavor in a comparison?
Not a question regarding cooking but rather storing! I would totally cook dried beans but I often cook for myself and do not eat a ton of them. I suspect they do not hold up that long in the fridge, but I also don't want to only cook tiny quantities each time. Could maybe freezing be an option?
How to stop them from giving your diarrhea for a week. It happens to me even when I boil beans to the point that they are exploding into fluff, and even if I soak them for 24 hours beforehand. They also turn really cardboardy. I just can't seem to achieve anywhere near the softness that canned beans have. I want to tress that I have the exact opposite experience to you even though as far as I know, I'm following all the advice exactly. Dried beans taste so, so awful. Last time I made them I threw the whole lot out and just ordered takeout, and I haven't attempted since. I've got a bag of lentils that I'm sitting on but I can never quite bring myself to try. I think I'd need to soak them for 48 hours and then boil for 12 before I'd be game to try them. Honestly it just seems like way, way too much effort, for way, way worse of an outcome.
Oh gosh, if you would make the same beans: long soaked + pressure cooked, not soaked + pressure cooked, long soaked + cooked on stove, quick soaked + cooked on stove, long or quick soaked + cooked in slow cooker, not soaked + cooked in slow cooker…with times and results, that would be awesome. I don’t know if you’d need to pick “the best” but rather give comments - pros and cons. Grocery store beans might be most practical for this test. What do you think?
@@mwenengofero I hope you’ll like it! I leave them overnight in water with some baking soda. I add some soda while cooking them later too. If I feel extra, after cooking I put them in cold water to remove most of the outer shell, but it’s not necessary for the hummus to be extra creamy and delicious🥰🥰
I agree BUT America’s Test Kitchen has a hummus recipe where you boil the canned beans with baking soda for a few minutes… IMO you get to the same tenderness in a lot less time- particularly if you forgot to get dried beans prepped in time
I love dried beans! My tip is to freeze them. Cook a lot of them once in a while, use in some recipe and then freeze the rest. After heating up (like in a soup or sauce) they taste just as fine as before freezing. It's cheaper and time-saving.
I do that, too. I make a huge pot with 4 pounds of red beans, have the soup for dinner that night and freeze the beans in 1 pound bags for the rest of the month.
In Brazil we rarely use can beans. We use a pressure cooker to make the process faster. After that, we cook the beans in another pan with garlic and maybe onions. Some people also add other spices, like bay leaf. It's delicious. The combination of rice and beans is one of the most classical ones for us to eat at lunch.
Exactly, I use an instant pot which is a pressure cooker to cook all my beans and it doesn't take long at all. Then you use them as you would canned beans in whichever recipe you are making. I make a version of Feijoada without meat and it's absolutely delicious 😉I also cook a lot of Mexican as well so rice and beans are my jam.
Yeah, it’s not an international practice, canned beans. I grew up on canned beans then moved to South America and not only are canned/boxed beans uncommon, they’ll straight up bankrupt you since they’re a rather recent product and only 1-2 companies offer them. 🤷🏻♀️
@@tkarlmann I cook them from dry, no soaking. The cook time in the instant pot is 30 minutes but then you wait for the pressure to naturally release. Overall it's about 2 hours from start to finish, no overnight soaking 👍
So awesome of you to credit Ethan Chlebowski as your inspiration. Even tho he is not Vegan, I absolutely adore his very educational videos. I am team dried bean however I do stock canned beans in my pantry for those times I may not have cooked dried (and frozen) beans at the ready.
Seconded. He has a great video structure, and he provides some interesting insight on cooking and the chemistry behind it that I haven't seen anywhere else.
@@atruenut the cans we can buy here are not aluminum. They are a blend of metals including tin and are often lined on the inside with plastic to prevent rust and botulism and are not in fact recycled
@@thestorykeeper6818 the cans we buy here are not aluminum. They are a mixture made with tin and other metals usually steel and often have a lining made of plastic to prevent rust or botulism. They are not recycled. The recycling plant sorts those out and trashes them. I go straight to the bulk bins for the dried beans or buy them in big burlap sacks
I am not vegan, but have added multiple ingredients to my pantry because of your inspiration. I am now the proud owner of Chili Crisp, Gochujang, and many others I had never heard of before. I also find myself having more meatless meals. I enjoy your videos immensely, and your parents are hilarious! Thanks, Nisha!
We grow our own beans and we usually preserve them by drying, so mostly cook from dried, but also like to put fresh beans in the freezer and those are great for a bean soup. We make whole pouches with the beans, carrots, parsley root, kohlrabi, celery and fresh herbs, and then we just throw the whole frozen bag into cold water to cook for a soup, we just add aromatics and either potato or small pasta. Very practical!
Genius!! I'm going out of town for a week and racking my brain trying to figure out what to do with all the extra herbs and vegetables I can't finish by then. I'm totally gonna try this!
I'm generally going to pick the cheap option over the organic one, but I've noticed a significant difference in flavor and texture of organic dried beans vs other. The smaller organic chickpeas are much yummier to me than the Goya or other brands. Similarly Hanover has the best canned chickpeas IMO!
Awesome video! I definitely have some thoughts regarding beans because I’ve been processing my own beans in the Instant pot (and with Nisha’s Vegan Instant Pot cook book) for about eight years now. 1- definitely cheaper, than canned beans! A 1 pound bag can give you enough servings for a week. So if you process three types of beans, and you will have three weeks or so of a variety of beans to use that cost you roughly 5 dollars if you get the generic and a little more if you get a higher brand. 2- if you can spare the time, prep a pound in the instant pot, after soaking, except for black beans, and put them in your freezer for later use. Either freeze them in small containers for serving size grabs with the juice or drain them except for black beans, and lay them out on a baking sheet and put into freezer. Watch so that they don’t get freezer burnt and pull out when almost completely frozen so that you can break them up and put them in a silicone bag and back into the freezer for later use. The reason why I say not black beans is because when I do it, the broth is so good that I want to have that accessible for use or for just sipping while I use the black beans. 3- definitely get a well-known brand of beans versus generic if you can. When I process my beans, I start with a bowl of dried beans and I go through them and take out the ones I feel are may be old or really broken or really shriveled, and not very appetizing. Those go into my compost. The better the company the fewer the bad beans. I want to thank Nisha for all of the videos and the cookbook that she has put out! These are all wonderful resources. And the main thing is just have fun processing and using your beans. Adding things like chili powder and kosher salt to your instant pot helps to give the beans a little added character. Love this video and I had to giggle because your blindfold reminded me of the bras that the two boys used in the movie Weird Science! Anywho thanks again! Yeah beans!!
I really appreciate you talking about the differences, how noticeable they were (or weren't), and trying a variety of different kinds of recipes. As someone who definitely doesn't always have the time for dried (or the extra funds for specialty beans) it's great to have an idea or when and where it really matters so that I can make informed choices to get the most out of my food and budget!
If you don't have time to cook dried beans, get an instant pot and basically every type of bean can be cooked in 30 minutes to an hour. And you don't need to soak them either because the instant pot makes short work of them and soaking beans wastes nutrients for zero benefit. And you can easily cook brown and black rice in there. You can even cook wild rice mixes and mixes of rice (like 1 cup of white rice, 1 cup of brown, 1 cup of black or any ratio) because the IP cooks everything to equal tenderness
Hi Nisha! When you do refried beans, you want to add a bit more oil after you mash them as that's the part where you refry them. First fry with original oil, then you mash and add a bit more oil fry the add liquid for desired consistency. - love from Mexico
They're called "refried" in English but that doesn't mean you need to fry them twice. It's a mistranslation of Spanish "refritos", so more like "well-fried" rather than "fried again".
Or just don't add more oil? It would be disgusting to drench the beans in oil when you should have already put enough during the simmering or during the sauteeing step
I really like that you gave credit to another channel who has leveraged this format to great effect. Your take was fantastic as always. And of course the bra blindfold or whatever you called it was a funny touch. ❤
I got an instant pot entirely because of your channel and book! It has made a huge difference to me when cooking dried beans, I have always preferred them as when I do them myself I don’t have the ‘gas’ issues I get with canned beans but cooking them on the stove meant the house stank and I had to constantly keep an eye on them. Doing them in the instant pot has been revolutionary, not to mention the fact that your Chana masala recipe in it is hands down my families favourite 😋
Me too! I still keep a few emergency cans of beans on hand but rarely reach for them anymore. I make a batch of beans every week or two and usually try to make enough to freeze a few servings
I feel like dried beans are quite expensive to cook electricity-wise on the hob (stove), depending on where you live, but once I got an Instant Pot it was a no-brainer to batch-cook dried for most uses. I even made my own aquafaba that way, it works insanely well!
@@ixchelssong I thought the same, until I realised one day that I needed some and had no canned chickpeas in the house! But a quick Google search found loads of articles about making it at home. You just cook your dried chickpeas in a pressure cooker or on the stovetop, but with some extra water in the pan - and then once the chickpeas are done, scoop them out and reduce the liquid a little further until it goes a bit syrupy. I used it to make Nisha’s gorgeous lemon cake recipe, and it worked perfectly! 😃
I get that point. But soaking them a long time (less cooking time) and making bigger batches (so you can cook less often) is an option. I always cook my beans, but my energy costs are much lower than avarage. I’m sure It‘s because I don‘t have a TV, a whasing machine, an oven and a dishwasher. I think that makes a much bigger difference.
Rancho Gordo beans are 100% worth the price. Not only are they still cheaper than almost any other food you get, but because they are so fresh, you do NOT need to soak them overnight. I give them a ten minute hard boil, and then simmer for usually 1-2 hours. Rarely do I need to cook them longer. They are so delicious! I love to use their pinquito beans to make refried beans.
When I soak my beans for about 12 hours or more, they only need a five minute broil and 40 minutes simmer. I think that would work with Rancho Gordo, too. I don‘t think that will make the taste worse, just less cooking time.
There was something so refreshing about this video. I laughed way more than I usually do, like when your quesadilla fell off your plate and you almost swore. Also the number or creative names for your blindfolds made my day. The video is still quality with these natural elements mixed in.
I'm hooked on Rancho Gordo beans. They have such a great variety of beans, and they're all delicious. I didn't realize they had a vegan gift box until my sister sent me one for my birthday. :)
Thank you for the awesome tips, Nisha! I would like to add one myself regarding dried ones: you might find dried beans in your ethnic markets (ex.: Turkish for chickpeas) that'll be tastier than the grocery store brand (because plants from a more specific region, so fewer crops mixed up), but still more cost-effective than fancy brands. I can't guarantee that, but it's a possibility 😊
Team dried bean here! Rancho Gordo beans are really delicious & so worth it in a lot of applications! We can get many meals out of a bag (family of 3). We eat canned beans too when in a hurry. I have found that I can get the RG soaking for just a couple of hours then get them started in the instant pot and save time that way too. I also like several varieties of store bought dried beans. If you're in a good growing climate, you can plant the RG beans and get a nice crop too!
Great timing! I love your recipes! I made black bean soup today using dried beans that I had soaked overnight. They cooked very tender and held their shape until I blended some to thicken the soup. I used the softer canned black beans last week to make black bean burgers, first rinsing them then drying them out in the oven before mashing them with crumbled walnuts and other ingredients to make the patty. The liquid from those canned beans found its way into this weeks black bean soup. Both dried and canned have their place in my pantry.
I love dried beans especially in the spring, fall, and winter. I wanted to mention that here in the Southeast during the humid/ blazing hot summer, canned beans are a blessing. 😋🫘
Rancho Gordo needs to sponsor you ASAP (I legit thought they were until you clarified this), and I'd love to see more videos in this format. Been loving your previous taste test style videos too. Understanding how a dish changes based on a single component makes me a much better cook :) So, thank you for that!
Hi! A really good trick my mexican mom taught me to make home cooked pinto beans taste WAY better is to throw in some Peruvian beans in the mix while soaking them. My mom does 50/50 This makes them way creamier!
Using the instant pot to cook your dried beans (esp after 4 hour or overnight soak) is super convenient and delicious. I do keep a couple cans of canned beans around for those last minute meal decisions.
Dried beans in the slow cooker for about 12 hours on low, come out really nicely and require no watching or waiting, so I usually do that overnight. Awesome video super helpful, thank you very much. I will try and find the Rancho Gordo beans.
I've made my own refried beans for a long time. I soak the beans overnight, then cook them for about 2 hours before i put the beans in jars, adding a small amount of homemade lard and spices to each jar. Then i pressure cook them. The beans come out soft enough to mash up, but not mushy and grainy. Well worth the effort!
Thank for these recipes! I recently went from canned beans to dried beans myself and I love how much more variety there is. Whenever I'm at a store I look at what kind of dried beans and legumes they have, I get interesting beans I've never had before (still cheaper usually than the canned ones) and I like to make mixes of three or more different types. Since they're all dried and available anyway, I can determine what I want to soak overnight for the next day and experiment a bit, which is not something you do when you have to open a whole can (especially for one person).
Great video! You really put a lot of work into this. Couple of things you missed: 1) The liquid from canned Garbanzos can be used as an egg replacer for homemade Mayo. I'm not sure if the cooking process for dry beans yields the same liquid as "can broth". 2) Wow, you use a _LOT_ of salt! I never had to be concerned about this when I was younger; now I do. (At age 74, I get Edema in my feet really easily - if I lose the salt, my feet are fine!) Salt substitutes abound in my kitchen. 3) With dry beans, _I_ can easily control the salt! Thoughts?
Depending on the brand, canned beans are vastly different! I discovered the Goya brand of chick peas and I will never eat any other canned chick peas. They are creamy but not mushy, and they really taste good. If I’m not cooking them from dried they are my go to brand.
I think so though I have not done a taste test. I always cook a whole bag of beans and freeze what I'm not using straight away. I'm happy with the flavour and texture and I definitely find it better than canned beans.
So interesting! I'm definitely going to ditch the cans and start using dried beans. It's also much more environmentally friendly with just a fraction of the packaging and some stores even sell them in paper bags. Thanks Nisha
I just love how practical so much of your content is Nisha! It really makes a difference in people's lives, especially in the long run, and you never sacrifice flavor. Thank you so much^_^!!!💕🌈🌷
Rancho Gordo has the best beans on the planet! Before I tried their beans, I thought a dried bean was a dried bean. I was incorrect. Theirs are phenomenal! And, any dried bean is better than the canned version. Thank you so much for this video!
To be fair, the canned ones were cooked too. Just at an industrial facility which arguably uses a lot of energy. There is also all the energy from the canning facility
Stove top this might make sense but I use a digital pressure cooker (conserves energy and water) and it's the same process as commercial but without the preservation part (what dulls the flavor). Make home canned goods and you will know what I mean. Both start with dry and cook under pressure but one is preserved while the other is enjoyed fresh. That's the difference...and a lot less packaging waste when cooking from dry at home.
its a fairy negligible cost and it would vary depending if you batch cook dried beans or do it as you go, plus energy prices vary a lot so it wouldnt really be a useful addition.
Dried beans are necessary for me simply because of the cost. I eat beans every single day and it would get expensive to do that with only canned beans. Also, hauling all those cans home from the grocery store would suck 😄Another thing I noticed before I got the instant pot was how difficult it was to find canned Pinto beans without any salt added. Usually they were absolutely loaded with salt and that's no bueno.
Great video. I have switched to dry beans, almost always Rancho Gordo ones, because I feel like the flavor is better. I usually have a can or two of beans….. just in case. I also enjoy Ethan’s videos.
Nisha is my shero. I have a big bin of dry beans. We are ready for the next pandemic. I cook a batch in the instapot every week - most of the time without pre-soaking. The cooked beans go into three storage containers. I freeze two and refrigerate the single container. As the week goes, I thaw out the other containers as needed. I keep canned beans just in case I'm out of beans when I want a burrito. Nothing is more convenient.
Haha that delights me to hear. It also reminds me of when i told my mom we were going to watch the movie Paddington 2 together because it was the best movie ever. She started off the night by saying “you expect me to watch a movie about a talking bear??” And she ended the movie with “can we watch it again?!”
Hi Nisha, I wanted to let you know that you have inspired me to go Vegan. I have been on vegan lifestyle change for over 1 year now. Thank you for being such a huge inspiration to me. Ever since I've become vegan, I have so much more energy and vitality and good health. Bless you! I hope your work continues to inspire millions of people around the world.
Good to see kenji's research being used here. But note he also adds baking soda to the brine soak. Since I began following his advice my beans cook much more evenly and creamy but not mushy.
I eat beans daily. I use them in stews, curries, sprouts, veggie burgers, salads, baked goods, and even smoothies. Without a doubt, dried beans are the go-to option for me. Every Thursday I set 2 cups to soak for 24 - 48 hours (I allow a bit of fermenting.) Then I cook them on Saturday or Sunday. I make anything from: Bean okara balls Bean massaman curry Bean stew Bean/Veganaise salad (think of tuna salad, but with beans instead and yellow mustard) and so on. I even freeze the boiled beans If I feel I will be short on time in the future. It is a game changer and suuuuuuuuper cheap.... Just fyi.
I prefer to cook dried beans. They taste amazing and you save so much money! We often cook more than we need, and freeze up a lot of it for later, and when we have a selection of frozen, cooked beans, it’s super convenient. (We also cook and freeze batches of lentils, farro, barley, freekah, etc., and use them and frozen beans in all kinds of soups, salads, and other dishes in endless combinations.
Great video. I'm from the UK and had amazing refried beans whilst riding a motorcycle through Arizona years ago. I've been trying to make them ever since with canned beans but dried beans seem to be the way to go. Must admit that here in England we do get Old El Paso canned refried beans and I actually quite like them!
Dried beans are worth it and simple. Take the dried beans, throw them in water, add a bit of baking soda (this helps break them down) and soak over night. If you don't have time, heat the water to boiling and add the beans, and let sit for an hour - again with baking soda. Replace the water, bring to a boil, they will be done in about an hour depending on the type of bean. If you don't use baking soda, they will take HOURS to boil, the baking soda significantly speeds up the process.
Agree 100%. Baking soda is definitely the key for all dried pulses. Also for tomato sauce, it takes the acidity out and makes them sweet without adding sugar.
we started using dried beans about a year or so ago for the cost savings and because the soaking and instantpot cooking help with digestion. it’s so easy to cook the beans in my instantpot because i work from home! i love cooking them in veggie broth with tons of spices
We eat beans daily, either alone or in salads, rice or pasta. Many varieties. Kidney, Pinto, Black rotation 🤷 In the Fall/Winter I rely on dry beans using crockpot with large onion and lower sodium broth. The house smells wonderful. It always makes enough to freeze. Too hot in Florida, so I rely in the Summer mainly, on canned, BUT well rinsed and cooked on stovetop in oil, lots of fresh garlic, salt. We eat a lot of chi chi beans, but I usually stovetop roast them in some oil/basil/salt. Looking forward to prepring MAYOCOBA BEANS; new to me. High protein value. I've never bought the RG dried beans. I know they are very popular. Great video, love the "taste testers"😂❤
Love using dry beans but I always have about six cans for days when I either forgot to soak some beans, or just don't feel like preparing them. Personally think dry beans taste better, canned beans seem to always be a bit overcooked and watery.
In the last couple years I’ve been cooking dried beans more often, mostly because I have the time. About 6 months ago I bought Camelia brand beans, which are produced in New Orleans. I can’t get Rancho Gordo beans in Nashville, not even on Amazon. I was blown away by the difference in the Camelia beans vs regular store dried bean. The beans couldn’t compare with taste and texture. Just cked again on Amazon to see if Rancho Gordo beans were available, and all they have on my feed of that level bean was the Camelia brand. Love to see an exploration into cooking methods. I tried my IP one time and had a huge mess. I’ve never tried slow cooker…so any helpful hints are always welcome. Thanks for this! Always look forward to your vids every week….🙏🏻
I heard about Camellia from another TH-camr and they're available at Publix. Agreed that they're great quality and only about $1-2 more per pound than the store brand. I had some frozen black beans from them that I reheated and ate with street corn dip and chips and they still had good taste/texture for being frozen.
Thank you for all the effort (and washing up!) you put into making this. Wow. There are two factors you didn't consider that maybe you might want to follow up? Power and energy: by those, I mean the money cost of the electricity/gas used in cooking - especially the longer times like for chickpeas or butter beans and energy: if you're disabled, have chronic medical conditions, work fulltime, a parent etc, you sometimes can't guarantee you can do the cooking next day, or you don't have the spoons to do the cooking. I acknowledge you did say "sometimes good enough is good enough" and I appreciate that! No one video can be completely comprehensive when the subject can't be discussed objectively - and food *is* subjective by nature. I really enjoyed your approach and humour! Thank you.
I also like making refried beans in the crock pot. I soak the beans overnight then put them in the crock pot with bay leaf, onions, cumin and a few other things and let it cook for 8 hours. I use the recipe from 100 days of real food
Hey, this is a really good video, and i also love Ethan's videos with the blind taste tests. I think you would have had more consistent results if you made a common batch of the base for all the dishes and then split the base and only varied the beans for each dish.
I love this! My 3 year old eats beans every day, so it was apparent pretty quickly that I was going to need to cook them myself as much as possible. I usually make a huge pot of black beans about every 2 weeks and freeze them in containers. Only problem is that I hate fishing out the aromatics, so I make broth the day before and cook them in that and some water 😅😂
Thanks for this, and more great recipes! You didn't address doing bulk prep of home-cooked beans however. For example, how long can I keep home cooked beans refrigerated before I have to use them? And can I freeze them? That increases the convenience factor for home cooked beans. I have frozen homemade chickpeas successfully. Also putting them in ball jars in the fridge to use later in the week. Also as an instant pot chef, you didn't mention how much faster making homemade beans is using an instant pot or even a slow cooker ( unless I missed it?). Finally, another thing that would have been helpful is not all canned beans are alike, and many have very high sodium. (Like the whole foods brand you use on the show.) Much easier to control for that when you make them yourself.
Glad you enjoyed! And yes, there's lots I left out of the video (it was already getting pretty long 😅). If there's enough interest, I might do a video covering the best ways to make dried beans. Including storage tips for batch cooking is a great idea!
Dried beans take about 45-50 minutes to cook if a 1/2 Tbs of baking soda is added. Give them a rinse before using or freezing.😊 I love your vegan recipes. They are beyond delicious!❤
Fantastic idea for a video! Loved it! You mentioned the IP, that's how I usually cook my dried beans. But have you ever tested cooking them in the IP with or without soaking? Do you have a preference? BTW love watching you Nisha, you're hilarious!
I found that cooking dry beans in the IP gives me gas, but soaked do not. It’s been a while since I’ve done it, but quick soaking in the IP worked pretty well too. I think what I did for a super quick “soak” was to pressure cook dry beans for one minute, drain, then cook for the rest of the dry time. I helped a lot with the gas, but from the color of the water I dumped I may have lost more flavor than if I’d done a cold soak. Never did a side by side comparison.
Spent a lot at the Rancho Gordo website because of this video. I love trying the different varieties of beans, so much fun. Your pots in this video are beautiful! Thank you for making vegan cooking delicious. You are a precious gem.
You are doing a great job for the society❤️ I was a hard core non vegetarian till I visited a farm and witnessed the horror of the dairy industry. The cow is inseminated painfully every 6 months so that calf is born. The calves are taken away immediately without a single drop of milk. The male calves are transported to the slaughterhouse to be killed on the very day. This process continues for some years till the cow is completely exhausted and later sold for meat. That’s the milk we consume. I literally had sleepless nights after watching the cows, their udders become so big they can’t even move. And they run to save their babies from going to the slaughterhouse. Thank you for these so that people can choose compassion in their plate instead of pain.
This is the first time I've ever been served a vid of yours from the "Al Gore rhythm" and I am impressed! Thanks for citing Ethan Chlebowski and Kenji. In the last couple of months I've been serving beans in one form or another every day and haven't used canned bean in probably 30 years. A bit of baking soda (1/4 tsp) in the soaking water also helps break down the outer skin of the beans and reduces the oligosaccharides after cooking.
I always buy dried beans and cook them in a pressure cooker, usually on the weekend and then have cooked beans for the week. It’s fast, super easy and cheap! The only drawback is the planning, I usually soak the beans over night, so if I forget to soak them it takes more time… I am really excited to try the Tuscan stew recipe, that looks delicious!
Really interesting results on the quesadillas. I'll always favour dried beans, but canned always has a place on the shelf for emergencies, getting a pressure cooker has changed things to where I don't get caught short too often and I've not found a difference in digestion between soaked and not with the pressure cooker. If I have more than I can finish I just put them in tupperware in the fridge they always get used or they can go in the freezer, so even doing the bit extra in the pressure cooker still works out. As someone else said it might be interesting doing a pressure cooker test, I think they last better as well because you're not having them out that first night soaking, don't have to boil for hours, some just do take ages on the hob. Omg I wrote a whole book there whoops 😅 you're my favourite though
I LOVE my Instant Pot and initially bought it just to cook beans. (I use it for other things now) Before that I soaked them overnight, rinsed them thoroughly, and cook them on the stove for hours with a ham hock. (My family’s official way of cooking beans😂). Then I got a slow cooker but still did the soak/rinse routine before putting them in the slow cooker.
You need a working refrigerator/freezer to store the beans you cooked (in smaller containers, recycled cottage-cheese or whatever w/ lids.) If you have that, go to an estate sale/garage sale/Mom's attic and get a CrockPot or slow cooker. In the states that's $5-$20. From there you can find on the Internet how to cook beans. But if your refrigerator doesn't chill & your freezer is lame, might as well stick with canned.
If you have an instant pot, dry beans are the best. I only cook for myself and have 6 qt instant pot and will soak and cook 2 cups of beans and use during a week for different kinds of things. I recommend organic beans if you can find them and even if they're a few dollars a pound dry, it's still cheap. Most soaked beans take about 10-11 minutes on bean/chili setting, depending how soft you want. For chickpeas, try to find the bigger dry ones, definitely soak and I do them for 12 minutes. I mostly cook all of them with only water, no salt or anything, unless I'm cooking the whole batch for 1 recipe. They also freeze extremely well. Put in freezer storage bag and freeze flat and they take very little space. 😉 If you don't eat beans often and find they give you gastric problems, start with a little a day and build up. 😂
Thanks for this! For the instant pot, how long do you typically soak the dried beans? I have an Instant Pot and don’t soak them-thought that was the point of an IP. Would love to know your thoughts on why you soak with an IP. 😊
@@roxylqm111 I soak the beans to make them more digestible and I think they come out better. I find I can soak most beans for several hours, but I do soak chickpeas overnight or longer.
This is very useful. I had a bag of dried black beans to use for chilli but I kept forgetting to soak them the night before so I switched back to cans once I used the back up. But I am tempted to try dried chickpeas because I am always a bit disappointed by the flavour of chickpeas but use just as a healthy option in curries. Also I will now def try making my own refried beans I've only really had them when eating out and never know how to make them!
I never soak beans and I eat them all the time. I figure that fresh water used to be a lot harder to get and when someone had to carry it themselves from the river, they were not likely to waste water by soaking. So I just rinse, boil, and eat. Been doing it forever.
When I was little, there were always two pots on the stove. One of them was a huge pot of red beans that were cooked once a week and then reheated every day. By the time we finished the batch, the beans were so creamy and full of flavor, they were our favorite.
Absolutely loving your experiment and insights on dried beans! 😄 It's a game-changer for my pantry too. The flavor and creaminess in hummus with dried beans are unmatched. And oh, freezing them for later use? Genius! 🌿❄ Can't wait to see more of these thoughtful tests. 🙌
At different times in my life, I've eaten primarily dried beans and other times primarily canned beans. I never thought to try a taste test. Very interesting. Thank you.
I cook dried beans primarily to avoid the plastic leached in from cans. And the waste cans produce. But, once accustomed to the taste of cooked dried beans, canned doesn't compare. Jarred beans sometimes are just as tasty as cooked dried beans, for me.
I've been ordering from their site for years, their spices and hot cocoa mix is delish too, also got some cookbooks and even some banana vinegar. Worth checking out.
I use a pressure cooker and do them in batches. The ones I don’t use get frozen. Slow defrost in the fridge for when I need them. Works perfect and they are fresh!
That eye mask is positively entomological. And props to you for the integrity to shout out Ethan! His experiment videos like this set the standard for sure.
I love using dry beans as I prefer the flavor. It’s crazy how much sugar can be tasted in canned beans. Dry beans taste so much better without all the additives.
I am LOVING your channel and content! Thanks for helping me learn how to cook. Would you ever consider doing a video of the basics of soup broth? Or how to cut onions without weeping? 😂 Thanks for bringing yummier food into my home 💛
I love your channel -just found you -and it’s my goal to try one of your recipes once a week into my life to start eating more plant-based foods. All your recipes look so amazing!
You can soak a large batch of beans and freeze them to save time on cooking. Also to reduce bloating it’s best to replace the soaking water two or three times. Lastly dried beans can be sprouted, especially the smaller ones. This makes a lot more nutrients available and you can eat them the same way. No reason to use canned beans
🖐This was such an awesome idea for a video. As someone who has been cooking beans for years I have often scoffed at using canned beans, but have done so from time to time, but your channel has educated me that dishes can still taste good with canned beans, and also I've learned more about spices and flavors, and enjoy watching you as you have calming and playful energy. ❤😂
I really like making my dried beans in my instant pot. Not having to soak them is such a time saver! I work with a woman who's husband is a farmer and grows pinto beans. They are the best!! If you can find Morrow Farms Beans you should try them.
I wonder how much difference it makes if we know where they were grown? I live in Canada and we export many lentils and chickpeas grown on prime agricultural land however since they are exported, we don't get many marketed here.
Love the tiny attention to detail from the whip noise on transition, to the counter in the corner of the screen! Keep up the great work, I appreciate every detail!
I will always credit you for recommending Rancho Gordo. I can't describe how much better their beans taste. I made hommus with their chickpeas and there was a smoky sausage like flavor that came right from the beans. No exaggeration, their beans are just that good.
Canned beans are also a good option in an emergency situation (when the power goes out or you have to ration water. On the other hand, properly stored both canned and dried beans are desirable for long term storage pantries.
Any questions on how to cook dried beans? Drop ‘em here and we might do a future video on it!
Hey Nissa,
I would be interested in a head-to-head of stove top vs. InstaPot.
InstaPot better on time of course but does it change the flavor in a comparison?
Not a question regarding cooking but rather storing! I would totally cook dried beans but I often cook for myself and do not eat a ton of them. I suspect they do not hold up that long in the fridge, but I also don't want to only cook tiny quantities each time. Could maybe freezing be an option?
How to stop them from giving your diarrhea for a week. It happens to me even when I boil beans to the point that they are exploding into fluff, and even if I soak them for 24 hours beforehand. They also turn really cardboardy. I just can't seem to achieve anywhere near the softness that canned beans have. I want to tress that I have the exact opposite experience to you even though as far as I know, I'm following all the advice exactly. Dried beans taste so, so awful. Last time I made them I threw the whole lot out and just ordered takeout, and I haven't attempted since. I've got a bag of lentils that I'm sitting on but I can never quite bring myself to try. I think I'd need to soak them for 48 hours and then boil for 12 before I'd be game to try them. Honestly it just seems like way, way too much effort, for way, way worse of an outcome.
How to cook beans in a pressure cooker
Oh gosh, if you would make the same beans: long soaked + pressure cooked, not soaked + pressure cooked, long soaked + cooked on stove, quick soaked + cooked on stove, long or quick soaked + cooked in slow cooker, not soaked + cooked in slow cooker…with times and results, that would be awesome. I don’t know if you’d need to pick “the best” but rather give comments - pros and cons. Grocery store beans might be most practical for this test. What do you think?
I only have a very strong opinion that dried beans make a hell of a difference in hummus. The creaminess is unmatched. Canned don’t stand a chance.
I have a video on this very topic!
th-cam.com/video/EsZFJEjANiA/w-d-xo.html
@@mwenengofero I hope you’ll like it! I leave them overnight in water with some baking soda. I add some soda while cooking them later too. If I feel extra, after cooking I put them in cold water to remove most of the outer shell, but it’s not necessary for the hummus to be extra creamy and delicious🥰🥰
@@mwenengofero and, of course, sometimes what is most time efficient is the best, we gotta choose our battles😀
I agree BUT America’s Test Kitchen has a hummus recipe where you boil the canned beans with baking soda for a few minutes… IMO you get to the same tenderness in a lot less time- particularly if you forgot to get dried beans prepped in time
Oooh. Thank you! I’ll try using dry.
I love dried beans! My tip is to freeze them. Cook a lot of them once in a while, use in some recipe and then freeze the rest. After heating up (like in a soup or sauce) they taste just as fine as before freezing. It's cheaper and time-saving.
It's what I do. Canned beans are crazy expensive in brazil and I like to save my money.
Omg, ofcourse! Can't believe i hadn't thought of just freezing them
Yeah. Me too. Then the night before I'm going to use them, I move from freezer to refrigerator
I do that, too. I make a huge pot with 4 pounds of red beans, have the soup for dinner that night and freeze the beans in 1 pound bags for the rest of the month.
And without the extra non ingredients ya get with canned.
In Brazil we rarely use can beans. We use a pressure cooker to make the process faster. After that, we cook the beans in another pan with garlic and maybe onions. Some people also add other spices, like bay leaf. It's delicious. The combination of rice and beans is one of the most classical ones for us to eat at lunch.
Exactly, I use an instant pot which is a pressure cooker to cook all my beans and it doesn't take long at all. Then you use them as you would canned beans in whichever recipe you are making. I make a version of Feijoada without meat and it's absolutely delicious 😉I also cook a lot of Mexican as well so rice and beans are my jam.
Makes cent you kinda have to twice cook them.
Yeah, it’s not an international practice, canned beans. I grew up on canned beans then moved to South America and not only are canned/boxed beans uncommon, they’ll straight up bankrupt you since they’re a rather recent product and only 1-2 companies offer them. 🤷🏻♀️
@@sahamal_savu How long does it take to cook beans in your pressure cooker?
@@tkarlmann I cook them from dry, no soaking. The cook time in the instant pot is 30 minutes but then you wait for the pressure to naturally release. Overall it's about 2 hours from start to finish, no overnight soaking 👍
So awesome of you to credit Ethan Chlebowski as your inspiration. Even tho he is not Vegan, I absolutely adore his very educational videos. I am team dried bean however I do stock canned beans in my pantry for those times I may not have cooked dried (and frozen) beans at the ready.
Seconded. He has a great video structure, and he provides some interesting insight on cooking and the chemistry behind it that I haven't seen anywhere else.
I love him too! I also am team dried, but always have canned for quick ease in a pinch.
Love his videos cause I love science!
For me, the amount of garbage is also a factor. When I eat a lot of beans in a week, all those cans just really annoy me and then I prefer dried ones
Great point!
Yes and you can buy dry beans in bulk and take your own bags. Saves tons on waste
Packaging, not garbage. Cans are not garbage. Aluminum is the one thing that is infinitely recyclable.
@@atruenut the cans we can buy here are not aluminum. They are a blend of metals including tin and are often lined on the inside with plastic to prevent rust and botulism and are not in fact recycled
@@thestorykeeper6818 the cans we buy here are not aluminum. They are a mixture made with tin and other metals usually steel and often have a lining made of plastic to prevent rust or botulism. They are not recycled. The recycling plant sorts those out and trashes them. I go straight to the bulk bins for the dried beans or buy them in big burlap sacks
I am not vegan, but have added multiple ingredients to my pantry because of your inspiration. I am now the proud owner of Chili Crisp, Gochujang, and many others I had never heard of before. I also find myself having more meatless meals.
I enjoy your videos immensely, and your parents are hilarious! Thanks, Nisha!
This delights me to hear! I’m so happy you’re building out your pantry with delicious condiments and ingredients. So happy you enjoyed the video too!
Same :)
I always keep gochujang on me because it makes the perfect sauce for fried chicken
We grow our own beans and we usually preserve them by drying, so mostly cook from dried, but also like to put fresh beans in the freezer and those are great for a bean soup. We make whole pouches with the beans, carrots, parsley root, kohlrabi, celery and fresh herbs, and then we just throw the whole frozen bag into cold water to cook for a soup, we just add aromatics and either potato or small pasta. Very practical!
Are the textures different from dried vs. fresh then frozen?
Genius!! I'm going out of town for a week and racking my brain trying to figure out what to do with all the extra herbs and vegetables I can't finish by then. I'm totally gonna try this!
@@d2d2d3d3 Not really! In the soup, the beans get nice and soft but not mushy unless you overcook. I can never tell the difference.
I soak beans overnight, and then cook them in an instant pot for 10-15 mins depending on the bean. It’s so easy. Thanks for the informative video!
I'm generally going to pick the cheap option over the organic one, but I've noticed a significant difference in flavor and texture of organic dried beans vs other. The smaller organic chickpeas are much yummier to me than the Goya or other brands. Similarly Hanover has the best canned chickpeas IMO!
this is great insight! thank you!!
Same with beets and peas
Between this channel and pickuplimes my dinners have definitely leveled up. I appreciate them so much!❤
Awesome video!
I definitely have some thoughts regarding beans because I’ve been processing my own beans in the Instant pot (and with Nisha’s Vegan Instant Pot cook book) for about eight years now.
1- definitely cheaper, than canned beans! A 1 pound bag can give you enough servings for a week. So if you process three types of beans, and you will have three weeks or so of a variety of beans to use that cost you roughly 5 dollars if you get the generic and a little more if you get a higher brand.
2- if you can spare the time, prep a pound in the instant pot, after soaking, except for black beans, and put them in your freezer for later use. Either freeze them in small containers for serving size grabs with the juice or drain them except for black beans, and lay them out on a baking sheet and put into freezer. Watch so that they don’t get freezer burnt and pull out when almost completely frozen so that you can break them up and put them in a silicone bag and back into the freezer for later use. The reason why I say not black beans is because when I do it, the broth is so good that I want to have that accessible for use or for just sipping while I use the black beans.
3- definitely get a well-known brand of beans versus generic if you can. When I process my beans, I start with a bowl of dried beans and I go through them and take out the ones I feel are may be old or really broken or really shriveled, and not very appetizing. Those go into my compost. The better the company the fewer the bad beans.
I want to thank Nisha for all of the videos and the cookbook that she has put out! These are all wonderful resources. And the main thing is just have fun processing and using your beans. Adding things like chili powder and kosher salt to your instant pot helps to give the beans a little added character.
Love this video and I had to giggle because your blindfold reminded me of the bras that the two boys used in the movie Weird Science! Anywho thanks again! Yeah beans!!
I really appreciate you talking about the differences, how noticeable they were (or weren't), and trying a variety of different kinds of recipes. As someone who definitely doesn't always have the time for dried (or the extra funds for specialty beans) it's great to have an idea or when and where it really matters so that I can make informed choices to get the most out of my food and budget!
If you don't have time to cook dried beans, get an instant pot and basically every type of bean can be cooked in 30 minutes to an hour. And you don't need to soak them either because the instant pot makes short work of them and soaking beans wastes nutrients for zero benefit. And you can easily cook brown and black rice in there. You can even cook wild rice mixes and mixes of rice (like 1 cup of white rice, 1 cup of brown, 1 cup of black or any ratio) because the IP cooks everything to equal tenderness
Hi Nisha! When you do refried beans, you want to add a bit more oil after you mash them as that's the part where you refry them. First fry with original oil, then you mash and add a bit more oil fry the add liquid for desired consistency. - love from Mexico
Thank you for the tip - that makes sense (and sounds delicious). Greetings from California!
They're called "refried" in English but that doesn't mean you need to fry them twice. It's a mistranslation of Spanish "refritos", so more like "well-fried" rather than "fried again".
@@RainbowPlantLife I'll give you even better tip. Use butter for that :D
Or just don't add more oil? It would be disgusting to drench the beans in oil when you should have already put enough during the simmering or during the sauteeing step
I really like that you gave credit to another channel who has leveraged this format to great effect. Your take was fantastic as always. And of course the bra blindfold or whatever you called it was a funny touch. ❤
I got an instant pot entirely because of your channel and book! It has made a huge difference to me when cooking dried beans, I have always preferred them as when I do them myself I don’t have the ‘gas’ issues I get with canned beans but cooking them on the stove meant the house stank and I had to constantly keep an eye on them. Doing them in the instant pot has been revolutionary, not to mention the fact that your Chana masala recipe in it is hands down my families favourite 😋
Me too! I still keep a few emergency cans of beans on hand but rarely reach for them anymore. I make a batch of beans every week or two and usually try to make enough to freeze a few servings
Add a strainer!
I have one for my instant pot and it makes it very easy to simply life the canned beans out of the cooking liquid
Thanks for giving credit to Ethan! I love when creators inspire each other and I’ve been watching both of your contents for a while.
I feel like dried beans are quite expensive to cook electricity-wise on the hob (stove), depending on where you live, but once I got an Instant Pot it was a no-brainer to batch-cook dried for most uses. I even made my own aquafaba that way, it works insanely well!
How do you make aquafaba? I guess I always assumed it was part of the canning process! 😅
@@ixchelssong I thought the same, until I realised one day that I needed some and had no canned chickpeas in the house! But a quick Google search found loads of articles about making it at home. You just cook your dried chickpeas in a pressure cooker or on the stovetop, but with some extra water in the pan - and then once the chickpeas are done, scoop them out and reduce the liquid a little further until it goes a bit syrupy. I used it to make Nisha’s gorgeous lemon cake recipe, and it worked perfectly! 😃
@@Melissa.Garrett Thank you! 😁
@@ixchelssong No problem. 😘
I get that point. But soaking them a long time (less cooking time) and making bigger batches (so you can cook less often) is an option. I always cook my beans, but my energy costs are much lower than avarage. I’m sure It‘s because I don‘t have a TV, a whasing machine, an oven and a dishwasher. I think that makes a much bigger difference.
Awesome video! Love Ethan’s series and glad we’re getting a plant based version 👏
Rancho Gordo beans are 100% worth the price. Not only are they still cheaper than almost any other food you get, but because they are so fresh, you do NOT need to soak them overnight. I give them a ten minute hard boil, and then simmer for usually 1-2 hours. Rarely do I need to cook them longer. They are so delicious! I love to use their pinquito beans to make refried beans.
When I soak my beans for about 12 hours or more, they only need a five minute broil and 40 minutes simmer. I think that would work with Rancho Gordo, too. I don‘t think that will make the taste worse, just less cooking time.
i usually like to use dried, but will often use cans for certain purposes when convenient. the only exception is lentils. always dried, no matter what
Yeah dried lentils are so fast to cook, really no reason to go canned on that one
There was something so refreshing about this video. I laughed way more than I usually do, like when your quesadilla fell off your plate and you almost swore. Also the number or creative names for your blindfolds made my day. The video is still quality with these natural elements mixed in.
I'm hooked on Rancho Gordo beans. They have such a great variety of beans, and they're all delicious. I didn't realize they had a vegan gift box until my sister sent me one for my birthday. :)
Thank you for the awesome tips, Nisha! I would like to add one myself regarding dried ones: you might find dried beans in your ethnic markets (ex.: Turkish for chickpeas) that'll be tastier than the grocery store brand (because plants from a more specific region, so fewer crops mixed up), but still more cost-effective than fancy brands. I can't guarantee that, but it's a possibility 😊
Team dried bean here! Rancho Gordo beans are really delicious & so worth it in a lot of applications! We can get many meals out of a bag (family of 3). We eat canned beans too when in a hurry. I have found that I can get the RG soaking for just a couple of hours then get them started in the instant pot and save time that way too. I also like several varieties of store bought dried beans. If you're in a good growing climate, you can plant the RG beans and get a nice crop too!
Great timing! I love your recipes! I made black bean soup today using dried beans that I had soaked overnight. They cooked very tender and held their shape until I blended some to thicken the soup. I used the softer canned black beans last week to make black bean burgers, first rinsing them then drying them out in the oven before mashing them with crumbled walnuts and other ingredients to make the patty. The liquid from those canned beans found its way into this weeks black bean soup. Both dried and canned have their place in my pantry.
I love dried beans especially in the spring, fall, and winter. I wanted to mention that here in the Southeast during the humid/ blazing hot summer, canned beans are a blessing. 😋🫘
Rancho Gordo needs to sponsor you ASAP (I legit thought they were until you clarified this), and I'd love to see more videos in this format. Been loving your previous taste test style videos too. Understanding how a dish changes based on a single component makes me a much better cook :) So, thank you for that!
Hi! A really good trick my mexican mom taught me to make home cooked pinto beans taste WAY better is to throw in some Peruvian beans in the mix while soaking them. My mom does 50/50 This makes them way creamier!
Using the instant pot to cook your dried beans (esp after 4 hour or overnight soak) is super convenient and delicious.
I do keep a couple cans of canned beans around for those last minute meal decisions.
Dried beans in the slow cooker for about 12 hours on low, come out really nicely and require no watching or waiting, so I usually do that overnight. Awesome video super helpful, thank you very much. I will try and find the Rancho Gordo beans.
I've made my own refried beans for a long time. I soak the beans overnight, then cook them for about 2 hours before i put the beans in jars, adding a small amount of homemade lard and spices to each jar. Then i pressure cook them. The beans come out soft enough to mash up, but not mushy and grainy. Well worth the effort!
Thank for these recipes! I recently went from canned beans to dried beans myself and I love how much more variety there is. Whenever I'm at a store I look at what kind of dried beans and legumes they have, I get interesting beans I've never had before (still cheaper usually than the canned ones) and I like to make mixes of three or more different types. Since they're all dried and available anyway, I can determine what I want to soak overnight for the next day and experiment a bit, which is not something you do when you have to open a whole can (especially for one person).
Great video! You really put a lot of work into this.
Couple of things you missed:
1) The liquid from canned Garbanzos can be used as an egg replacer for homemade Mayo. I'm not sure if the cooking process for dry beans yields the same liquid as "can broth".
2) Wow, you use a _LOT_ of salt! I never had to be concerned about this when I was younger; now I do. (At age 74, I get Edema in my feet really easily - if I lose the salt, my feet are fine!) Salt substitutes abound in my kitchen.
3) With dry beans, _I_ can easily control the salt!
Thoughts?
Depending on the brand, canned beans are vastly different! I discovered the Goya brand of chick peas and I will never eat any other canned chick peas. They are creamy but not mushy, and they really taste good. If I’m not cooking them from dried they are my go to brand.
Goya dried beans are my go-to here. Very good beans!
Goya black beans are great too 👍
Agreed! Vast difference between canned brands!
Thank you, Nisha, for taking the time and making the effort to make this video 😊
Follow up video: Frozen beans vs canned. Can you preprepare the dried beans and retain their advantage by freezing them
Yes.
I think so though I have not done a taste test. I always cook a whole bag of beans and freeze what I'm not using straight away. I'm happy with the flavour and texture and I definitely find it better than canned beans.
So interesting! I'm definitely going to ditch the cans and start using dried beans. It's also much more environmentally friendly with just a fraction of the packaging and some stores even sell them in paper bags. Thanks Nisha
You are so welcome!
And some stores allow you to bring your own container ;)
Even if they come in plastic: the bigger the package the less plastic per bean
I started using dried a few years ago to reduce waste. I cook them in my Instant Pot and it’s pretty quick and effortless.
I just love how practical so much of your content is Nisha! It really makes a difference in people's lives, especially in the long run, and you never sacrifice flavor. Thank you so much^_^!!!💕🌈🌷
Rancho Gordo has the best beans on the planet! Before I tried their beans, I thought a dried bean was a dried bean. I was incorrect. Theirs are phenomenal! And, any dried bean is better than the canned version. Thank you so much for this video!
I'm sure they will still come out cheaper but I think you should add the cost of energy to cook the dried chickpeas to make a fairer comparison.
To be fair, the canned ones were cooked too. Just at an industrial facility which arguably uses a lot of energy. There is also all the energy from the canning facility
@@lopaisate That energy should be already built into the cost. The dried do have an extra cost of heating (and minimally, the water).
Stove top this might make sense but I use a digital pressure cooker (conserves energy and water) and it's the same process as commercial but without the preservation part (what dulls the flavor). Make home canned goods and you will know what I mean. Both start with dry and cook under pressure but one is preserved while the other is enjoyed fresh. That's the difference...and a lot less packaging waste when cooking from dry at home.
its a fairy negligible cost and it would vary depending if you batch cook dried beans or do it as you go, plus energy prices vary a lot so it wouldnt really be a useful addition.
@@nonewherelistens1906 @lopaisate I think they were talking about the cost of energy to cook at home.
Dried beans are necessary for me simply because of the cost. I eat beans every single day and it would get expensive to do that with only canned beans. Also, hauling all those cans home from the grocery store would suck 😄Another thing I noticed before I got the instant pot was how difficult it was to find canned Pinto beans without any salt added. Usually they were absolutely loaded with salt and that's no bueno.
Great video. I have switched to dry beans, almost always Rancho Gordo ones, because I feel like the flavor is better. I usually have a can or two of beans….. just in case. I also enjoy Ethan’s videos.
I always used dried. I cook a whole bag and freeze them. It's much cheaper.
Wow, you really make an effort on the production of your videos! Really appreciating it :)
Nisha is my shero. I have a big bin of dry beans. We are ready for the next pandemic. I cook a batch in the instapot every week - most of the time without pre-soaking. The cooked beans go into three storage containers. I freeze two and refrigerate the single container. As the week goes, I thaw out the other containers as needed. I keep canned beans just in case I'm out of beans when I want a burrito. Nothing is more convenient.
When i started the Video i thought: what could possibly be said about beans for 26 Minutes. At the end i was like: its already over?!
Haha that delights me to hear.
It also reminds me of when i told my mom we were going to watch the movie Paddington 2 together because it was the best movie ever. She started off the night by saying “you expect me to watch a movie about a talking bear??”
And she ended the movie with “can we watch it again?!”
Hi Nisha, I wanted to let you know that you have inspired me to go Vegan. I have been on vegan lifestyle change for over 1 year now. Thank you for being such a huge inspiration to me. Ever since I've become vegan, I have so much more energy and vitality and good health. Bless you! I hope your work continues to inspire millions of people around the world.
It makes me so happy to hear that! 😄
Good to see kenji's research being used here. But note he also adds baking soda to the brine soak. Since I began following his advice my beans cook much more evenly and creamy but not mushy.
I eat beans daily.
I use them in stews, curries, sprouts, veggie burgers, salads, baked goods, and even smoothies.
Without a doubt, dried beans are the go-to option for me.
Every Thursday I set 2 cups to soak for 24 - 48 hours (I allow a bit of fermenting.) Then I cook them on Saturday or Sunday.
I make anything from:
Bean okara balls
Bean massaman curry
Bean stew
Bean/Veganaise salad (think of tuna salad, but with beans instead and yellow mustard)
and so on.
I even freeze the boiled beans If I feel I will be short on time in the future.
It is a game changer and suuuuuuuuper cheap....
Just fyi.
This channel is so good. Thank you for all the hard work that clearly goes into these videos.
Aww, hearing that you enjoy the videos is the best reward 😊
I prefer to cook dried beans. They taste amazing and you save so much money! We often cook more than we need, and freeze up a lot of it for later, and when we have a selection of frozen, cooked beans, it’s super convenient. (We also cook and freeze batches of lentils, farro, barley, freekah, etc., and use them and frozen beans in all kinds of soups, salads, and other dishes in endless combinations.
Great video. I'm from the UK and had amazing refried beans whilst riding a motorcycle through Arizona years ago. I've been trying to make them ever since with canned beans but dried beans seem to be the way to go. Must admit that here in England we do get Old El Paso canned refried beans and I actually quite like them!
Aaaahhh You and Kenji and Ethan are my trio. I love that you're feeding off each other and getting better together.
Ordered your cookbook and it arrived this morning. Yay!! So excited to get cooking 🙂
Yay! I hope you love it!
Dried beans are worth it and simple. Take the dried beans, throw them in water, add a bit of baking soda (this helps break them down) and soak over night. If you don't have time, heat the water to boiling and add the beans, and let sit for an hour - again with baking soda. Replace the water, bring to a boil, they will be done in about an hour depending on the type of bean. If you don't use baking soda, they will take HOURS to boil, the baking soda significantly speeds up the process.
Agree 100%. Baking soda is definitely the key for all dried pulses. Also for tomato sauce, it takes the acidity out and makes them sweet without adding sugar.
@@HPB1776 I didn't think of that. That's a good point. I'll try that.
Been watching your videos❤ loved them, I'm plant based too so your channel is a nice thing to watch when I want to make something ❤
we started using dried beans about a year or so ago for the cost savings and because the soaking and instantpot cooking help with digestion. it’s so easy to cook the beans in my instantpot because i work from home! i love cooking them in veggie broth with tons of spices
I love this style of video! It would be awesome to see a comparison between farmers market and generic supermarket produce.
We eat beans daily, either alone or in salads, rice or pasta. Many varieties. Kidney, Pinto, Black rotation 🤷
In the Fall/Winter I rely on dry beans using crockpot with large onion and lower sodium broth. The house smells wonderful. It always makes enough to freeze.
Too hot in Florida, so I rely in the Summer mainly, on canned, BUT well rinsed and cooked on stovetop in oil, lots of fresh garlic, salt.
We eat a lot of chi chi beans, but I usually stovetop roast them in some oil/basil/salt.
Looking forward to prepring MAYOCOBA BEANS; new to me. High protein value.
I've never bought the RG dried beans. I know they are very popular.
Great video, love the "taste testers"😂❤
Love using dry beans but I always have about six cans for days when I either forgot to soak some beans, or just don't feel like preparing them. Personally think dry beans taste better, canned beans seem to always be a bit overcooked and watery.
I find often they have too much firming agent and are toothsome
In the last couple years I’ve been cooking dried beans more often, mostly because I have the time. About 6 months ago I bought Camelia brand beans, which are produced in New Orleans. I can’t get Rancho Gordo beans in Nashville, not even on Amazon. I was blown away by the difference in the Camelia beans vs regular store dried bean. The beans couldn’t compare with taste and texture. Just cked again on Amazon to see if Rancho Gordo beans were available, and all they have on my feed of that level bean was the Camelia brand. Love to see an exploration into cooking methods. I tried my IP one time and had a huge mess. I’ve never tried slow cooker…so any helpful hints are always welcome.
Thanks for this! Always look forward to your vids every week….🙏🏻
I heard about Camellia from another TH-camr and they're available at Publix. Agreed that they're great quality and only about $1-2 more per pound than the store brand. I had some frozen black beans from them that I reheated and ate with street corn dip and chips and they still had good taste/texture for being frozen.
Thanks for the informative video. I just finished watching Dan Buettner’s Secrets of the Blue Zones and looking to add more beans to my diet.
Thank you for all the effort (and washing up!) you put into making this. Wow.
There are two factors you didn't consider that maybe you might want to follow up? Power and energy:
by those, I mean the money cost of the electricity/gas used in cooking - especially the longer times like for chickpeas or butter beans
and energy: if you're disabled, have chronic medical conditions, work fulltime, a parent etc, you sometimes can't guarantee you can do the cooking next day, or you don't have the spoons to do the cooking.
I acknowledge you did say "sometimes good enough is good enough" and I appreciate that! No one video can be completely comprehensive when the subject can't be discussed objectively - and food *is* subjective by nature.
I really enjoyed your approach and humour! Thank you.
I'm team dry beans...specifically, team Rancho Gordo! I make them in my instant pot, which makes it fool-proof.
I also like making refried beans in the crock pot. I soak the beans overnight then put them in the crock pot with bay leaf, onions, cumin and a few other things and let it cook for 8 hours. I use the recipe from 100 days of real food
Hey, this is a really good video, and i also love Ethan's videos with the blind taste tests. I think you would have had more consistent results if you made a common batch of the base for all the dishes and then split the base and only varied the beans for each dish.
I love this! My 3 year old eats beans every day, so it was apparent pretty quickly that I was going to need to cook them myself as much as possible. I usually make a huge pot of black beans about every 2 weeks and freeze them in containers.
Only problem is that I hate fishing out the aromatics, so I make broth the day before and cook them in that and some water 😅😂
Thanks for this, and more great recipes! You didn't address doing bulk prep of home-cooked beans however. For example, how long can I keep home cooked beans refrigerated before I have to use them? And can I freeze them? That increases the convenience factor for home cooked beans. I have frozen homemade chickpeas successfully. Also putting them in ball jars in the fridge to use later in the week. Also as an instant pot chef, you didn't mention how much faster making homemade beans is using an instant pot or even a slow cooker ( unless I missed it?). Finally, another thing that would have been helpful is not all canned beans are alike, and many have very high sodium. (Like the whole foods brand you use on the show.) Much easier to control for that when you make them yourself.
Glad you enjoyed! And yes, there's lots I left out of the video (it was already getting pretty long 😅). If there's enough interest, I might do a video covering the best ways to make dried beans. Including storage tips for batch cooking is a great idea!
@@RainbowPlantLifeyes please! I love all your videos
@@RainbowPlantLife +1
+1
But for short: freezing totally works. All sorts of beans I ever tried. In the fridge they are best within about 5 days.
Dried beans take about 45-50 minutes to cook if a 1/2 Tbs of baking soda is added. Give them a rinse before using or freezing.😊 I love your vegan recipes. They are beyond delicious!❤
Fantastic idea for a video! Loved it! You mentioned the IP, that's how I usually cook my dried beans. But have you ever tested cooking them in the IP with or without soaking? Do you have a preference? BTW love watching you Nisha, you're hilarious!
I found that cooking dry beans in the IP gives me gas, but soaked do not. It’s been a while since I’ve done it, but quick soaking in the IP worked pretty well too. I think what I did for a super quick “soak” was to pressure cook dry beans for one minute, drain, then cook for the rest of the dry time. I helped a lot with the gas, but from the color of the water I dumped I may have lost more flavor than if I’d done a cold soak. Never did a side by side comparison.
@@annelliott1384 thank you!
Spent a lot at the Rancho Gordo website because of this video. I love trying the different varieties of beans, so much fun. Your pots in this video are beautiful! Thank you for making vegan cooking delicious. You are a precious gem.
You are doing a great job for the society❤️ I was a hard core non vegetarian till I visited a farm and witnessed the horror of the dairy industry. The cow is inseminated painfully every 6 months so that calf is born. The calves are taken away immediately without a single drop of milk. The male calves are transported to the slaughterhouse to be killed on the very day. This process continues for some years till the cow is completely exhausted and later sold for meat. That’s the milk we consume. I literally had sleepless nights after watching the cows, their udders become so big they can’t even move. And they run to save their babies from going to the slaughterhouse.
Thank you for these so that people can choose compassion in their plate instead of pain.
This is the first time I've ever been served a vid of yours from the "Al Gore rhythm" and I am impressed! Thanks for citing Ethan Chlebowski and Kenji. In the last couple of months I've been serving beans in one form or another every day and haven't used canned bean in probably 30 years. A bit of baking soda (1/4 tsp) in the soaking water also helps break down the outer skin of the beans and reduces the oligosaccharides after cooking.
I primarily use store brand dried beans, I might have to switch to Rancho Gordo, which I honestly have never heard of!
It's so much fun to try the different varieties they have on offer, too!
I always buy dried beans and cook them in a pressure cooker, usually on the weekend and then have cooked beans for the week. It’s fast, super easy and cheap! The only drawback is the planning, I usually soak the beans over night, so if I forget to soak them it takes more time… I am really excited to try the Tuscan stew recipe, that looks delicious!
Really interesting results on the quesadillas. I'll always favour dried beans, but canned always has a place on the shelf for emergencies, getting a pressure cooker has changed things to where I don't get caught short too often and I've not found a difference in digestion between soaked and not with the pressure cooker. If I have more than I can finish I just put them in tupperware in the fridge they always get used or they can go in the freezer, so even doing the bit extra in the pressure cooker still works out. As someone else said it might be interesting doing a pressure cooker test, I think they last better as well because you're not having them out that first night soaking, don't have to boil for hours, some just do take ages on the hob. Omg I wrote a whole book there whoops 😅 you're my favourite though
I needs lessons on how to cook dried beans. I do not have an instant pot.
I LOVE my Instant Pot and initially bought it just to cook beans. (I use it for other things now)
Before that I soaked them overnight, rinsed them thoroughly, and cook them on the stove for hours with a ham hock. (My family’s official way of cooking beans😂). Then I got a slow cooker but still did the soak/rinse routine before putting them in the slow cooker.
Might do a video on this if there's interest!
You need a working refrigerator/freezer to store the beans you cooked (in smaller containers, recycled cottage-cheese or whatever w/ lids.) If you have that, go to an estate sale/garage sale/Mom's attic and get a CrockPot or slow cooker. In the states that's $5-$20. From there you can find on the Internet how to cook beans. But if your refrigerator doesn't chill & your freezer is lame, might as well stick with canned.
If you have an instant pot, dry beans are the best. I only cook for myself and have 6 qt instant pot and will soak and cook 2 cups of beans and use during a week for different kinds of things. I recommend organic beans if you can find them and even if they're a few dollars a pound dry, it's still cheap. Most soaked beans take about 10-11 minutes on bean/chili setting, depending how soft you want. For chickpeas, try to find the bigger dry ones, definitely soak and I do them for 12 minutes. I mostly cook all of them with only water, no salt or anything, unless I'm cooking the whole batch for 1 recipe. They also freeze extremely well. Put in freezer storage bag and freeze flat and they take very little space. 😉 If you don't eat beans often and find they give you gastric problems, start with a little a day and build up. 😂
Thanks for this! For the instant pot, how long do you typically soak the dried beans? I have an Instant Pot and don’t soak them-thought that was the point of an IP. Would love to know your thoughts on why you soak with an IP. 😊
@@roxylqm111 I soak the beans to make them more digestible and I think they come out better. I find I can soak most beans for several hours, but I do soak chickpeas overnight or longer.
This is very useful. I had a bag of dried black beans to use for chilli but I kept forgetting to soak them the night before so I switched back to cans once I used the back up. But I am tempted to try dried chickpeas because I am always a bit disappointed by the flavour of chickpeas but use just as a healthy option in curries. Also I will now def try making my own refried beans I've only really had them when eating out and never know how to make them!
I never soak beans and I eat them all the time. I figure that fresh water used to be a lot harder to get and when someone had to carry it themselves from the river, they were not likely to waste water by soaking. So I just rinse, boil, and eat. Been doing it forever.
I don’t think anyone would have called you out for doing something similar to Ethan, but I respect you for shouting him out as your inspiration
the referee scene 💀
When I was little, there were always two pots on the stove. One of them was a huge pot of red beans that were cooked once a week and then reheated every day. By the time we finished the batch, the beans were so creamy and full of flavor, they were our favorite.
Absolutely loving your experiment and insights on dried beans! 😄 It's a game-changer for my pantry too. The flavor and creaminess in hummus with dried beans are unmatched. And oh, freezing them for later use? Genius! 🌿❄ Can't wait to see more of these thoughtful tests. 🙌
At different times in my life, I've eaten primarily dried beans and other times primarily canned beans. I never thought to try a taste test. Very interesting. Thank you.
I cook dried beans primarily to avoid the plastic leached in from cans. And the waste cans produce. But, once accustomed to the taste of cooked dried beans, canned doesn't compare. Jarred beans sometimes are just as tasty as cooked dried beans, for me.
Fascinating! Also a nice review of Rancho Gordo which I've been wondering about for a while. Thanks!
I've been ordering from their site for years, their spices and hot cocoa mix is delish too, also got some cookbooks and even some banana vinegar. Worth checking out.
I use a pressure cooker and do them in batches. The ones I don’t use get frozen. Slow defrost in the fridge for when I need them. Works perfect and they are fresh!
That eye mask is positively entomological.
And props to you for the integrity to shout out Ethan! His experiment videos like this set the standard for sure.
I love using dry beans as I prefer the flavor. It’s crazy how much sugar can be tasted in canned beans. Dry beans taste so much better without all the additives.
I am LOVING your channel and content! Thanks for helping me learn how to cook. Would you ever consider doing a video of the basics of soup broth? Or how to cut onions without weeping? 😂 Thanks for bringing yummier food into my home 💛
I love your channel -just found you -and it’s my goal to try one of your recipes once a week into my life to start eating more plant-based foods.
All your recipes look so amazing!
You can soak a large batch of beans and freeze them to save time on cooking. Also to reduce bloating it’s best to replace the soaking water two or three times. Lastly dried beans can be sprouted, especially the smaller ones. This makes a lot more nutrients available and you can eat them the same way. No reason to use canned beans
I just recently started making beans from dry in the instant pot and I am blown away! I didn’t know they could taste so good.
🖐This was such an awesome idea for a video. As someone who has been cooking beans for years I have often scoffed at using canned beans, but have done so from time to time, but your channel has educated me that dishes can still taste good with canned beans, and also I've learned more about spices and flavors, and enjoy watching you as you have calming and playful energy. ❤😂
I really like making my dried beans in my instant pot. Not having to soak them is such a time saver! I work with a woman who's husband is a farmer and grows pinto beans. They are the best!! If you can find Morrow Farms Beans you should try them.
I wonder how much difference it makes if we know where they were grown? I live in Canada and we export many lentils and chickpeas grown on prime agricultural land however since they are exported, we don't get many marketed here.
Love the tiny attention to detail from the whip noise on transition, to the counter in the corner of the screen! Keep up the great work, I appreciate every detail!
I will always credit you for recommending Rancho Gordo. I can't describe how much better their beans taste. I made hommus with their chickpeas and there was a smoky sausage like flavor that came right from the beans.
No exaggeration, their beans are just that good.
Canned beans are also a good option in an emergency situation (when the power goes out or you have to ration water. On the other hand, properly stored both canned and dried beans are desirable for long term storage pantries.