Buying tinned pulses or cooking pulses

rachbc

i've recently discovered you can cook pulses in the sc - no need to presoak just chuck em in add plenty of water and cook for 8hrs, I do a bag at a time and freeze. Bonus is no added salt and I think much tastier than tinned, though won't do kidney beans this way due to the need to boil hard for 10 mins

415SanFran

I batch cook mine in the steamer.
The first tier is all chickpeas, the second is all black eyed peas, and in the top I cook up about 10 lots of rice whilst waiting for the beans/peas to cook.
Takes about 90 mins.
I do this about once every month or so.

sleepless_saver

Alison_Funnell wrote: »

I have a terrible history with cooking beans they frequently take far longer to cook than they should and often refuse to properly soften - and I do pre soak and don't cook with salt.

If they are old, then they won't soften properly no matter how long you cook them for.

love_lifer

dried always taste better than tinned in my experience, esp chick peas

eamon

Buying dried pulses etc is cheaper. But you need to cook fairly frequently as old tired pulses are not very nice. Nothing wrong with tinned pulses apart from the price. Don't add bicarb or salt it hinders the water absorption.

Primrose

I used to buy dry beans (haricot, butter, borlotti), soak overnight and pressure cook, but now I find it easier to buy the tinned varieties because I only use fairly small quantities at a time. However, red and green lentils cook down so quickly that I use them from dry - generally putting them in a basin and covering with boiling water for ten minutes, although in soups I've found that even this isn't totally necessary.

maman

I started cooking my own butter beans in SC when tins in Asda started getting smaller at the same time as price going up! I then open froze them and put in a bag in the freezer. Looks as if price reverting to normal so shall probably go for tinned in future.

Alison_Funnell

sleepless_saver wrote: »

If they are old, then they won't soften properly no matter how long you cook them for.

Ah ha! Thanks for that. I think the last batch (aduki beans) had been hanging around for a few years in the cupboard.:o

Does anyone know how long is too long to store dried beans and pulses before use?

Red_Cat

I use tinned white chickpeas, it's just more convenient for stews, curries or making houmous. But I keep dried brown ones, and on the odd occasion I use them, I pressure cook them. You can also sprout dried chickpeas (and other pulses, but that is another story)

I usually buy the tinned white chickpeas from ethnic stores, where sometimes you can get 12 cans for £3.50 or so.

wigglebeena

eamon wrote: »

Buying dried pulses etc is cheaper. But you need to cook fairly frequently as old tired pulses are not very nice. Nothing wrong with tinned pulses apart from the price. Don't add bicarb or salt it hinders the water absorption.

I find bicarb (just a little bit, too much tastes nasty) significantly speeds up cooking time when added to soaking water, especially for elderly or over-soaked beans. (Although it's supposed to reduce nutrients according to what I've read.) Not sure what you mean by water absorption problems, haven't noticed anything like this?