Buying tinned pulses or cooking pulses

thriftlady_2

Trinny wrote: »

Hi there

If you look at Thriftlady's freezer building blocks thread - it talks about cooking pulses batch style and then freezing them in portions.

With chickpeas or butter beans - the cost of cooking is high if you only cook a portion at a time - why not cook the whole bag of dried peas/beans - then portion off and freeze.

Its cheaper and you get masses

Trin

Hey I was going to say all that!

It really is convenient to cook a large batch at once. There's a pic here of my latest batch of chickpeas getting ready to go in the freezer.

Purpleclutterbuck

Thanks for the info seraphina! I'm going to have a go at making hummous next weekend !

Justamum

I buy dried and cook and freeze a whole bag at a time. I store them in 2 litre plastic boxes.

IMadeMyOwnLuck

I do both and cooking a large batch is easy and cheaper with a pressure cooker. Bear in mind the cost of energy though and time involved. All in all if it comes down to me making a choice then I would forgo the beans in the freezer and have a few assorted tins in my cuppboard. It depends on your freezer space, if you have an aga constantly on, if you cook via a pressure cooker and also how much you value your time and so on

Justamum

IMadeMyOwnLuck wrote: »

All in all if it comes down to me making a choice then I would forgo the beans in the freezer and have a few assorted tins in my cuppboard

For me it's the opposite - very little cupboard space!

sleepless_saver

Alison_Funnell wrote: »

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?

It varies for different pulses, but I don't bulk buy and I try to use them within a year (or within the use by date if there is one). Doesn't always work out like that though:o.

garybarlowsbeard

I'm thinking of buying raw chick peas, lentils, etc as working from home now and have more time.

Any advice on which of these and other pulses represent the best option in terms of saving money (over buying tinned), effort, time and ease of use after cooking (can they be frozen?).

Cheers
GBB

-taff

dried beans etc have to be soaked overnight before use. All dried beans have to be boiled rapidly for ten minutes to avoid being poisoned, then cook as normal. It will take roughly an hour and a half to cook any driend beans, less for lentils. It'll tell you howe to cook on the packet. Add savory if you can find it, it lessens the flatulent effects of beans

If you are going to buy them dried, why bother freezing them? you might as well buy tinned. If you mean freeze once cooked in a meal, yes, but they might be a bit more mushy when they defrost.

meg72

I have found it cheaper to buy dried , and freeze, also avoids the salt in many tins.

thriftlady_2

It is cheaper to buy them dry. Soak a whole packet at once, cook them the next day then freeze on a tray for 30 minutes before bagging up and storing in the freezer. You can then add them straight from the freezer to a curry or stew or any hot dish. Just as convenient as tinned but cheaper. They will only be mushy if you over cook them.

I don't take much notice of the ten minute boiling rule except with red kidney beans. I'm sceptical about it as this advice seems only to be given in the UK. Look at American cookery sites and there is no mention of it.