Beans in the slow cooker.

larmy16

mah_jong wrote:

Definately boil the beans for ten mins before adding to a slow cooker ....I didn't and the dinner was fine ......... .the next day! It was cooking for about 18 hours!!!

Definitely not a money saver then!! Perhaps I will just continue with my canned ones - they are pretty simple to use.

I asked the girl who the tip came from and she said she had never heard about boiling beans for the toxins! Maybe she has just been lucky:)

blue-kat

I do chana dal in the slow cooker, as per Rick Mendosa's website on Glycemic Index,works every time and saves filling kitchen with steam and having to drain heavy boiling pans!

(from http://www.mendosa.com/chanadal.html)

Here's an easy way to soften chana dal contributed by Deb Platt:

• Rinse and pick over 1 C chana dal.
• Place the chana dal in a crockpot on low (for such a small quantity, I use my 1 1/2 quart crockpot)
• Add 2 1/2 C very hot water to the chana dal.
• 7 hrs or so later, the chana dal will be nice and soft.

I use the hot beverage setting of my microwave to get the water hot, but not boiling, Deb writes. I need to do that because our hot water heater is set kind of low so as to not accidentally burn our youngster.

The nice thing about this approach is that there is no pre-soaking, no foaming, no boil over, no sticking, and no stirring. I simply let the chana dal cook over night while I'm sleeping, put the cooked dal in the fridge when I wake up, and then reheat it with other seasonings and ingredients at meal time.

KTFrugal

Other than the dreaded kidney beans, I always soak my beans overnight, rinse, then cover with boiling water in the slow cooker. No boiling and faffing about. It works just fine, 8 hours on low for chickpeas, which are the slowest. If they take longer than that, buy them from a shop that has a higher turnover - old beans progressively dry up and take forever to cook.

xlt_hunter

Sorry if this has already been covered, if so please can someone direct me to the correct thread?

Basiclly, I know that Tescos have those bags of dried beans/pules/lentils etc.. in the organinc and home baking section.

I am looking to start the slow cooker with these, is it the case of chucking in the require amounts into the cooker with water and turn it on overnight "without" the overnight presoak in water and then cooking?

Reason for this is I want to start cooking bean salads/meals etc... like in that lovely program "YAWUE - You are what you eat" last night. I need to kick start myself and this is a barrier in a way. Got a blender for the smoothies......

Ta

Michael

Curry_Queen

I know it has been discussed here before so you'll probably find something in the mega index about it (link in blue bar at the top of the page) which should provide the answers you're looking for.

I do know with certain beans, and especially kidney beans, that they will need soaking overnight and then boiling to rid them of any harmful toxins, so a slow cooker would be no good for this. I couldn't say for certain which are safe to use straight from the packet, although I've done that with black-eyed peas and red lentils, but anything else has had the pre-requisite soak and boil.

Hope the makes sense considering I'm only on my first :coffee: of the day

Chipps

Yes, I agree with CQ. Kidney beans in particular MUST be boiled for at least 15 minutes to get rid of the toxins. The only way I know of cutting down on soaking/cooking times is to use a pressure cooker. I think (this is from memory) you soak them in boiling water for an hour, then pressure cook them. Sorry, can't remember how long for, but it's not terribly long. The high pressure steam has the same effect of getting rid of the toxins.
Lentils are a different matter, as they don't need presoaking. But you would possibly have to boil them before putting in the slow cooker.

squeaky

Hi

We have an older thread discussing beans in slow cookers and so I have merged the two together as you can see. Posts are listed in date order so you'll need to read from the beginning to catch up.

Other threads on slow cookers can be found in my signature any time you see it or...

..you can use the Indexed Collections link in the Blue Bar at the top of every page which looks something like this:-

Swan_2

squeaky wrote:

That unsafe bit, I'm sure, refers to Red Kidney Beans and Soya Beans

from what I've read on the subject, that seems to be right
squeaky, this issue's been raised quite a few times now, maybe we could do with a 'sticky' of some sort about it?

I'm curious though, has anyone here ever cooked dried Soya Beans?

I got my SC very recently, so only have experience of cooking Pinto Beans in it. I use them in chilli, I think they have a much nicer texture & flavour than RKBs, & the bonus is I don't have to faff about with the 10 minute fast boil. oh & they've been absolutely fine, no tummy upsets, so I can vouch for them

squeaky

Swan wrote:

from what I've read on the subject, that seems to be right
squeaky, this issue's been raised quite a few times now, maybe we could do with a 'sticky' of some sort about it?

Hm...

I'll be catching up with this as I continue the MEGA Index so it will show up there soon. I'll make sure it goes in several different sections, ie "beans" in the cooking section, the complete slow cookers collection, and food safety.

That should just about cover it


Edit: I've just added this to The Complete Slow Cooker Collection, so I hope I don't confuse kiwichick who is looking after this one for us

ashmit

here's the government information. Only red kidney beans and soya beans need a rapid 10 minute pre-boil.

The point of a slow cooker (or at least the one that appeals to me) is that you can put everything in, leave it cooking all day and when you get in after work your tea is ready. You could get round the pre-boiling thing by just not using red kidney beans in an SC, or adding a tin 40 minutes before you want to eat. Or you could sprout soya beans and blanch them for 10 minutes before adding to your meal.

I presently have this recipe going in the SC, which reckons it needs 18 hours to be at its best. I don't know yet how it's going to turn out, but it smells bloody gorgeous. I wouldn't leave my oven on that long, it tends to run rather hot, but an SC on low I'm not so worried about.

TBH I'm only trying it out today cause I'm on leave and I'm paranoid it'll catch fire if I leave it alone all day - at least I'm here to put it out if it does