thawing cooked dried beans

geri1geraldinesuzanne

i love adding beans to salads, but would prefer cooking them myself rather than buy canned, i know they turn out ok in soups stews etc... but as for salads i'm not too sure how that would turn out.
has anyone just thawed them and tossed them into salads or do they have to be re-boiled?

all opinions welcome.

thanks.

crabbybrianna

I cook and freeze beans al the time, and I’ve never re-boiled them after defrosting. They’re already cooked, you don’t need to cook them again.

toxikon

Once they're cooked, they're good to go however you want to use them.

andreaen

crabbybrianna wrote: »

I cook and freeze beans al the time, and I’ve never re-boiled them after defrosting. They’re already cooked, you don’t need to cook them again.

me too, no problem at all

DX2JX2

You know what? That's a good question. I cook and freeze beans all the time but it's usually as part of a soup or stew. I've never frozen beans with the intent to eat them dry (as you would in a salad). Texture might get a little wonky since freezing tends to destroy some cell structure.

Unless you have an industrial freezer, I'm guessing that the best way to handle them would be to freeze them in their cooking liquid and then to drain/rinse after thawing? Reboiling absolutely wouldn't be necessary but I'm not sure if you should freeze the beans in or out of their cooking liquid for dry consumption after thawing?

cmriverside

It doesn't affect texture either. I freeze cooked dried beans and use them without reheating and the texture is fine.

amgreenwell

crabbybrianna wrote: »

I cook and freeze beans al the time, and I’ve never re-boiled them after defrosting. They’re already cooked, you don’t need to cook them again.

this! I do it weekly

crabbybrianna

DX2JX2 wrote: »

Unless you have an industrial freezer, I'm guessing that the best way to handle them would be to freeze them in their cooking liquid and then to drain/rinse after thawing? Reboiling absolutely wouldn't be necessary but I'm not sure if you should freeze the beans in or out of their cooking liquid for dry consumption after thawing?

That’s exactly what I do. 1 cup of cooked beans, then add some cooking liquid and squeeze the air out of the bag and freeze. I’ve frozen them without the liquid and they freezer burn quite quickly.

lynn_glenmont

crabbybrianna wrote: »

DX2JX2 wrote: »

Unless you have an industrial freezer, I'm guessing that the best way to handle them would be to freeze them in their cooking liquid and then to drain/rinse after thawing? Reboiling absolutely wouldn't be necessary but I'm not sure if you should freeze the beans in or out of their cooking liquid for dry consumption after thawing?

That’s exactly what I do. 1 cup of cooked beans, then add some cooking liquid and squeeze the air out of the bag and freeze. I’ve frozen them without the liquid and they freezer burn quite quickly.

I generally freeze them without the liquid. I guess I don't leave them in the freezer that long (usually not more than a week or two) and I've never had a freezer burn problem. I like that they defrost quickly when frozen without the liquid, and to me it seems like the texture suffers when they're frozen in liquid, such that I wouldn't want to use them in a salad (they're fine in stews, soups, chilis, etc. when frozen in liquid).

crabbybrianna

I make a lot of beans at a time so I have them longer than 2 weeks. The texture doesn’t suffer when they’re frozen in liquid, not that I’ve found.