Convenience-minded prep of dry beans for the week?

upgetupgetup

Usually I just get canned and rinse them a lot. Dried legumes are cheaper but a PITA. How long can you store them once cooked? How much do you generally prepare? Better to plan for 3 vs 5 days?

jbruced

Cookefd beans should easily keep for 5 days in a cold refrigerator, temps in the mid 30's fahrenheit. Make sure they are covered.

Missjulesdid

Cookefd beans should easily keep for 5 days in a cold refrigerator, temps in the mid 30's fahrenheit. Make sure they are covered.

I make the beans with the seasoning and then just leave them in the pot and do the mashing/refrying part just before eating. Very good and convenient..

And as far as regular beans, once you're in the habit of soaking them, you just get used to doing them the night before. I have had times when after soaking, I've not used them right away and they were still fine a few days after. I drained them and refrigerated.

Elliehmltn

Cook up a big pot of them. Measure out the amount you'll use in about 5 days and put those in the fridge. Then spread the rest thinly (don't have to be actually single layer, just sort of thin) on baking sheet(s) with a rim and freeze. When frozen, break them apart and store in gallon-size baggie. Alternatively, put cooked beans into smaller bags in individual portions and freeze those.

I practically live on beans. However, we live in a camper with a small freezer, which is full of my husband's commercially-prepared convenience foods :ohwell: so I just cook enough beans to last me about 5 days.

Cyclingbonnie

Wow, never worry about that ... I guess being a southern girl there was never a problem with that. In fact we used to keep a pot going when I was a kid ... sitting back on the old wood stove ... cast iron skillet ... I'm just kidding. My husband would like that though, he loves my soup beans as we call it here in the mountains (in the piedmont we just called them pintos).

I soak a bag of beans over night, cook up the whole batch ... store the excess in the fridge and have them as we want them. Never have had a problem with them going bad before we finish them off, but they never last much past 3 or 4 days before they are gone.

jsd_135

Cooked beans freeze really well. I keep what I can use in a few days in the fridge (in the cooking liquid). Anything else, I freeze in a quantity that I can use once thawed. The beans going in the freezer should also be covered in the cooking liquid. To thaw, just put the frozen block of beans/liquid in a pot and warm up over low heat.

The nice thing about freezing beans: if they don't cook through completely when you first prepare them (a problem I sometimes have), the freezing will help tenderize them without necessarily making them mushy.

upgetupgetup

Great tips, thank you!

toddis

Freeze em and
lentils
nuff said.

upgetupgetup

Lol! Yes, love lentils. Problematically so. Too tasty and tiny! I've literally inhaled them - aspirated them into my lungs while stuffing my gluttonous mouth - TWICE.

(The recipe in question, both times, involved loads of onions, garlic, red wine and judicious use of chorizo.)