MICHIGAN BEAN SCRUBBIES

I recently read in our local newspaper that the food banks around town did not want packages of dried beans as people no longer knew how to cook with them. I grew up with either pea soup made with dried whole peas or homemade baked beans every Saturday. This past winter we have been cooking and experimenting with all sorts of beans. Their have been beans in all the soups we have made. Although Michigan grows many different kinds of beans, we have ordered heirloom beans from RanchoGordo.com in California. Their web site has a wealth of information on beans themselves, cooking beans, and recipes.

Michigan is a top producer of dry beans. There are more than 2500 growers in the Michigan Bean Commission. Michiganbean.org is their web site and has many free recipes and bean cooking directions. It also sells recipe books.

All beans contain soluble fiber. That means the fiber dissolves and gets into the blood stream unlike dietary fiber which stays in the gut. When I eat beans I like to think of them as “little scrubbies” flowing through my circulation system scrubbing the walls of the arteries of cholesterol.

I have always soaked my beans overnight the night before I was going to cook them. As I grow older, my memory has hiccups once in a while and I sometimes forget to soak the beans. So I gave up on overnight soaking and am using the Quick Soak method and I find I like it better.

QUICK SOAK METHOD FOR BEANS
First you rinse and sort beans using a sieve or colander. Use 6 cups of hot water for every pound of beans. Put water and beans in a large pot and bring to a hard boil. Cook for 3 minutes. Turn off heat, cover pan and let stand for 1 hour.

Beans in the pot.

Quick Soaked beans after one hour of soaking.

 

Rancho Gordo says not to drain the soaking water as you lose water soluble vitamins. Michigan Bean says draining the soaking liquid makes the beans less a “musical fruit—toot, toot.”

If draining, put 6 cups of hot water, per pound of beans, on the beans and bring to a boil. Turn down heat, cover and simmer until beans are tender but not mushy. Cooking time varies for different bean varieties and the age of the bean.

BEAN COOKING DON’TS
Do not add salt to the beans until they are cooked. Salt hardens the beans and they will not cook properly.

Do not add acids such as tomatoes or vinegar to beans until they are cooked because they too harden the beans.

A MONTANA BEAN COOKING TIP
When cooking beans, always use hot water; never add cold water to a pot of cooking beans.