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Oven Beans
Updated Oct. 11, 2023
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- Total Time
- 2 hour 50 minutes
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour 15 minutes, plus 1½ hours’ soaking
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1pound dried beans, such as black, white, red, pink or pinto, picked over for stones
- Salt
- 4large garlic cloves, trimmed and peeled (optional)
- 5dried chiles, such as morita, pasilla or guajillo, rinsed (optional)
Preparation
- Step 1
Cover the beans with cold water by 2 inches in an ovenproof pot. Soak in the refrigerator for 6 to 8 hours. Or, to quick soak, bring to a boil, turn off the heat and soak for 1 hour.
- Step 2
Heat the oven to 325 degrees.
- Step 3
Drain the beans, rinse and return to the pot. Add enough cold water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, then stir in 2 teaspoons salt and, if using, the garlic and chiles. Cover and transfer to the oven.
- Step 4
Bake until the beans are tender all the way through, 45 to 70 minutes. (Red kidney and white cannellini beans should simmer and cook for at least 30 minutes until tender to be safe to eat.) The timing depends on the size of the beans and how long they soaked. If you used the chiles, pick them out and discard them. If you used the garlic, smush them into the soaking broth to flavor it. Taste the beans and season with more salt if needed. Use immediately or transfer to airtight containers and refrigerate for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 6 months.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
For years I've been cooking beans in the slow cooker. I don't even soak them - put the dried beans in the cooker in the morning with salt, bay leaf, aromatics (onion, celery, carrot) and some kombu (dried kelp) and by dinnertime they're ready to use in whatever recipe you want. Is there a difference between that and in the oven? The slow cooker seems to make more sense - you're not heating the whole oven, and the slow cooker uses much less electricity.
My very easy method is to put the beans with some water, salt, maybe a bay lead, in the slow cooker, set on Low, and let it simmer all night. In the morning, perfect beans!
Are you saying to simmer kidney and cannellini beans for 30 minutes on the stovetop before putting in the oven, or simmer at least 30 minutes in the oven?
I use an electric pressure cooker (insert popular brand name here), using less electricity for less than an hour to perfectly cooked beans, not heating the kitchen by using the oven for a long period of time, and no soaking required. While I appreciate using the oven for a foolproof method, the pressure cooker is going to win out every time for me. Even a slow cooker gives me inconsistent results.
Steve, valid points about not heating up the oven and using less electricity. However some types of beans, especially kidney or red beans, MUST be brought to a hard boil for at least a few minutes, to 176 F, to deactivate the phytohemagglutinin found in many kinds of dried beans. Slow cookers may not get the beans hot enough for long enough.
Your instructions say to bake for 45-70 minutes- and also at least 30 for kidney beans. My literal brain is confused. Do you mean 30 minutes longer for kidney beans? Or?
Any tips on this? We cannot, for the life of us, get beans to cook in our slow cooker even if left on high overnight. They're still so hard even 24 hours later!
We have been doing this for years, usually soaking the beans in salted water overnight, then rinsing well and cooking in fresh water (with or without additions) until done. The salt soak is an old "America's Test Kitchen" trick that seems to minimize splitting of the skins. Cooking time depends on the type and age of the beans. In our oven and pot, 275 degrees F will keep the beans barely simmering. Old beans can require several hours.
I fried some chopped bacon with onion, carrot, and whole peeled garlic cloves and then added the beans and covered with water. Baked them in the oven and added some tomato paste a few minutes before I turned the oven off. I let them cool in the oven, and now I have some lovely white bean soup for the rainy, cool day predicted for tomorrow. Add a pinch of baking soda to the water when you soak the beans. (Drain and rinse as in the recipe.) They come out softer that way.
I have a revved up version of this recipe as a back pocket item. My take: Start by cooking the beans (1 lb dried) on the stovetop with just garlic and onion/S&P/bay leaf. Dump on a glug of olive oil before putting on the heat. After beans are 2/3 done, I dump in whatever other seasonings I want and a drained 14oz can of crushed tomatoes. Then bake covered for about an hour, then half an hour or so uncovered to reduce the sauce. No scorching/perfect.
I used 1 lb Yellow Eye beans and did a quick boil, then sit 1 hour first. Added carrot, celery, onion, minced garlic, 1.5 tsp salt. Brought it back to a boil before putting my pot in a 350 oven (my oven is a little slow). I found that the pot should definitely be boiling just before it goes into the oven or it takes too long to get back to a simmer. I used a stove-top/oven safe glass pot. Loved that I could see through it and know it’s simmering well. The beans came out PERFECT!
The age of the beans is crucial any time you are using them. Fresher beans really are better; I have had good luck with Rancho Gordo mail order or bigger ethnic stores that move a lot of beans.
I've been cooking beans in my LeCruest pot for decades and I never pre-soak. First, I rinse the beans, put them in the pot, and then cover with water 2-3 inches above the beans. Add garlic and bay leaf. Cook at 300-325 degrees until the desired softness is achieved. It takes about 2-3 hours, depending on the age and freshness of the beans. If I'm going to be using the beans in a recipe that requires additional cooking time, or if I'm freezing the beans, then I only partially cook the beans.
Conventional wisdom says adding salt before the beans are tender makes them tough. --? and, 'If you used the garlic, smush them into the soaking broth to flavor it.' But the soaking water is discarded before cooking?
Cooking dried beans can take hours. Much of the time is spent waiting for the hot water to penetrate the cell walls. This time can be shortened dramatically by soaking overnight in a solution of table salt or baking soda. The sodium in both compounds displaces the calcium and magnesium ions in the cell walls. Additionally, baking soda creates an alkaline bath, which accelerates the process. Any soaking liquid containing baking soda should be drained and discarded and the beans rinsed before cook
At high altitude (6,000+ ft), water boils at 193 degrees or so and without a hack even overnight soaking leaves beans hard. I put clean beans in ceramic pot, add 1T. Baking soda and lots of ‘boiling’ water to soak overnight and then some. I drain/rinse beans and add water or stock to cover but check pot to add liquid as needed. Bay leaves and onion are great. The beans are ready in a couple hours of simmering. I make red Chile sauce to add as well. So good.
No mention here of using an induction heater to cook the beans. I have the best results soaking the beans overnight in salted water, rinsing and cooking them on a DuxTop induction heater. I set it on 25% and walk away. It cooks at a very precise, low temperature. What I like is that the beans all come out with the same texture, depending on cooking time. I may include a bay leaf and an some sautéed garlic, onion, carrot and celery. I sometimes also use Costco organic no salt seasoning.
Salt?
Always make in the oven… add the ends of an onion you were gonna use in stock, in addition to the skin ( not like the papery skin, just the tougher skin)… put in 3 bay leaves, and a few springs of whatever fresh herb you have on hand or in your garden … I use parsley or cilantro… also, a chunk of country ham is nice…
The age of the beans is crucial any time you are using them. Fresher beans really are better; I have had good luck with Rancho Gordo mail order or bigger ethnic stores that move a lot of beans.
I have often seen bean recipes caution against adding salt too early, suggesting that it interferes with the cooking process. They suggest to salt after beans are already tender. Any thoughts?
These are so wonderfully smoky and flavourful I may never make beans any other way!
Curious as to whether this oven method works for chickpeas? Anyone care to weigh in?
Yes, it works. Just adjust the cooking time.
After beans were cooked, there’s was a lot of liquid — should they be drained before freezing?
When freezing, do you drain them first, or freeze in their cooking liquid? Thanks,
Bean Queen here. I love beans so much: delicious, inexpensive, easiest on the earth of all protein sources. Some thoughts: if your beans are still hard after 24 hours in the slow cooker, they are too old. Spend a little bit more and buy from Rancho Gordo; they are fresh and tasty. No need to throw out the soaking water - that’s where a lot of the nutrients are. I personally am not a fan of the pressure cooker for beans, as it’s hard to get the deep flavorful bean broth. Stovetop is fine!
Skip steps 1,2,3 and use an instant pot, with kombu, fresh epazote if you have it and whatever of the ingredients Persimmon and Steve mention below that appeal to you. Fast, easy and energy efficient. Oh, I forgot: also delicious. I freeze them in wide mouth mason jars with maybe an inch of headspace.
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