Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Slow Cooker Dried Beans

Hey everyone! I've mentioned many times that I love beans. I tried making them in a newer crock pot and it just cooked too hot/fast and the beans split and turned to mush. I recently tried to make them in my ♥pressure cooker that doubles as a 180 degree slow cooker♥ from QVC and they turned out great!
Gorgeous beans and they taste so much better than canned!

Beans in the Slow Cooker
1lb of dried beans (*any type except kidney beans)-I used Great Northern
1 tsp kosher salt-Forget the debate about salt, just add it folks, it makes a tastier bean!
Water to cover beans by about 2"
  1. Sort beans, discard shriveled, split and undesirables. Rinse and add to pot (no pre-soak necessary), add salt and cover with about 2" of water. 
  2. Set slow cooker for 8 hours. Now, when I leave for work I'll be gone for well over 9 hours, my cooker will switch over to "warm" mode after 8 hours. This worked out great! 
  3. Since I half a lot of recipes I place 1 cup of beans into cups or freezer bags for use later.
A quick note for folks that don't have a slow cooker, there is a great no-soak method that works well, you bring the beans up to a boil on the stove, cover them and place them in a pre-heated 275 degree oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes. If they aren't tender at that point put them back into the oven for 15 minutes intervals until they're done (usually only takes 15 minutes more).

*Please do not use this method for kidney beans, 
they need to be boiled for at least 10 minutes prior to any type of slow cooking.
Eat well and have a happy day:@)

18 comments:

  1. By far the prettiest beans I've ever seen. I'm afraid of pressure cookers though. I know they've come a long way since they used to blow up but they still freak me out.

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  2. So, if I don't have a slow cooker like yours, should I try it on the warm setting of my crock pot instead of a higher one?

    Those look great, and I agree about the salt.

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  3. Oh wow! Those do look great! I have been afraid all of my life to use a pressure cooker. I may have to invest in one though, I hear so many great things about them. I am a huge bean lover! They are the magical fruit after all!

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  4. Only you could make a bowl of cooked beans look so pretty!
    Jane

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  5. These are so pretty..most of the time when my beans are done most of them are mushed up. - Who needs the cookbook for the Pressure Cooker when we have you, yay! xo

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  6. I had no idea you could cook beans in a slow cooker - thanks. sandie

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  7. Hi Lynn, funny you posted about beans. I love beans too and I KNOW they are better than canned.

    Why is it funny? I make a bean soup that is to die for and my sister was here and wanted the recipe. I posted it last year and I couldn't get it to copy on my printer. Very annoying. I scanned it and put it on my post directly from a magazine. All that came up no matter what I did was 'Bean Soup. So I spent the last 20 minutes writing it out for her. sigh! It is a slow cooker recipe too.

    Have a happy day.
    Hugs, Jeanne

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  8. The are pretty beans. You may have just converted me from canned!

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  9. Hi Lynn, I didn't know you could put dried beans in the slow cooker. I'll have to give it a try. I have always used canned but I think dried are healthier and more economical as well. Thanks for sharing!
    Beth

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  10. Great idea...especially now that there is so much bad being said about store bought canned items. I love beans and so does my hubby so this is something I have been considering doing...just not in the crock pot. Yes this is a great idea! :)

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  11. I'm going to check out that pressure cooker. The beans came out perfect!

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  12. I didn't know you could make beans this way! I love beans too and can't wait to try this method.

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  13. Hi Lynn! Thanks for your kind comment. I can't wait to get back to blogging... especially since I really thought that I would never blog again! Never say never!

    Your bean recipe could not come at a better time. I just cleaned out my pantry and have 5 different types of beans in there. I'll be cooking kidney beans tomorrow... then chili!
    Thank!
    Yvonne

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  14. Thanks Lynn! I just got so excited about the prospects of using up my dried beans I misread the end!
    Yvonne

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  15. And me on the blog before dinner. I never knew that about kidney beans either.

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