We've been shying away from using beans in everyday dinners for several months. Then at our most recent hot dog cookout last Saturday, as I was putting out side dishes, I had a thought that baked beans or BBQ beans would be so good with that meal. And I've often thought how quick and easy bean and cheese burritos would be to make on a night when I needed a meal on the table in a hurry. But alas, cooking beans from dried requires advanced planning.
And that's what I did. I cooked up the pintos, refrigerated them overnight (I got a late start cooking beans on Monday), then today I made enough refried beans for 3 family meals of burritos or beans to go on nachos and 2 family meals of BBQ beans to have with a hot dog cookout or to serve with cornbread and salad/fruit for a simple supper type of meal. I've now got 5 family meals of cooked and seasoned beans to help ease us back into putting beans on our meal rotation.
I know, a lot of folks cook up lots of beans at once and can or freeze those cooked beans. I just haven't consistently been one of those people. So this was my version of cooking beans once to eat for several meals.
I know you don't have an instant pot but cooking up beans in the IP has been my go to for a long time. I can do a lot at once and freeze them for future use but our favorite is to make the entire pot into refried beans and then freezing it already made. Rice is another IP wonder. I love mine so much that I purchased a smaller one too. Sometimes I have both of them working at the same time. My husband cannot digest the skins on beans but the health benefit is so good that making refried is a way he can enjoy beans too. I think that sounds good for dinner tonight!
ReplyDeleteAlie
Hi Alice,
DeleteI'm glad your instant pot works so well for you. I have thought of buying one. Using it for rice would be a bonus.
This sounds like a great cooking session for you guys! We've fallen off cooking big batches of beans and freezing them in one- or two-person portions lately, during a very busy period at our home. However, using canned beans that we refry, or canned refried beans (hubby is super-lucky about finding refried bean sales, for some reason, which has been great!), DS and I have continued to expand our other "cook ahead" bean dish strategy -- making burritos for the freezer. With only 3 people eating most of the time, there tended to be leftovers of both meat and beans, as well as more tortillas in the package. So, we started a couple of years ago just making up everything into burritos, and freezing them for easy lunch/dinner later. They're great for mojado/"wet" burritos, but actually, wrapped in parchment and baked, the tortillas get a little crunchy on the edges, and it's sort of a chimichanga effect without the oil. Last time we did shredded game meat, we had a generous dinner, and also put away 15 dinner-sized burritos in the fridge, which will give us at least 5 tasty meals with basically NO dinner/lunch prep! Whoo-hoo! Have a beautiful day! Sara
ReplyDeleteSara, So smart to tuck extras in the freezer. I am always grateful to have things like that on busy days. I haven't done that with burritos for awhile but you've inspired me!
DeleteHi Sara,
DeleteMaking up extra burritos for the freezer with remaining beans and beef is such a great idea. We always have at least a few tortillas and a cup or two of beans leftover. I'm going to have to do this the next time we have the right leftovers. When my husband makes burritos for us, he usually gives me 2, which is double what I can eat. So I freeze my second one to have as my lunch another day. Frozen homemade burritos really do reheat nicely.
My husband made some truly delicious baked beans using dried beans a few weeks ago. Like you, we don't do big-batch bean cooking, but instead tend to cook a fairly large amount and eat off of it for the following week. I recently read that there's a possibility that canned beans will get more expensive with tariffs, due to the cost of the steel cans. I may have to get more ambitious with cooking and freezing beans, if that comes to fruition.
ReplyDeleteHi Kris,
DeleteAt least cooking beans from dried is an uncomplicated thing to do. It just takes time and planning. Another possibility -- if canned beans become much more expensive, you could buy an instant pot for cooking beans.
Another thing we've found about cooking from dried is that we don't always get great results. We keep practicing, and we make very good black-eyed peas, and decent black beans. But navies, Great Northerns, and pintos are sometimes problematic -- skins slip, inconsistent texture, turning to mush before they're evenly cooked, etc. It sounds like part of our problem may be simmering at too-high heat (skins, especially), which may be because we're cooking on an electric range (temperamental). But I DO find it frustrating to go through the whole dry-bean cooking process, and end up with days (months, when we freeze them) worth of much-less-than-perfect bean results to eat. Sara
DeleteSounds like you figured out a great way to pre-cook beans that works for you! Like Alice mentioned above, I usually do "refried" beans quickly in the Instant Pot (I see these very inexpensively on fb marketplace quite often if you ever decide to try one). For baked beans, I pre-soak navy beans right in the jars I plan to can them in overnight, drain and rinse, then add the ingredients (mustard, ketchup, garlic, onion, salt, brown sugar or maple syrup, and a piece of bacon), top off with water, then pressure can so they're ready for a quick warmup on the stove when we're ready to eat them. Convenience food in a jar. I pressure can plain kidney and black beans with just salt using the same pre-soaking method so that they're ready to use in chilis, soups, and other dishes such as black bean and chicken tacos (Jovial company makes a similar product that is pre-soaked but the price is prohibitive for my family). My mom unexpectedly bought us a digital pressure canner last year for our anniversary which has simplified this further but only holds 4 quarts as a time, so I'm doing smaller batches these days. The digital pressure canner is also essentially an extra-large instant pot, but I haven't used it as such yet.
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