How Long Do Beans Take To Cook (And Why)?

Exact Answer: Up to 2 hours

Cooking the beans would take around 2 hours. There are some varieties of beans that will get cooked in just 45 minutes. The cooking process is another factor that would affect the cooking time of the beans. If someone tried to cook beans without soaking, then it would take around 120 minutes.

Therefore, to save time, people do soak the beans before cooking the beans. Just like other legumes, beans would take more time to get cooked. The beans belong to the family of Fabaceae.

The beans come in pods where you can find many beans together. Beans are a great food choice for vegetarian or vegan people who wants a substitute for meat. The health benefits of beans can be claimed if it is cooked correctly.

How Long Do Beans Take To Cook?

There are many things that will affect the cooking time of beans. Some of these are:

Type- The type of beans someone is choosing to cook would make a huge impact on the cooking time. For example, the black beans can get cooked in just 60 minutes while the pinto beans would take around 2 hours. The kidney beans can get cooked in 1.5 to 2 hours.

Not all the beans come with the same type of texture. Some beans are quite softer while others are extremely hard.

Cooking method- There are many types of cooking recipes that one can do by using beans. Some people like to make bean soups while others want to eat beans gravy. Everyone can allow the beans to soak overnight for reducing the cooking time. Many people prefer soaking beans in the fridge for getting the best texture of the beans.

Ingredients used- The ingredients used in the cooking of beans would also influence the time of cooking beans. If a person uses many other ingredients to add in the beans gravy, then cooking time would get extended. As the addition of ingredients would take extra cooking time.

The beans should be cooked on low flame, as it needs to be cooked internally. Sometimes, cooking the beans in high flame would not allow the beans to get cooked from inside.

Why Do Beans Take This Long To Cook?

Cooking the beans involved many steps that make the cooking process extremely long. The soaking of beans is one of the most vital parts that should be done for getting split beans and the perfect taste of the beans. There are many types of soaking methods that someone can use for beans. Some people prefer a quick soaking of beans.

In quick soaking of beans, the soaking time would be around 3 to 5 minutes in boiling water. For hot soaking, the person is supposed to put the beans in the hot water and allow them to boil for around 2 to 3 minutes. Then the person should take the beans out from the water and allow them to soak separately for around 3 to 4 hours.

The perfect taste and texture of the beans would come when the person would follow the traditional soaking method. Take a large container and place the required amount of beans in water. Then allow the containers to rest in the fridge for the whole night. Don’t skip covering the containers as it would allow the beans to soak properly.

Sometimes, the beans would be hard even after cooking and soaking them for a long time. This may happen when the person doesn’t use high-quality beans for cooking purposes. If someone would add a lot of ingredients that are acidic, then it would make the beans hard after cooking.

People should also avoid using hard water for the cooking process of beans.

Conclusion

The cooking time of beans would be around 45 minutes to 2 hours. The type of beans and ingredients used in the cooking process would affect the cooking time. The person should try using good quality beans and less acidic ingredients to make the beans softer after the cooking process.

It’s not possible to cook the beans in less than 40 minutes, even if you soak them for the whole night. Therefore, try to cook the beans slowly, even if it takes more time.

References

1. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1024146710611
2. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07315724.1994.10718446