.JPG)
We made this swap for two reasons-
1. Using dry beans helps us avoid all the extra sodium used to store prehydrated beans in a can.
2. It is way cheaper! A 1lb bag of all natural dried beans was $1.29 at Meijer, which yields a little more than three 15-oz cans of hydrated beans.
Dry beans are most likely available at your regular grocer, displayed right near the canned beans. Hydrating them for recipes is incredibly simple, and can be done a couple different ways. If you're using your beans right away for a recipe, try the hot soak method. I won't be using these for our chili until Friday, so I used the overnight soak method:
You will need:
Beans
Water
Container for soaking
Method:
Sort and rinse your beans before you begin. This is just to make sure they are clean and that no pebbles or other objects make their way into your recipe.
Measure out however many beans you want to use (I used 2 cups dry) and pour into your soaking container.
Fill the container with cold water so that the beans are completely covered.
When complete, drain and rinse the beans with clean cold water.
Transfer to clean container for storage until use (use as soon as possible for best results).
(instructions adapted from the US Dry Beans Council... who knew there was a US Dry Beans Council!)
Pretty simple, huh? These beans aren't the prettiest, but since they are just for Chili, that's fine with me. If you need nice looking beans for a bean salad, I would suggest going with the hot-soak method instead, as the beans are less likely to crack or wrinkle that way. Since we are trying to reduce our meat intake in favor of other proteins, this trick will definitely come in handy! Thanks for checking in, and I hope you enjoyed this Quick Tip Tuesday!
xo Allison
Sounds delish!
ReplyDelete