Cook Dried Beans
Dried beans are the longest-storing, most affordable form of protein in the world. They’re a great way to make a large pot of food to share without blowing the budget—I used to cook my favorite Black Bean Chili recipe for 70 people every month for a 350 potluck for less than $10! Most recipes double and freeze well, too.
Whether you’re trying to stretch your own budget, or want an affordable way to share with struggling neighbors, learn a great dry-bean recipe today. We have some tips.
How to do it:
The first step to cooking with dry beans is planning your time: beans need to soak, and they take a while to cool. There are all kinds of tips to make them “less gassy” but the biggest tip is to eat them regularly. Your guts will adjust over time. If this concerns you, start with recipes that add beans in modest amounts, and try to eat them regularly. Canned beans may be an easy introduction in this case: just add a can to a soup, salad or casserole. Once you’re doing it regularly, you can cook and freeze your own beans to add.
The Spruce Eats is a reliable guide to basic (and advanced) cooking techniques. Their dried bean guide will get you started. We’ll add this caveat: if your beans are older, you can just soak a bit longer before cooking. When COVID hit and the potlucks ended we were left with most of a 50# bag of black beans. Five years later, the last of them cooked up just fine. There is NO shelf-life on dried beans as long as you keep pests out of them.
And here is our hands-down favorite dry-bean recipe. It’s gluten-free, vegan, delicious, and can be used in dozens of ways. Make a rice bowl, put it in tacos, add a cupful to southwestern soups, use it in enchiladas, top baked potatoes with it, or just eat it in a bowl with your favorite toppings! This is our go-to for any potluck because nearly everyone can eat it, and it freezes brilliantly too! NOTE: you can pick up the spices cheaply anywhere with a large selection of Hispanic foods (like a minority-owned market?) but you can also go simple and use a chili blend. It’ll still be healthy, hearty and delicious.
This post illustrated with an image from UnSplash (https://unsplash.com/license) or Wikimedia Commons (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) 
