Use the fast soak method for your dried beans instead of soaking them overnight.
In most cases, you must soak your dried beans before you cook them. This rehydrates them, leaving them consistently tender in the finished dish rather than fully or partially hard or uncooked. The traditional way to soak dry beans involves putting them into a large container of cool water and leaving them overnight. This can be inconvenient if you have a craving for bean soup and do not want to wait until tomorrow to make it. With the fast (or quick) soak method, you can start cooking your beans as quickly as an hour. Add this to my Recipe Box.
Instructions
1. Pour the beans you want to soak into a colander and rinse them thoroughly. Agitate them with your hand while running cool water over them to ensure you remove any dirt, pesticides or other residue. As you do this, examine the beans and remove any that are wrinkled. Also remove any items that do not belong with your beans, such as stones or clumps of dirt.
2. Measure the beans, then pour them into a large pot. Add four times the volume of water as beans. For example, if you added 1-1/2 cups of beans to the pot, add 6 cups of water.
3. Put the pot on the stove over high heat and bring the water to a boil. Boil the beans for one to three minutes, then remove the pot from the heat and cover it immediately.
4. Leave the pot of hot water and beans alone for one to two hours. By the end of an hour, most beans should be fully soaked. If yours are especially hard or large, however, they might take two hours.
5. Drain the beans when they are about double their original size, and when they are firm, tender and smooth. Rinse thoroughly under cool running water, then use as you wish.
Tags: cool water, dried beans, into large, leaving them, soak method