Tried a new bean for the first time the other day, Field Peas and Snaps. I’m not sure what kind of legumes field peas are but they’re mighty tasty, a little like black eyed peas but smaller and less bitter. I love the smokey, hammy, potlikker that Glory uses for most of their products, really zings it up and adds the soul. Field peas are definitely worth a try if you like beans.
I had some of the field peas and snaps leftover in the fridge and was having some campbell’s tomato soup for lunch… so I added the leftover field peas and snaps with its likker to the soup, heated it up, added some hot sauce, and made a really enjoyable concoction. 100 times better than the humdrum tomato soup alone…
I find myself beaning quite frequently since I’ve given up meat. Tonight I threw two half recipes together and made a whole new taste treat - sauteed some fresh chopped garlic, fresh mushrooms, cannelini beans, chopped up escarole and a can of petite diced tomatoes. Oh, and some crushed red pepper flakes. Tossed it all over farfalle (bowtie) pasta, and added a couple handfuls of grated Romano cheese.
Is it possible to somehowcook dried beans, such as red beans, black beans, and maybe lentils or lima beans, with a standard rice cooker? I just got one. I’m a lazy bachelor, who can’t be bothered with pots and pans; when I eat beans they come out of cans.
Might be iffy. Beans don’t all cook the same, some requiring more vigorous boiling before dropping to a simmer. I’m not at all familiar with rice cooker capabilities, so it’s a guess.
It’s very possible to cook beans in a slow cooker, but I don’t know about a rice cooker. Since you’re a bachelor, you probably don’t have whole hams very often. Get a ham steak, cut it into individual servings, and cook a serving with your canned beans, or panfry it first before dicing it and putting it in the beans. The ham steaks I buy are only partially cooked, so check the ones in your area. They freeze nicely. Or make up a big pot of beans and freeze THAT in individual servings.
To clarify, I usually eat beans out of a can, heated in the microwave. I was asking if I could use the rice cooker to cook dried beans that come in bags and are cheaper. I suspected the answer is ‘no’ because I have a simple, standard rice cooker that just goes until the excess water is gone and the pan goes above 212 degrees F, but I thought I’d ask anyway.
I don’t know about the other beans, but lentils cook much faster and don’t require soaking. I think you would be able to make lentils in a rice cooker, but you would want to add more water than you would if you were making rice.
My one attempt at preparing dried beans was such a miserable failure, it scared me away from them, for the most part, other than lentils or split peas…I think all the varieties of canned beans are one of the greatest things ever, and never bother w/ dried anymore.
Try the empirical evidence approach. Sort a cup of dry pinto beans, looking for little dirt clods or stones, and soak them overnight. Throw 'em in the rice cooker, add 3 cups of water, set it for cooking rice and see what happens. The worst outcome is that you’ve wasted a cup of cheap beans.
My rice cooker takes about 45 minutes to cook rice, and that might be enough time to cook long-soaked pinto beans.
Down south here, they don’t put chili beans with the canned vegetables. They are in the aisle labeled “canned meat”. So the chili beans are actually by the canned tuna. I have no idea why they do that, but they do.
This seems like an experiment worth trying. I’d rinse the beans as you say, then put them in the rice cooker, cover them with cold water and soak them overnight (or 8 hours, you know the drill), rinse the beans again in the morning, cover them with an inch or so of fresh water, turn the rice cooker on and let them go. If your rice cooker is smart enough to shut off when the water’s cooked off, you should be safe. It seems to me the worst that can happen is the beans are undercooked, you add more water, reset the rice cooker to cook 'em again.
I’d do this on a day off so I could hang around the house and monitor things, but I don’t see why it couldn’t work.
You will probably need to run it through two cycles of the rice cooker if it only goes for 45 minutes. Beans need about an hour and a half, even pre soaked.
Get a ham steak, cut it into individual servings, and cook a serving with your canned beans, or panfry it first before dicing it and putting it in the beans. The ham steaks I buy are only partially cooked, so check the ones in your area. They freeze nicely. Or make up a big pot of beans and freeze THAT in individual servings.