How to quick-soak dried beans

The one dish that my mom would make from scratch whenever the opportunity arose was a huge pot of pinto beans. And by opportunity, I mean the one night of the week, no month, when she was actually able to take the time to soak dried beans over night, thrown in a ham hock (I am sure that stores still sell these although I have never seen one), and then cook them all day. They were and still are phenomenal and my favorite dish to have whenever I get home to see my parents. Seeing my parents is an rare occasion despite how my mom’s beans call to me. I mean, she could put the beans on to soak, and have them fully cooked in the time it would take me to get to there. Alas, I must make beans myself.

Far be it for me to fix something that a’int broke, but I usually don’t have the foresight, or the desire to soak beans overnight when I can pop open a can in under thirty seconds. However, dried beans somehow taste infinitely better than canned. So when I read that I could soak beans in my crockpot and have them ready to go in under three hours (…still requiring rare foresight on my part), I knew my time had come.

Get the best quality dried bean you can find, any type of bean will do. I usually start with a pound of dried beans.

Dump your beans into your crock pot. Again, any sized crock pot will work as long as it can fit your beans.

Cover the beans with about 3 inches of water.

And cook them on high for 3-4 hours. Make sure that they are not drying out during the cooking process.

Once cooked, give them a rince and they are ready to go. Alternatively, you can let them cool in the water.

Maybe I can now find the time to make a post on my mom’s pinto beans recipe.