How to Cook Black Beans

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Black bean recipe @ Recipes From A Pantry

Black beans are an awesome pantry staple ingredient to have. They are budget friendly and versatile so can be used in tons of recipes. Which is why I am super excited to show you how to cook black beans, in a variety of methods.

The super creamy black beans (also called turtle beans) are becoming one of my new favourites. They hold their shape during cooking and are a tasty way to add some protein to meals.

You can see if you prefer to soak them or use a no soak method, cook ’em in your Instant Pot, in your slow cooker, or on the stovetop, this right here is a comprehensive guide on how to cook black beans. I got you friend.

Why You’ll Love Them

  • Dried beans are budget friendly and you can cook them without needing to pre-soak beans if using an Instant Pot. Win win right?
  • These can be cooked to the firmness / softness you prefer for different recipes.
  • Filling, nutritious, and loved by the whole family.
  • They can be prepped ahead for freezer-friendly meals.

What Are Black Beans

Black beans, also called turtle beans…..

Soaking Beans Overnight

Good news, you don’t need to soak dried black beans. However soaking them means that you will greatly reduce the cooking time if using the stovetop. Just soak them overnight before heading off to bead.

Just grab your dried bean and put them in a container larger enough to hold them and add in about 4 times the volume of water. Just before cooking drain off the liquid, thoroughly rinse the beans before cooking them according to your chosen recipe.

How To Quick Soak Dried Beans

You can also quick soak dried beans. Just add them in a pot with about 4 times the volume of water, bring to the boil and boil away for 2 minutes. Switch off the heat and let them soak in the hot water for 1 hr. Drain and rinse beans before cooking them according to your chosen recipe.

  • You can add much more flavor to the beans when you cook them from scratch.
  • .
  • Reserve the cooking liquid and use it to cook a divine tasting treat.
  • Oh, and you can easily cook more beans than you need and store them in the fridge. They keep this way for about 5 days without any proble

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I love beans. Especially black-eyed beans which are a common store cupboard staple in Sierra Leone.  And since variety is the spice of life I have recently begun cooking a lot more with other beans.

The super creamy black beans (also called turtle beans) are becoming one of my new favourites. They hold their shape during cooking and are a tasty way to add some protein to meals.

One of the main thing to remember about cooking black beans is that they can take between 1 – 3 hrs to cook depending on their age, size etc.  I let them simmer away on the cooker whilst I am busy doing other important stuff like watching Grey’s Anatomy and before I can say Dr McDreamy they are all done.  I tend to cook a rather large batch and keep them in the fridge and use them over the week in dishes such as salsa, rice and beans, salads, burgers, tacos, bean soups and chilli.

Black bean recipe @ Recipes From A Pantry

A tip moment here – adding salt to the beans at the start slows down the softening process so it is worth adding it in after about an hr of cooking. This is the first post in my pantry staple spotlight on black beans. The next two posts will be black bean recipes that a hopefully get you inspired to cooking with these full of taste little beans.

So here is my guide on how to cook black beans.

How to cook black-eyed beans on the cooker.

How to cook black eyed beans in the oven.

This is the first post in my pantry staple spotlight on black beans.

Don’t forget to tag #recipesfromapantry on Instagram or Twitter if you try How to Cook Black Beans! It is really, really awesome for me when you make one of my recipes and I’d love to see it. You can also share it on my Facebook page. Please pin this recipe to Pinterest too! Thank you for reading Recipes from a Pantry.

Black bean recipe @ Recipes From A Pantry
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5 from 2 votes

How to Cook Black Beans

A quick easy guide on how to cook black beans.
Author: Bintu Hardy

Ingredients

  • Black beans turtle beans
  • Water or stock
  • Seasoning of your choice
  • Salt

Instructions

  • Pick through the beans and discard all stones and broken beans.
  • Soak the beans in water over night – making sure that there is enough water to cover all which are going to swell. The longer you soak them the shorter the cooking time.
  • Then drain and wash them and transfer them into a pot.
  • Add enough water or stock so that the liquid is about 5cm above the beans and add in the seasoning (not salt). I generally add in garlic, bay leaves and sliced onions.
  • Bring to the boil, then simmer partially uncovered for between 1hr – 3hr depending on how firm or soft you want your beans.
  • Add in the salt after about 1h of simmering.
  • If the cooking liquid dries out before the beans finish cooking then add some more.
  • When cooked, drain the beans. You can reserve the cooking liquid and use it to cook rice or flavour soups and stews.
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Notes

Adding salt to the beans at the start slows down the softening process so it is worth adding it in after about an hr of cooking.

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14 Comments

  1. black beans are delicious ! I like them very vey much. Before I cook them I let them soak in water overnight and then boil them in the same water which now has a blac-violet tint. I like to add 1 medium – small clove of garlic, one big onion(chopped small), fresh parsley, red chili, a tiny bit of cumin and curry. Just before I finish I add in some more parsley, and salt. et voila ! delicious black beans !

  2. I used to cook dried beans all the time but got lazy – really must get back to cooking them again.

  3. Hah! you and I must be on the same wavelength:) Thanks for this, I think I’ll edit rice and beans post to include this handy guide on how to prepare the beans.

  4. Oh I do love black beans… Just a pity they are not more widely available in supermarkets here (or at least not the supermarkets around me!). I made some for a salad a couple of weeks ago when we had our big BBQ and it went down a storm!

    1. You have to go to ethic stores to be able to get the bigs bags of them but I have started finding the smaller packs in my local supermarket (labelled as Turtle beans)

  5. I haven only tried black beans once, I am sure it was in a Chilli and was really lovely, am American friend of mine cooked it x

  6. I’ve only ever tried black beans in a black bean sauce and I didn’t like it at all. However this actually looks pretty nice and I might have to give black beans another try!