Jana had a problem with hard beans. I learned to cook beans from The Bean
Book by British vegetarian cook. Rose Elliot (Fontana, 1979). Here are a
few hints.
Hint #1 - Soaking
Rose advises that all pulses be washed and then soaked before cooking.
There are two ways of soaking.
1. The long cold soak (Soak for 4-8 hrs)
2. The short hot soak. Bring beans to the boil in a saucepan of water. Boil
for 2-3 minutes and soak for 45-60 minutes.
Hint #2 - Rinsing
Always rinse after soaking. This improves their digestibility.
Hint #3 - Cooking times
These vary for different types of beans. Here are the times for the most
common types of beans.
Do *not* add salt until the beans are cooked. This will mean they take
forever to become soft.
Hope this helps. If you need more help, feel free to email me privately. I
would also recommend Rose's book to anyone who would like to learn how to
cook beans easily.
For anyone who is a vegetarian for environmental reasons (I'm not), one
interesting fact is that beans can provide ten times more protein from a
piece of land than m**t. They are really cheap too, for student vegetarians
like me.
