How do I cook dried beans and pulses?

Soaking, the hard boil that matters for kidney beans, and why salt is not the villain it was said to be.

Difficulty: beginner
Time: 2 hr
Read: 2 min
Safety: warning

Short answer

Soak overnight, drain, then boil hard for ten minutes before simmering until tender. Salt the water — the old advice that it toughens beans has been largely disproved, and salted beans taste far better.

Dried beans cost a fraction of tinned and taste considerably better, and the cooking is almost entirely unattended. The one thing to take seriously is red kidney beans, where the initial hard boil is a genuine safety step.

Safety

Dried red kidney beans must be soaked and then boiled hard for at least 10 minutes before simmering. Raw or undercooked kidney beans contain a toxin that causes severe sickness, and a slow cooker alone does not reach a high enough temperature to destroy it. Tinned kidney beans are already cooked and safe.

What you'll need

Dried beans
Large pan
Bicarbonate of soda (optional)
Bay leaf, onion, garlic (optional)

Step by step

Sort and rinse them.Tip them out and look for stones and shrivelled beans. It takes thirty seconds and occasionally saves a tooth.
Soak for 8-12 hours in plenty of cold water.They roughly double in size, so use three times the volume of water. Soaking shortens cooking and gives a more even result.
Or use the quick-soak method.Cover with water, boil for two minutes, take off the heat and leave covered for an hour. Nearly as good and much faster.
Drain and use fresh water to cook.The soaking water contains the compounds that cause the digestive complaints beans are known for.
Boil kidney beans hard for at least 10 minutes.This is a safety step, not a texture one. Raw kidney beans contain a toxin that a gentle simmer or a slow cooker will not destroy.
Then simmer gently until tender.One to two hours depending on the bean and its age. Old beans take far longer and some never soften properly.
Salt them — it is fine.The old warning that salt toughens beans has largely been disproved. Salted cooking water gives beans that actually taste of something.
Add aromatics to the pot.Bay, onion, garlic, a strip of kombu. The beans absorb it, and the cooking liquid becomes a useful broth.

Tips

A pinch of bicarbonate of soda in the cooking water softens beans faster, particularly in hard water areas. Do not overdo it or they go mushy and soapy.
Cook a large batch and freeze in portions with a little of their liquid. It is the single best argument for dried over tinned.
Acidic ingredients — tomato, vinegar, lemon — slow softening considerably. Add them after the beans are tender.

Common mistakes

Slow-cooking dried kidney beans from raw — A slow cooker does not reach the temperature needed to destroy the toxin. Boil them hard for ten minutes first, always.
Adding tomato early — Acid stops beans softening. They can simmer for hours and stay stubbornly firm.

Questions people ask

Do I have to soak dried beans?

It is not strictly necessary but it shortens cooking considerably and gives a more even result. Lentils and split peas need no soaking at all.

Does salt make beans tough?

No — that advice has largely been disproved. Salted water gives better-seasoned beans and does not meaningfully affect the texture.