Beans, Beans, Bountiful Beans

Dry beans are in no way a convenience food and as they are our main source of protein we eat a lot of them. They require that you remember to soak them the night before then cook them for quite a period of time when they are going to be used. Both of these things can be easily done but I also know how often I forget and end up reaching for a can, if we have one, or changing our meal plan altogether due to my lack of organisation.

A little while ago it hit me that it was a lot more time efficient to prepare the whole bag during the one cooking session rather than just preparing enough for that meal. I tested and found that the cooked beans freeze well and doing them in bulk really takes very little extra time. So now rather than cooking them 1 Cup at a time I do them in at least 1kg lots.

Once they have been cooked I simply separate them into meal size servings, about 2 Cups, in reusable ziplock bags and freeze them flat on their side. This allows them to stack neatly without taking up a whole lot of unnecessary space in the large freezer container that I use for beans.

Freezing them flat I have found that I can defrost them easily in a day in the fridge when I remember to plan ahead.

On those days that I have had a total mental meltdown freezing them this way allows me the freedom to break the block into chunks and put them directly into whatever I am making. It takes a little longer than working from defrosted but only adds and extra 15 minutes or so to the overall cooking time. With them being a long thin flat brick its quite easy to get the heat through to the middle of the block allowing it to cook reasonably evenly.