Crock Pot Black Beans

I’ll admit it. I eat canned beans when I’m in a pinch. I don’t know many people who don’t reach for a can of black beans when making their favorite black bean dish. But once I realized how easy it was to cook and store my own black beans, I found myself reaching for the canned ones less and less.

I really don’t like eating canned anything. However, for convenience sake I do use canned foods on occasion. I recently found canned black beans at Trader Joes that don’t have any additives. Unfortunately, Trader Joes doesn’t soak their beans ahead of time (to help digestion), and there are BPAs in most canned anything so I still prefer home cooked beans. When I have time to cook my own black beans I make them in the crock pot.

Benefits of home cooked crock pot black beans:

1. You can leave the house while they are cooking.

2. You can cook them overnight on low and wake up to cooked beans (they taste great with eggs, spinach and salsa-yum!).

3. No BPAs

4. You can soak them so that they are more easily digested.

5. You know exactly what’s going into your beans.

6. Crock pot black beans are super simple to make!

Ingredients:

• 1 bag (or 2 cups) dry black beans
• filtered water
• 2 TBS whey protein, lemon juice, or apple cider vinegar
• 2-3 cloves of garlic (optional)
• 1/2 tsp cumin (optional)
• 1/4 tsp pepper (optional)
• salt to taste (optional) We buy our Redmonds Real Sea Salt from Thrive Market.

I always soak my black beans ahead of time. It’s important not to skip this step. While you can soak them in plain filtered water (to decrease cook time), soaking them in an acid will break down the phylates making them easier to digest. Easier digestion means no more gas after eating beans! Hooray!

Here are my black beans after soaking for more than 24 hours in apple cider vinegar. That white stuff at the top is the anti-nutrients that came from the black beans because of soaking them in an acid. You can rinse that off the beans before cooking them. I use the empty glass jars from the bulk jalapenos I buy for my hubby at Sam’s Club to soak my beans. He eats insane amounts of jalapenos. Any large jar will do. Please ignore the red junk on my fridge. I just noticed the mess I need to clean from the last time I made fermented red cabbage when the contents of the jar sprayed out after I opened it. oops.

Directions:

Soaking Directions:

1. Rinse beans in a colander. Look for (and take out) any stones. Dry beans may have a stone amongst them on occasion and you don’t want to bite into one of them while enjoying your cooked black beans.

2. Place rinsed black beans in a big glass jar.

3. Add filtered water leaving about an inch at the top of the glass jar. The black beans will expand in the water while soaking.

4. Add 2 TBS of whichever acid you choose (liquid whey, lemon juice, or apple cider vinegar).

5. I then let them soak for at least 24 hours. You only need to soak the beans 8 hours if you don’t add an acid.

Cooking Directions:

1. After your uncooked beans have soaked rinse them off again in a colander.

2. Put all the beans in a crock pot and fill with filtered water an inch over the beans.

3. If you like you can add a few cloves of garlic, cumin, pepper or other seasonings you choose. Don’t add salt till after the beans are cooked.

4. Cook in your crockpot on high for 4-5 hours OR low for 8-9 hours. Check them every so often as different crockpots cook at different temperatures. You can take a spoonful of beans and blow on them to see if they are done. The skins will peel back a bit if they are cooked enough.

5. If you would like to add salt you can but I usually leave them salt free and then add salt later to recipes if I feel they need it.

I then like to store by beans in glass Tupperware. I put some beans in the fridge to use right away and freeze some for later. If you divide them into 2 cup quantities this is about how much is in a can of black beans which will help when following recipes that call for a can of beans. Then you will have black beans on hand any time you need them.

You could also easily double or triple this recipe if you would like to make more (if you have a crock pot large enough). Then you could freeze even more beans for later.

Here is my crock pot of black beans. I am also just noticing that the outside of my crock pot needs to be cleaned. Maybe I will give my whole kitchen a good cleaning today.

And here are about 2 cups of cooked black beans.