Vegetarians or anyone who cooks with dried beans help please.

[Juniperdewdropofbrandy]

I've soaked 1kg of chickpeas and cannelini beans together. But can I cook them together? I'm going to make them into a dish for a large group (Friday) will cook it tomorrow though. Not sure what I'm making as yet but thought beans would be cheap. Plus I love them. It needs to be vegetarian so any ideas appreciated.

I also soaked black turtle beans too They were on offer so will try to find a chilli or something?

TIA.

bump

yes, you can cook them together.

Try frying some onion and sliced peppers together with garlic. Add spices (cumin, coriander, chilli, tumeric are nice). Then add your beans/chickpeas and some fresh chopped tomatoe and veg stock (or use tinned chopped tomatoe and less stock). Simmer for howeevr long the beans take to cook and serve with rice and yoghurt and fresh coriander if you have it. (Posh up the yoghurt with mint and/or cucumber/mango etc if you like).

Thanks so much BlingLoving that sounds perfect

the only issue is that your chick peas will take much longer to cook than the beans, particularly if you live in a hard water area or the chick peas are old

Yes, I'd check on cooking times too as they may vary for the beans. For recipes:

For black turtle beans, this chocolate and black bean chilli is lovely.

You could try something moroccan style with the chickpeas? This carrot and chickpea stew always goes down well. Maybe the white beans would work well in there too.

I personally would good the beans first, before cooking a dish with them - its easier to be sure that they've cooked properly that way.

I would cook them separately, I'm afraid.
Huge chance tou will end up with some overcooked/some undercooked otherwise

Soak them overnight in a large amount of cold water. Next day, drain and put them in a big pan with fresh water (don't add salt or lemon as it makes the skins tough) and boil for 10 mins. It's important to boil them to destroy what my old recipe book calls 'anti-nutritional factors on the surface of the beans' (most dried beans contain a toxin that makes them hard to digest and can cause stomach upset, but is destroyed by boiling).

The book has a table for soaking and cooking dried beans, peas and lentils.

Chickpeas: soak overnight, boil 10 mins, simmer in fresh water 1.5-2 hours.
Cannelini beans: (related to kidney beans) soak overnight, boil 10 mins, simmer 1 hour. Looks like you might have to cook them separately.
It doesn't mention Turtle beans but they are related to kidney beans too, so as above.

I would cook them before including them in your recipe, that way you can make sure they are soft and cooked properly, sometimes they take more than 2 hours if they are old.

Arghhh I've already put them in the slow cooker. Oh well I can always do it all again tomorrow with tins. It's for 20 people but luckily didn't cost too much.

I really hate to say this but..... it's not all beans, but certainly some, you need to boil them hard for the first ten minutes, then a long a long slow simmer. So you shouldn't really put them straight into the slow cooker.
Think the cannellinis will be fine, but not sure about the chick peas....
hope someone will be along to correct me soon!

I made a chickpea curry the other day in the slow cooker and it was good. No flatulence even!

I'll have a google though just in case.

Drladybird thanks for that chilli recipe I'll cook the black beans tonight and make it tomorrow

Not good. Chickpeas have been slow cooked for ages and still crunchy. I read it's to do with cooking with tomatoes?

Adding salt too soon will stop the beans softening. Always add it at the end

Oh dear! They won't cook because of the acidic juice in the tomatoes. Time to bin methinks. What a shame.

I didn't add salt as read that wasn't a good idea. Anyway they've softened eventually and it's actually nice. I have some curry defrosting plus am making black bean chilli so there'll be plenty of food even if this stew isn't popular. Dss and dp tried it though and said it's tasty.

There's also ham broth for meat eaters. I eat meat so will be having some of that. I've told them all to bring tupperware as there'll be plenty left seen as I've made so much.

Oh and I've seasoned it now btw.

Went down really well. I did smokey pork and black bean in the end, was very popular. I wasn't keen on the curry tbh but it got eaten. There was plenty and people took some home in Chinese take away plastic boxes.