{"id":562,"date":"2009-09-17T16:45:58","date_gmt":"2009-09-17T16:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/?p=562"},"modified":"2009-09-17T16:45:58","modified_gmt":"2009-09-17T16:45:58","slug":"accelerated-slow-cooker-beans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/accelerated-slow-cooker-beans\/","title":{"rendered":"“Accelerated” Slow Cooker Beans"},"content":{"rendered":"

We love slow cookers, but sometimes they they can be a little too slow (or we can be a little too late!)\u00a0 Yesterday, for example, I was presenting “How Can You Tell If You’re Eating Well.”\u00a0 It’s a fun talk about “eating close to the earth” and how that simple approach makes it easy to know if you’re eating well.<\/p>\n

Anyway, at the end of the talk I planned to demo a fast, “eating close to the earth” dish using slow cooker black beans.\u00a0 But while fixing my morning cup of tea, I realized that I’d forgotten to soak the beans the night before, so they could slow cook all day, and be done just in time for my evening class.\u00a0 As I poured the water over my Earl Grey leaves, I watched my carefully laid plans collapse.\u00a0 What do I do now?<\/p>\n

Innovate. \u00a0 Fortunately, a bolt of inspiration struck and left behind a formula for\u00a0 “Accelerated Slow Cooker Beans:”<\/p>\n

8:48 a.m.\u00a0 Put quart of water on to boil on biggest burner on highest heat (with the lid on because that makes it boil faster, too)<\/p>\n

8:49 a.m.\u00a0 Measure out 1\u00a0 1\/2 cups black beans, pour on a plate and pick out dirt clods and bad beans (my beans come straight from a local farm, so they take a couple extra prep minutes, but the taste is well worth it.)<\/p>\n

\"Sorting
Sorting Black Beans: Pour into a pile on left side of plate. Working in small batches, push to right side of plate, pulling out bad beans, small stones or dirt clods like the one in center of plate. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

8:52 a.m.\u00a0 Pour cleaned beans in slow cooker.\u00a0 Water is now boiling so pour it in.\u00a0 Cover and turn to high heat.<\/p>\n

1:00 p.m.\u00a0 Beans have already begun to soften, the same as if they had soaked all night, so I drain them, return them to pot and put another quart of water on to boil.<\/p>\n

1:05 p.m.\u00a0 Second round of water is boiling.\u00a0 Pour over drained beans in slow cooker, cover and return heat to high.<\/p>\n

5:00 p.m.\u00a0 Return from appointment to find that beans are perfectly cooked–just a little on the soft side, how I love them.<\/p>\n

Moral of the Story:\u00a0 “Slow” cooker beans are possible in just 8 hours instead of 24.<\/p>\n

Add salt at the end and that easily (and cheaply) you’ve got a dish fit for a healthy-eating king.<\/p>\n

I’m always amazed at how good beans taste when cooked from scratch in a slow cooker.\u00a0 Canned beans are perfectly fine, but I’m always nagging people to experiment with fresh-cooked–just once (’cause you’ll be hooked).\u00a0 Experiment with this accelerated method or, if your brain works at night use the more leisurely method and put the beans on to soak the night before.\u00a0 You can read more about the leisurely method in a previous post:\u00a0 “How to Cook Dried Beans?<\/a>“<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You want the great taste of beans fresh-cooked in a slow cooker, but you forgot to soak them the night before. What do you do? Use the accelerated method.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,2,20,24,1],"tags":[76,307,528,529],"class_list":["post-562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-is-healthy-eating","category-healthy-cooking-basics","category-recipes","category-basic-healthy-cooking-techniques","category-uncategorized","tag-black-beans","tag-how-to-cook-dried-beans","tag-slow-cooker-beans","tag-slow-cooker-recipes","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}