I have always soaked my beans before cooking them. Sometimes when I have a sudden craving to have red beans tong sui, I will pour the beans right away into the pot (after rinsing the beans) and cook the tong sui without soaking the beans. I have always thought that the main purpose why we should soak the beans is to soften them, thus this cuts down on cooking time, gas or electricity. But there is more to soaking beans…

There is some dispute over whether or not soaking beans before cooking is necessary and there are certainly some advantages to taking this step.  There are also some distinct advantages to using soaked beans rather than dried ones that you may want to consider when preparing bean recipes.

Whether or not you soak beans, it is essential to wash and pick through them before using them. Otherwise, you may cook in pieces of gravel, twigs, insects, bugs and other objects from the field the beans were grown. It helps to rinse beans in a large colander, allowing them to spread out as you rinse them so that you can pick out any foreign objects. That is how I wash my beans and grains — in a colander or a small stainless steel sieve.  If you plan to soak the beans, cover them in warm water, changing the water every now and then until the beans have swelled to twice their original size.  Or you can also simply leave them in filtered water overnight.

The primary reason people soak beans is to cut down on cooking time. Beans that have been soaked cook in much less time than dried beans do, saving energy in the cooking process along with time. In addition, by slowly allowing the beans to fill with water, you will encourage them to cook all the way through, rather than cooking on the outside while the middle remains raw and hard. Soaked beans are also less likely to fall apart during the cooking process.

Some people also believe that the longer you cook beans, the less nutritional value they have. It is true that heat damages some essential vitamins and minerals, but the beans will still be extremely nutritious. You should also simmer the beans slowly, rather than boiling them, to encourage gentle, even cooking without burning.02

All of the above reasons are pretty strong arguments to soak beans, but there’s a clincher: soaking helps to break down the sugars in beans that your body finds hard to digest. These sugars are the root cause of the gastrointestinal symptoms that are infamously associated with beans, and by soaking them before cooking them, you can drastically reduce gas, bloating, and other discomfort.

When you soak beans in water, you will see froth /scum on top of the water. What is all that scum?  They are anti-nutrients.  And those anti-nutrients such as phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors are going to be in your guts causing you gas, heartburn, reflux and whatever other digestive ills beset you when you eat something that isn’t particularly digestible unless you soak your beans before cooking them.

If you are running out of time to soak your beans overnight, you can have a “power soak” method, which is just pre-boiling the beans for two minutes.  Once you have finished the two-minute boil, you let the beans stand for about one hour. In that time, some of the more complex sugars that may…contribute to gastrointestinal distress after eating, dissolve in the water, which is then discarded prior to cooking the beans. After the hour’s rest, your beans will be ready to use in any recipe, as though it had been soaking for hours.

So the next time before you plan to cook a beans dessert or soup, do soak the beans first!