Soaked Beans (optional)

🥘 Ingredients

• dried beans of choice 8 oz
• cool or filtered water 4 cup
• Diamond

1. 1

   Prepare: dried beans of choice , cool or filtered water , Diamond Crystal kosher salt.

Overnight Soak Instructions

1. 1

   Add the dried beans to a large bowl and cover with the water.
2. 2

   Season the soaking water with salt (1 1/2-2 tbsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt; half the amount if using sea salt). In my tests, soaking beans with salt produces more tender, evenly cooked beans. Most of the salt gets drained off after rinsing, so they won’t be too salty.
3. 3

   Cover and soak the beans for 8 hours or overnight. For most bean varieties, an 8-hour or overnight soak works well. For small beans like navy beans, a shorter soak of 2 to 6 hours is sufficient. For very large beans, like Gigantes, you may want to do a longer soak of 12 to 16 hours.
4. 4

   Drain the beans of their soaking water (or if preferred, save the soaking water for cooking), then rinse them. You can start cooking the beans now.

Quick Soak Instructions (if short on time)

1. 1

   Stovetop
2. 2

   Add the beans to a large saucepan and cover with water by about 3 inches (8 cm). Bring to a boil, then rapidly simmer for 2 minutes . Turn off the heat, cover the pan, and rest for 1 hour. Drain the beans, rinse, and cook as desired. Instant Pot
3. 3

   Add the beans to the Instant Pot and cover with water (3-4 cup). Select the Pressure Cook setting at high pressure for 5 minutes , followed by a natural pressure release for 10 minutes. Manually release any remaining steam. Drain the beans, rinse, and cook as desired.