How To Soak and Cook Haricot Beans

Ingredients

• 300 g dried haricot (navy, cannellini, flageolet) beans – see 2nd tip
• 25 g lemon juice or whey
• 2000 g filtered water
• 3 peeled garlic cloves
• dried seaweed, approx. 3×5 cm or 1 Tbsp flakes, optional – see 3rd tip
• ½ tsp olive oil

Method

1. Place a large bowl on TM lid and weigh in dried haricot beans, lemon juice, and 1000 g of the filtered water, cover bowl with a plate and set aside to soak in a warm place for 12 hours or overnight.
2. Place TM simmering basket in the sink and pour soaked beans through it to discard soaking water. Leave beans in basket, rinse under cold running water and drain again.
3. Transfer beans to TM bowl, add remaining 1000 g filtered water, garlic, dried seaweed and olive oil, then cook 30 min/100°C/reverse/speed spoon or longer until almost tender but still with a bit of firmness in the middle when you bite one (they will be cooked further in the Boston Baked Beans recipe) – see 1st tip for softer beans.
4. Place TM simmering basket in a large bowl and pour in cooked beans and cooking liquid to reserve bean liquid to use as stock or in other recipes. Use beans and bean liquid straight away (you will need both for Boston Baked Beans), or place beans in a container and chill in fridge up to 3 days or freeze up to 6 months, and place hot bean liquid into a sterilised glass jar and seal, allow to cool to room temperature then chill for up to 2 weeks, or freeze in a freezer safe container.
5. This recipe is vegetarian and vegan.

Janie’s Tips

1. Cook haricot beans longer in step 3 until completely tender if you would like to use them in dips or pâtés. Cannellini beans may need more cooking time as they are the biggest of the haricot beans.
2. This recipe is only for haricot (navy, cannellini, flageolet) beans. Other beans may need different Thermomix preparations, for example, see my recipe book Fast and Easy Indian Cooking for an excellent TM method to cook chickpeas (garbanzo beans).
3. Using dried seaweed in this recipe can help reduce the gas-producing effect which affects some people when they eat cooked beans. I have seen kombu seaweed recommended, although from personal experience, I tend to use whatever dried seaweed (not roasted) I happen to have on hand, and have found they all seem to help make cooked beans more digestible.
4. You may notice there is no salt used here – it would make the beans tough and unable to cook properly during this preparation stage.
5. This recipe is gluten free (GF) – please read ingredient labels to ensure all your ingredients are gluten free.
6. This recipe is vegetarian.
7. For dairy free (DF) and/or vegan use lemon juice instead of whey – please read ingredient labels to ensure all your ingredients are dairy free if dairy free is required.