http://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-ca...018-story.html

Soaking beans? In most cases, you don't need to

By Russ Parsons contact the reporter

Rich, earthy, hearty — there's nothing quite so reassuring as having a
pot of beans simmering in the oven when cool weather comes along. So why
don't more people cook them? One of the main reasons is the planning
that's required to soak them overnight before you start. I know the look
— the idea that some people have meals planned a day in advance
continues to astonish me.

But here's the thing: In most cases you don't need to. Many years ago I
set out to discover if there wasn't some way to shortcut the soaking and
cooking process. What I learned surprised me. And it has allowed me to
fix up a pot of beans for dinner whenever I like.

"Almost every recipe in every cookbook you've ever read says you must
soak dried beans before you cook them. In almost every case that advice
is wrong." That's what I wrote when I first ran the experiments 20 years
ago. And it's true.
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For most dried beans, you can simply put them straight into a pot and
simmer them until tender without any soaking at all. Not only is it more
convenient, it actually improves them. A lot. Beans cooked without
soaking have a richer, fuller flavor. They taste more "beany." And the
cooking broth is rich and thick as well.

I can't claim this as my discovery, not when it's the way many Mexican
cooks have been fixing beans for centuries. It's just knowledge that
somehow had fallen by the wayside (just as we've forgotten that, as
every Indian and Persian cook knows, we should soak long-grain rice for
an hour or so before cooking).
Beans cooked without soaking have a richer, fuller flavor. They taste
more 'beany.' - Russ Parsons

Doing without soaking does increase beans' cooking time — but for most
varieties that's only by a matter of 20 to 30 minutes, and that's
unaccompanied time anyway. Black beans, pinto beans, Great Northern
beans, cannellini beans, navy beans, they all cook without a whiff of
trouble.

There are a couple of caveats. First, if you're using very old beans —
ones that have been in the back of your pantry for a year or so, or that
you bought from a store that doesn't turn over its stock — then they
might have dried out so much that soaking is advisable.

And there are some types of beans that do require soaking. I still soak
chickpeas, of course (not technically a bean but a legume, so there you
are).

I also talked to my favorite bean expert, Steve Sando of Rancho Gordo
(if you haven't tried its specialty beans, you're missing something). He
said that, in general, he recommends always soaking beans from the
runner species, Phaseolus coccineus. These are extremely large, dense
beans that will become beautifully creamy when cooked — but they do need
soaking to soften in a reasonable manner of time.

Also, not soaking works best for beans for soups or stews. If you're
going to be using the beans in salads or other dishes in which you want
them to be separate and distinct, you should either soak them or at the
very least give them a rinse after they've cooked.

You want proof? Cook these black beans soaked and unsoaked and compare
the two. Whenever I serve this recipe, people ask me what the secret
ingredient is. And since cooking it without soaking requires all of 10
minutes to put together, it's actually something you can fix all the time.

Imagine that. An everyday pot of beans.