Stopped by a farm stand in Vermont and learned a trick for dry beans

I was up near Burlington last weekend and this older lady running a roadside stand told me to swap out half the water for broth when rehydrating beans. She said it adds way more flavor without needing a ton of salt or seasonings later. Tried it with some black beans I had sitting in the pantry and honestly the difference was pretty big. Has anyone else tried something like that or do you stick with plain water?

3 comments

3 Comments

barbarah1917d ago

Holy cow, 800mg of sodium in one cup of broth? That's wild.

the_lee17d ago

Tried this trick with chicken broth and pinto beans last month, it works way better than plain water. Makes me wonder how many other little swaps in the kitchen we just don't think about because we're stuck in a routine. Simple stuff like that probably adds up more than people realize.

robert_bell17d ago

The only problem with swapping broth for water is the sodium bomb you're dropping in there. A cup of store bought chicken broth has like 800mg of sodium easy, and if you're cooking dry beans that soak up liquid for an hour you're eating all that salt. Plain water lets you control the seasoning yourself instead of relying on whatever the factory decided was enough. I get that it makes things taste richer right away but you can get the same result by adding a bouillon cube or some salt pork and saving yourself the extra processed junk.