Beans

Interactive tool

Cooking assistant

Pick a bean, how you're cooking it, and your soak plan — get a step-by-step plan with built-in timers. Add one pot per bean you're running; each tracks independently, and your progress is saved if you close the tab and come back.

Times here are planning estimates built from the reference table below — always confirm doneness by tasting, not just the clock. Timers keep running from the moment you start them, even across a page reload; leave the tab open (or come back to it) to get a sound and, if you allow it, a browser notification when a step is ready to check.

Read this part first

Kidney beans need one extra step

This is the one rule in bean cooking that actually matters for safety, not just texture.

Boil kidney beans hard for 10 minutes before you simmer them

Raw and undercooked kidney beans — red and white (cannellini) — contain a natural toxin called phytohaemagglutinin. Eating just a handful of raw or improperly cooked kidney beans can cause severe nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea within a few hours.

After soaking, bring the pot to a full, rolling boil and let it boil uncovered for at least 10 minutes before dropping it down to a simmer.
Never cook raw or soaked kidney beans in a slow cooker on low heat without pre-boiling them first. Slow cookers often don't get hot enough to destroy the toxin, and low, prolonged heat can actually concentrate it. If you want to finish them in a slow cooker, boil hard on the stovetop for 10 minutes first, then transfer.
Canned kidney beans are already fully cooked and safe — no extra boiling needed beyond normal reheating.

White (cannellini) beans carry a smaller amount of the same toxin, so the same 10-minute rule is worth applying to them too. It's also just good general practice for any dried bean: a hard boil at the start neutralizes the lower-level lectins that most legumes carry, before you turn the heat down to simmer them tender.

The master method

Five steps, almost any bean

This is the shape of cooking a pot of beans from dried. The reference table further down fills in the specific times per variety.

Sort and rinse

Spread the dry beans out and pick through for small stones, shriveled beans, or debris — bags of dried beans aren't always fully cleaned. Rinse under cold water until it runs clear.

Soak (most beans, not all)

Soaking shortens the cooking time and helps beans cook more evenly. Two ways to do it:

Long soak: cover with cold water, about 3–4 cups of water per cup of beans, and let sit 8–24 hours at room temperature (refrigerate if your kitchen runs warm, or if you're soaking longer than 8 hours). Drain and rinse before cooking.
Quick soak: cover with water, bring to a boil for 2–3 minutes, take off the heat, cover, and let stand for 1 hour. Drain and rinse.

Lentils, split peas, and black-eyed peas cook fine with no soak at all — see the table for which is which. Skipping the soak on other beans isn't dangerous on the stovetop, it just means a longer simmer and a bit more gas; the cooking assistant below asks for a soak on a couple of beans (including mung) where we don't have solid timing data for skipping it, especially under pressure.

Boil hard, then simmer

Cover the soaked beans with fresh water (not the soaking water — this cuts down on the gas-causing compounds that leached out overnight), by about 2 inches. Bring to a full boil for 10 minutes — mandatory for kidney beans, good habit for everything else — then reduce to a gentle simmer, partially covered. Skim off any foam that rises in the first few minutes.

Season the pot as it cooks

Add your aromatics (onion, garlic, bay leaf, a glug of oil) at the start of the simmer. Salt is fine to add early — it seasons the beans as they cook and doesn't toughen them. Hold off on anything acidic — tomatoes, vinegar, wine, citrus — until the beans are already tender; acid slows down softening.

Check doneness, then rest

A done bean is fully creamy all the way through — no chalky or crunchy center, no raw starchy taste. Start checking at the low end of the time range and taste every 5–10 minutes after that. Letting beans sit in their hot cooking liquid for 10–15 minutes off the heat before serving rounds them out and helps the skins hold together.

Reference table

Cooking times by bean

Simmer times below start once the pot is soaked, boiled hard, and dropped to a simmer. Ranges assume beans bought within the last year; older beans take longer and sometimes never fully soften.

Bean	Soaking	Simmer time	Notes
Black beans	Recommended	45–60 min	Holds its shape well; skins stay intact.
Pinto beans	Recommended	60–90 min	Softens into a slightly creamy, earthy bean — classic refried-bean texture.
Red kidney beans	Required	45–60 min after 10-min boil	See the safety note above before cooking these.
White kidney beans (cannellini)	Required	45–60 min after 10-min boil	Creamy with a thin skin; good in soups.
Great Northern beans	Recommended	45–60 min	Mild flavor, tender, absorbs seasoning well.
Navy beans	Recommended	45–60 min	Very creamy — the classic baked-bean bean.
Chickpeas (garbanzo)	Recommended	60–120 min	Wide range — check often; stays firmer than most beans even when done.
Black-eyed peas	Optional	30–45 min soaked, 45–60 min unsoaked	Cooks fine straight from dry with no soak.
Lima beans	Recommended	45–60 min	Starchy and soft; breaks down easily if overcooked.
Fava beans (dried, peeled)	Required	40–50 min	Slip the tough outer skins off after soaking, before cooking.
Adzuki beans	Optional	45–60 min	Slightly sweet; cooks fine unsoaked with a bit more time.
Lentils (brown/green)	Not needed	20–30 min	No soak required at all; holds its shape when cooked gently.
Split peas	Not needed	45–60 min	Breaks down into a thick purée — ideal for soup.
Mung beans	Required	30–45 min	Soft and mild; cooks fast enough dry that we don't have solid pressure-cooker timing for skipping the soak, so the assistant asks for one.

Using a pressure cooker or Instant Pot? You still don't have to skip the soak — soaked beans usually pressure-cook in well under half the time unsoaked ones need, and skipping the soak leaves more of the gas-causing sugars behind. Either way, times vary by machine and batch, so check a couple minutes early the first time you try a new bean.

Flavor

A base that works under almost any bean

You don't need a different flavor plan for every variety. This is the ratio to start from, then adjust to taste.

Per pound (about 2 cups) of dried beans

1 onion, halved or quartered
4–6 garlic cloves, smashed
1–2 bay leaves
1–2 tbsp oil or fat (olive oil, butter, rendered bacon fat)
Salt, to taste — fine to add early

Worth adding, depending on the pot

A carrot and a rib of celery, for a fuller stock-like base
Cumin seed, smoked paprika, or a dried chile
A strip of kombu or a parmesan rind, simmered in with the beans
A sprig of epazote — traditional with beans, and said to ease digestion
Acid at the very end: a splash of vinegar, wine, or a squeeze of citrus

Fish out the bay leaf and onion pieces before serving, or mash them into the pot for extra body — either works.

Storage

Keeping beans, dry or cooked

Dry, uncooked

Airtight container, cool and dark. Best texture within a year of purchase; still safe well beyond that, but older beans take longer to soften and sometimes never fully do. Label the container with a date if you can.

Cooked, refrigerated

Cool within 2 hours of cooking, then store in an airtight container, ideally covered in their own cooking liquid so they don't dry out. Good for 3–5 days.

Cooked, frozen

Portion with a little cooking liquid into bags or containers — flat bags thaw fastest. Keeps well for up to 6 months. Reheat from frozen straight into soups and stews, or thaw in the fridge overnight.

Troubleshooting

When beans won't cooperate

They've been simmering forever and are still hard

Almost always means old beans, or hard (mineral-heavy) water. If your tap water is hard, try switching to filtered water, or add a small pinch of baking soda — about ⅛ teaspoon per cup of dry beans — to the pot. Use it sparingly; too much gives a soapy taste and softens the texture more than you want.

Should I salt the water?

Yes — salting early seasons the beans from the inside and doesn't toughen the skins, despite the old advice. What does slow beans down is acid, so keep tomatoes, vinegar, wine, and citrus out of the pot until the beans are already tender.

Do I need to skim the foam?

Not strictly, but it makes for a cleaner-tasting pot and less mess on the stovetop. It's mostly released starch and surface proteins — skim it off in the first several minutes of the boil, then it tapers off on its own.

How do I make them less gassy?

Soak, and discard the soaking water rather than cooking in it. Cook in fresh water. A strip of kombu simmered in the pot is a traditional aid. Beyond that, it's mostly about your gut adjusting — eating beans regularly, in smaller portions at first, tends to help over time.

Does altitude matter?

Yes — water boils at a lower temperature at higher elevation, so beans take noticeably longer above about 3,000 feet. Add extra simmer time and check for doneness rather than trusting the clock alone.