Storing beans after cooking

by Sandi
(Costa Mesa, California)

How do I store beans after they are cooked? Do I drain the liquid and rinse the beans and then store, or do I just drain and store, or do I keep them in their cooking liquid.... Help!

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Sassy Sez: Hi Sandi! Such a great question. Sometimes after we do things over and over and over for years, we forget the seemingly obvious points! So thank you, I'll be sure to update our bean cooking page.

Jeff and I cool and store our beans right in the cooking water and place in the fridge (we use a covered jar). The water keeps the beans moist, plus it is filled with nutrients and is quite delicious!

Whenever I reheat beans, I always add a bit of water to the pot because once the lid is put on, the water causes a bit of a steaming action which I find heats the beans to perfection and keeps them quite moist.

I usually use the bean cooking liquid in this instance, but plain water or vegetable broth can be used as well.

So when you are ready to re-heat your beans, you have two choices.

1. You can heat the beans along with a little of the bean cooking liquid which adds a nice flavor;



2. You can drain and rinse the beans and heat with a bit of water or vegetable broth.

Both ways work fine. It is really personal preference. Sometimes you may not want the flavor of the bean cooking liquid, but most times it is welcome.

Regardless, always STORE your cooked beans in the water in which it was cooked, for the reasons mentioned above (keeps the beans moist, nutrition, and yum-factor).

Oh, and by the way, cooked beans will last in the fridge for 3-5 days. Beyond that, they will begin to get yucky and they tend to give off an incredibly bad odor. Believe me, I only made THAT mistake once! :-/

So if you cannot eat your cooked beans within the given time frame, I recommend freezing your beans. Beans can be frozen with or without the liquid, but if you DO keep the liquid be sure to allow room in your container for the liquid to expand. Jeff likes to drain all the liquid and seals the beans in a bag using a vacuum sealer -- this saves a lot of room in the freezer, for sures.

Hope this helps clear away the confusion. :)
p.s. You might be interested in my eBook Cool Beans! which is a handy-dandy little reference for preparing beans, along with some of my fave bean recipes. xo