Slow Cooker Baked Beans Recipe | Simple Nourished Living (2024)

FAQs

What beans should not be cooked in a slow cooker? ›

Turns out cooking dried red kidney beans and cannellini beans in your slow cooker can make you sick. Find out how to eliminate the toxin that can make you ill and how to safely prepare and cook these commonly used legumes.

Simply add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to 1 cup of water or to the liquid from the baked beans (scoop it out into a separate bowl and let it cool first) and mix. Once the starch is thoroughly incorporated, pour the slurry into the baked beans dish and stir.

Directions. Mix together barbecue sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, and mustard in a 4-quart slow cooker until smooth. Stir in beans, bell pepper, onion, and ham until well combined. Cook on Low until thickened, 8 to 12 hours.

Add water to cover beans by 3 to 4 inches. Let beans soak overnight or 6 hours covered on the counter. Use colander to drain and rinse beans before cooking. Place soaked beans in crock pot.

Dried beans typically have a moisture content of around 16%. However, as they age, moisture evaporates, giving pectin time to age and harden the skin. These beans can often take much longer to soften while soaking and cooking, up to twice the time!

Start the pinto beans in the morning, and they'll be ready by dinner. If you are comfortable leaving your slow cooker plugged in, you can even cook them overnight.

Maple syrup, molasses, ketchup, vinegar, mustard—basically throw every sweet, salty, tangy condiment you've got at those canned baked beans and you know they're going to taste delicious.

One way is to boil the beans until they are soft, then remove them from heat and cover with at least an inch of cold water. The beans will soak up some of the remaining hot water while they cool and release starches which thicken them. Once cooled, you can drain off any excess liquid or eat as-is if desired.

Step 4: Bake then rest.

Let the beans sit and thicken for 15-30 minutes before scooping and devouring. If you try to dig into the beans before they have a chance to cool and thicken, they'll be runny.

You can add crushed whole seeds (coriander, cumin, fennel, mustard, etc.), woodsy herbs (thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage), red pepper flakes, crushed garlic cloves, and of course salt and pepper.

Why are my canned beans hard after cooking? ›

The calcium and magnesium bond with the cell walls of the beans, causing them to harden. If your water is particularly hard, no matter how long you cook the beans, they might retain the tough, chewy texture. If you don't want to pay for a water softener, salt can be a good solution.

Can you overcook something in a slow cooker? Slow cookers are specially designed to cook food for long periods of time, but yes, you can still overcook in a slow cooker if something is left on the wrong setting for longer than it's supposed to be.

Others, like Joe Yonan, the Food and Dining Editor of the Washington Post and author of Cool Beans, insist that in most cases, soaking is unnecessary– and may even lead to flavor loss. The only consensus is that soaked beans take less time to cook than unsoaked.

Beans should soak for 8 to 10 hours overnight. If they are soaked for longer than 12 hours, they can lose their familiar flavor and become overly mushy. For the best result, refrain from soaking them for too long.

The idea behind soaking dried beans is that it makes the beans cook more quickly and evenly. It's also been posited that soaking beans breaks down some of their complex sugars, making them easier to digest.

Slowly heating raw kidney beans in a slow cooker may increase the toxicity of the beans. Studies have found slow cookers do not reach a high enough temperature to destroy the harmful bacteria in undercooked beans. The PHA toxin is destroyed at 212°F when cooked for at least 10 minutes.

Cook low and slow—patience is key. To cook on the stove, bring the pot of beans (soaked or unsoaked, with olive oil, salt, and any seasonings plus 2 to 3 inches of liquid covering them) to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat so that your beans are barely but steadily simmering and cover with the lid.