How Long to Cook Beans: Red and White, Soaked and Unsoaked

1. Red beans with soaking

The classic method for firm red beans: soaking shortens the cooking time and makes the beans tender. Once they have swelled, cook them in fresh water, keep the lid slightly ajar, and add salt right at the end.

• Soaking: 6-8 hours in cold water, using three times as much water as beans (1 cup of beans to 3 cups of water), then drain the soaking liquid.
• Water and salt: cook in fresh water, covering the beans by 2-3 cm; add salt (about 1 tsp per litre) 5 minutes before they are done.
• Timing and tips: 50-60 minutes after soaking; keep a brisk boil for the first 10 minutes and cook the red beans until completely tender.

Recipe: Step-by-step recipe for red bean lobio.

2. White beans with soaking

White beans cook faster than red ones and have a more delicate skin. Soaking them overnight speeds up cooking, while a gentle heat keeps the beans from splitting.

• Soaking: 6-8 hours, ideally overnight; three times as much water as beans, then drain.
• Water and salt: fresh water 2-3 cm above the beans, a gentle simmer; salt at the end, about 1 tsp per litre.
• Timing and tips: 40-50 minutes after soaking; a rapid boil splits the delicate skin, so keep the heat low.

3. Without soaking

If you did not have time to soak them, the beans take almost twice as long to cook. Keep the beans under a layer of boiling water and top up only with boiling water so the skin does not toughen.

• Timing: red beans 80-100 minutes, white beans 70-90 minutes.
• Water: cover the beans by 3-4 cm and top up only with boiling water, as cold water makes the skin tough.
• Salt and tips: add salt 5-10 minutes before the end; the time depends on how fresh the beans are, so check them for tenderness.

4. In a multicooker

A convenient hands-off method: the Stew setting brings the beans to tenderness in a couple of hours. Pour in water just above the level of the beans and add salt at the end.

• Water: 2-3 cm above the beans, roughly 1 cup of beans to 2.5 cups of water.
• Timing: 1.5-2 hours on the Stew setting; soaked beans are ready closer to 1 hour.
• Salt and tips: add salt at the end, about 1 tsp per litre; open the lid only after the steam has been released.

5. In a pressure cooker

The fastest method: under pressure the beans are ready in 20-50 minutes. Do not overfill the pot and release the steam gently so the foam does not spurt out.

• Timing: with soaking 20-30 minutes, without soaking 40-50 minutes.
• Water: cover the beans by 2-3 cm and do not fill the pot above the max mark.
• Tips: release the steam gently and add salt only after the pressure has dropped.

6. Green beans (French beans)

Young pods cook in just a few minutes and need no soaking. Cook them in salted boiling water, and for a bright colour cool them straight away.

• Timing: 5-7 minutes in salted boiling water (about 1 tsp of salt per litre).
• Tips: do not defrost frozen beans, drop them straight into boiling water.
• For a vibrant colour: after cooking, plunge them into iced water for a couple of minutes.

7. Tinned

Tinned beans are already cooked, so you just need to heat them through. Rinse the beans of the brine to remove excess salt and any tinny taste.

• Timing: ready straight away, heat through for 2-3 minutes.
• Tips: tip into a colander and rinse under running water to wash off the brine.
• Uses: in salads, soups, lobio and side dishes with no extra cooking.

• Soak them the night before: 6-8 hours overnight saves up to an hour of cooking and makes the beans evenly tender.
• Change the water: after soaking, drain off the liquid and add fresh cold water, so there is less bloating.
• Salt right at the end, 5-10 minutes before they are done: salt added early toughens the skins and lengthens the cooking.
• Cook at a gentle simmer with the lid ajar, skimming off the foam: this keeps the liquid clear.
• Do not stir the beans with a spoon: they burst and turn to mush, just give the pan a shake.
• Check for doneness on 2-3 beans: they should mash easily between your fingers.

• Salt at the start of cooking: the skins harden and the beans stay tough even after an hour.
• Acid added early (tomato, vinegar, lemon): it also stops the beans from softening, so add it at the end.
• Topping up with cold water: the temperature shock toughens the beans, so top up with boiling water only.
• High heat: a rolling boil tears the skins and turns the liquid cloudy.
• Stirring with a spoon: whole beans break up and you end up with a puree instead of a side dish.

Soaking does three jobs at once. It cuts the cooking time by 30-40 minutes, helps the beans cook evenly and washes out some of the heavy compounds that cause bloating. That is why this step is all but essential for red and white beans.

It is all very simple. Pick over the beans, rinse them and cover with cold water at a ratio of roughly 1 part beans to 3 parts water. Leave them for 6-8 hours, most conveniently overnight. The beans will soak up the water, almost double in size and turn smooth.

In the morning, drain off the soaking water and do not use it for cooking: this is exactly where the compounds that are hard on the stomach end up. Add fresh cold water and put the pan on the hob. If you are in a real hurry, there is a quick method: cover with boiling water, bring to the boil, take off the heat and leave to stand under the lid for 1 hour.

Start with cold water. Cover the prepared beans so the water sits 2-3 cm above them and bring to the boil over medium heat. As soon as foam appears, skim it off with a slotted spoon: it is leftover protein and starch that clouds the liquid.

Next, turn the heat down to a gentle simmer. Beans do not like a fierce, rolling boil: it tears the skins, and the outside of the beans overcooks before the inside turns soft. Keep the lid ajar and do not stir the contents with a spoon, just give the pan a shake if needed.

Add salt and any acidic ingredients right at the end, 5-10 minutes before they are done. If the beans stay tough for a long time, there are usually three reasons: early salt or acid, topping up with cold water, or old beans from a previous year's harvest. Fresh beans from the current year always cook faster and softer.

Red beans, especially the kidney variety, contain a natural toxin called phasin, also known as phytohaemagglutinin. Raw and undercooked beans are high in it: just 4-5 raw beans are enough to bring on nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps and diarrhoea within 1-3 hours. It is important to understand that soaking does not remove the toxin; only high heat destroys it.

The safety rule is this. After soaking, drain the water, add fresh water, bring it to a hard boil and let the beans boil rapidly, at a rolling boil, for at least 10 minutes, or 20-30 to be safe, and only then turn the heat down to a gentle simmer and cook until soft. This is a caveat to the general advice about gentle simmering: slow simmering suits the middle and end of cooking, but red beans must first be boiled hard on a high heat.

A separate word about low-temperature settings. Do not cook raw red beans on low heat alone. In a multicooker on the Stew setting and in a slow cooker the temperature can sit for a long time at around 75-80°C, and this does not destroy phasin and sometimes even makes its effect stronger. So in a multicooker first bring the contents to a rapid boil, using the Steam, Soup or Fry with water setting for 10-15 minutes, and only then switch to Stew. This is less of a concern for white, black and green beans, but every kind must be cooked right through to full doneness.

For cooking, use roughly 2.5-3 cups of water per 1 cup, about 200 g, of dried beans. A 450-500 g packet will take around 1.5-2 litres. The water should sit 2-3 cm above the beans, and as it boils away top up only with boiling water so the beans stay covered at all times.

Now for the yield of the finished product. During soaking and cooking the beans take up water and increase by roughly 2-2.5 times in both volume and weight. One cup of dried beans gives about 2.5 cups cooked, which is around 500-550 g. So a 500 g packet of dried beans is enough for about 1.2-1.3 kg cooked, roughly 8-10 side portions or a large pot of soup. When planning borscht or lobio for a crowd, measure out about two to three times less dried beans than the cooked amount you need.

Cooked beans without oil or dressing contain roughly 120-130 kcal per 100 g. That same 100 g has about 7-8 g of plant protein, 21 g of carbohydrate, less than 1 g of fat, around 0.5 g, and plenty of fibre, in the region of 6-7 g. Red and white beans are similar in calories, with a difference within 10-15 kcal. Green beans stand apart: they have only about 25-30 kcal per 100 g, which makes them a vegetable rather than a source of starch.

For anyone watching their weight, beans are handy. They have a low glycaemic index, around 30-40 units, so they keep you full for a long time and do not cause sharp spikes in blood sugar. You can easily estimate the exact value for a portion with a particular side dish or sauce in our glycaemic index calculator. Fibre and plant protein make beans a good replacement for part of the meat, but remember that the calorie count of the finished dish rises sharply with oil, lard, a fried onion and carrot base, and fatty meat in the same borscht or lobio.

If there is no time to soak overnight, use the quick, hot soak method. Cover the rinsed beans with water 2-3 cm above them, bring to the boil, boil for 2-3 minutes, take off the heat, put the lid on and leave to stand for 1 hour. Then drain the water, add fresh water and cook as usual: this takes about the same time as cooking after an overnight soak. For red beans you must still give them a rapid boil of at least 10 minutes afterwards.

Two more tricks help soften tough skins and speed up cooking. First: a pinch of bicarbonate of soda, roughly a quarter to half a teaspoon per 1 litre of water when soaking or at the start of cooking, especially if the water is hard or the beans are old. Do not add too much, or you will get a soapy aftertaste and destroy some of the vitamins. Second: soaking in lightly salted water, a brine at a rate of 1-2 teaspoons of salt per 1 litre. Sodium ions displace calcium and magnesium from the skin, and it becomes softer. This is the case where salt during soaking does no harm and actually helps. Something else does harm: a very acidic or heavily salted liquid from the very start of cooking, that is tomato, vinegar, lemon and a lot of salt all at once. It toughens the skin, and the beans take noticeably longer to soften.

Another common reason beans will not soften is hard water with a high content of calcium and magnesium. If your tap water is hard, cook with filtered, boiled or bottled water, or add that same pinch of bicarbonate of soda. Old beans give themselves away with a dull, wrinkled skin and long cooking. Cook them longer than usual, by 20-40 minutes, and with bicarbonate of soda if possible, while beans that are completely dried out are best replaced: they may never become soft.

Besides the familiar red and white, you will often come across other varieties, and it is handy to keep their cooking times close by. After a 6-8 hour soak, use these as a guide:

black beans, about 45-60 minutes, the skin is firm but the flesh is tender, and they hold their shape well in salads and stews;

speckled, pinto and borlotti, also known as cranberry beans, about 50-60 minutes, they break down beautifully into purées and pâtés, and during cooking the bright speckled colour fades to a uniform brown, which is normal;

lima, the large white moon-shaped bean, about 45-60 minutes, very tender and softens easily, so watch that you do not turn it to mush if you want whole beans.

Without soaking, add roughly 30-40 minutes to these figures. The exact time always depends on how fresh the beans are and how hard the water is, so at the end check for doneness on 2-3 beans.

The same beans are cooked to different degrees of softness for different dishes, and this noticeably affects the result.

For salads and side dishes, where keeping the whole shape matters, cook them slightly underdone: the bean is soft inside but holds its shape and does not burst.

For purées, pâté, lobio and bean spreads, on the other hand, cook them more thoroughly, to a creamy flesh, so the mixture comes out smooth and is easy to mash or blitz in a blender.

For soup and borscht, cook them until fully soft and add the beans already cooked: if you drop dry or half-raw beans into an acidic liquid with tomato and cabbage, they will cook for a very long time and stay tough.

For home preserving, use slightly underdone beans: during sterilising in the jar they will reach the right softness and will not cook down to mush.

And remember the safety point: red beans, in any of these options, are first brought to a rapid boil for at least 10 minutes.

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