Bean cooking liquid

[isomer]

I just finished the last of a batch of Flageolet beans, which I cooked with a carrot, some celery, an onion and a bunch of thyme, salt and pepper. I was about to pour the bean cooking liquid down the sink, when I decided to taste it. OMG! it's delicious!

Is there anything wrong with adding this to soup or in cooking? Does it, uh, cause gastric distress? I feel really dumb pouring this great tasting broth down the drain.

What do you do with it?

[petite tête de chou]

I don't know the answer to your gastric distress question but I love to cook rice in bean water.

[slkinsey]

Bean-related distress is largely caused by the indigestible sugars present in beans (oligosaccharides, primarily inulin). These are not digestible by humans but are digestible by the bacteria in our guts!

Bean cooking water will contain some oligosaccharides, of course, but not as much as would be present in the cooked beans themselves.

Meanwhile, bean cooking water has plenty of cooking applications. Using it to cook rice is a good idea. And it could be used as a base for any number of soups.

[John S.]

I just finished the last of a batch of Flageolet beans, which I cooked with a carrot, some celery, an onion and a bunch of thyme, salt and pepper.  I was about to pour the bean cooking liquid down the sink, when I decided to taste it. OMG! it's delicious!

Is there anything wrong with adding this to soup or in cooking? Does it, uh, cause gastric distress?    I feel really dumb pouring this great tasting broth down the drain.

What do you do with it?

←

I usually use it as a stock for something, soups come to mind. I also save the leftover "liquor" from roasting chiles or bells and put it in the chile, soup or whatever has the veggie (or a similar one) in it.

John S.

[Peter the eater]

Meanwhile, bean cooking water has plenty of cooking applications.  Using it to cook rice is a good idea.  And it could be used as a base for any number of soups.

How about the bean "water" from a can of beans?

[isomer]

Thanks for the awesome ideas. Rice it is!

[scubadoo97]

The cooking liquid from my dried kidney beans went into my chili today. The taste of the liquid was awesome. No way it was going down the sink.

[haresfur]

Whole wheat bread.

[slo_ted]

Try cooking some black beans and then using the liquid to cook white rice. The resulting black rice is great for grossing out your teen-agers, or to mix with some braised carrots for Halloween. It's also good for more serious uses. It works like squid ink, but doesn't stain your teeth.

[Jaymes]

We usually serve soupy beans in a bowl with a spoon. That way the broth gets eaten along with the beans.

[blue_dolphin]

I've used bean cooking water to cook pasta, especially when making pasta with beans and greens. I add a cup or so of the bean/pasta water to the greens as they cook to make a nice sauce. More bean/pasta water makes it into a soup.

[Mr Wozencroft]

I use it as a vegetarian stock. Last night I tried cooking some cannellini beans with half water and half liquid left over from steeping some chinese black mushrooms. I was really happy with the result. Well worth trying.

[pfunk_49]

cool your beans (if you're not eating immediately) in the liquid first. I just posted a bean revelation on the thread about best tip of this year or something like that.

Agreed to cook rice in it. I know this is the way Jamaicans make rice and beans, actually half bean liquid and half coconut milk, but I could be wrong.

Norm Van Aken simply reduces it and adds it back into his beans to serve reheated, giving a creamy texture while still leaving solid, not mushy beans. He's actually got a whole little disertation about his "black bean kit" - his aray of about a dozen aromatics he uses in his black beans. They are pretty awsome.