Why and how is it done + 1 delicious recipe

Why should you water the beans

Dried beans are very hard and take a long time to cook until soft. This is also one of the reasons why beans should be watered: The cooking time is reduced by at least half. But watering has other reasons as well: beans contain substances that we cannot digest, such as the carbohydrate galactose. Since these substances are incompatible with us, they cause flatulence. When soaking, these substances are dissolved and go into the water. This makes the beans easier for us to digest and doesn't get us into embarrassing situations.

How to soak your beans properly

So that the watering unfolds all its positive effects, you should proceed as follows:

• Wash your beans thoroughly
• Put the beans in a sufficiently large saucepan (at least four times the area the beans will take up) and fill the saucepan with twice as much water
• Let the beans soak overnight
• The next morning, pour off the water and rinse the beans under running water to remove any residue
• Now you can cook and prepare your beans as you wish

A delicious recipe for a vegetarian bean stew

You need:

• 200g dried white beans
• 400g cooked, peeled tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon tomato paste
• 100g leek
• 200g carrots
• 5 stalks of celery
• 1.2l vegetable stock
• 200ml red wine
• olive oil
• garlic
• salt
• pepper
• rosemary
• thyme
• Chilli pepper

Then do the following:

• Soak the beans overnight as described above and rinse well
• Steam one to three cloves of garlic (depending on your taste) with plenty of olive oil and the chilli pepper
• Add the tomato paste, red wine and the vegetable stock as well as the beans and let cook for an hour and a half
• Then add the chopped vegetables and spices and let the stew cook for another half an hour.
• Ten minutes before the end of the cooking time, you can optionally add 100g of pasta or you can serve the stew with bread.