It doesn’t take a lot of effort to rehydrate and cook dried beans in the oven. It is easy, great for meal prepping, and best of all, it saves a lot of money!
There are tons of tutorials out there about how to these. Sure, the traditional way works just fine and produces tasty beans. But, I recently tried out this method of cooking and love it because it is truly effortless.
Best of all, they taste better than canned varieties and they save lots of money. Hey, the money-saving factor is always what I’m after.
🍽️ Why This Recipe Works
Frugal | This inexpensive recipe will make you delicious beans and you don’t have to spend much money!
Easy | There are a few steps, but all of them are super easy. You don’t have to do a whole lot to cook them and when they are done, they are worth every second.
Versatile | Add the beans to soups, tacos, burritos, wraps, salads, or all sorts of other foods.
🥣 Ingredients
I don’t think you will ever find a more simple recipe for homemade beans Let’s take a look at what you’ll need.
Beans | Obviously, they are the key ingredient. You will need dried beans and can use any variety that you like. We used pinto beans for this recipe, but others will work too.
Water | Water is needed so the beans can puff back up, rehydrate and cook.
Salt & Pepper | You can leave out salt and pepper or add a little bit to enhance the flavors.
🍽️ Instructions
I was just experimenting when I decided to make the beans in the oven. Sure you could call them baked beans because they’re made in the oven. But I really don’t think they resemble baked beans much at all.
My biggest issue with cooking beans in a big pot is the fear that it’ll boil over. By making it in the oven, there’s nothing to worry about as long as you use a big enough pan. 😀 Please let me know if you’ve heard of easier ways of how to cook these.
Step One: Soak the beans in water for about eight hours. Since they will absorb the water, make sure they are covered by an extra inch or two. Drain them after the time has elapsed. I usually put them in water in the evening and then drain them when I get up in the morning.
Step Two: After draining, add them to a large casserole dish and add fresh water. You want the beans to be covered with an extra half inch of water on top.
Step Three: Add the casserole dish with the beans and water to an oven, preheated to 350 degrees. Cook it for about 90 minutes. Before taking them out, test it to see if they need a few extra minutes to soften.
Step Four: Drain the beans and season.
Step Five: Let the beans cool and then place them in large Ziploc bags to freeze.
💡 Expert Tips
Hard Beans: If you have some hard beans after cooking, odds are that they just didn’t soak in the water long enough. When soaking them, make sure to add water as needed to keep them adequately covered. When beans age, they don’t absorb the water as well either. So it could be that you got a batch of dried beans that have been sitting around way too long. Don’t give up and try again because odds are next time they will be perfect.
Cost: In the busy world we live in; it makes sense that we all grab what is easy and convenient. But, rehydrating these at home is a wonderful idea because it’s SO much cheaper than buying canned beans. Next time you head to the store, look at the price of canned beans versus a bag of dry beans. You will be shocked!
Make Ahead: Another reason is that you can make a TON of them, freeze and save them for when you need them. They are just as easy to grab and use as a can of beans.
Healthy: Lastly, you don’t have to worry about preservatives or other unwanted ingredients. Homemade beans have exactly what you put in them, and that’s it. There are no sugars, preservatives or other items that you don’t necessarily want to eat.
👩🍳 Recipe FAQs
Yes, once you package the beans and freeze them, they will last up to nine months in the freezer! How amazing is that? Make sure to remove the air from the freezer bag and leave a little bit of room at the top. Then label them, and you are all set.
To thaw the beans, place the bag in the fridge overnight or run the bag under some cool running water.
Don’t submerge the bag into the water in case there is a small hole; it’s better just to run it under the faucet. They don’t take very long to defrost; then, you can cook with them or add them to your favorite recipes.
Beans are great for you! They have lots of potassium, iron, zinc, folate, and magnesium. They are also great for adding extra fiber and protein to your diet. They will keep you full longer and taste good too. It’s a win all around!
Yep! You can use any kind of seasoning you like; just make sure you don’t add it until step five. Adding seasonings too early will mess with the process of cooking the beans.
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How to Cook Dried Beans in the Oven
Ingredients
- 1 bag Dried Beans any variety will work. I used Pinto
- Water
Instructions
Prepare and Cook Dried Beans
- Soak dried beans for the amount of time recommended on the package. I do it for about 8 hours.
- Drain the beans. Add them to a large casserole dish/roasting pan. Cover completely in water – there should be about a 1/2 inch of water above the beans. Do not add salt or any seasonings at this point because it will interfere with the cooking process.
- Bake at 350 for 90 minutes. You may find that yours will need a little more or a little less time. Taste test a bean or two to see whether you need to let it bake a bit longer.
- Remove from oven and drain. There will still be a fair amount of water left in the pan. This is completely normal – just drain it off.
- Add seasonings to taste. You can also go ahead and add your salt now as well. You can skip the seasoning process altogether if you’d like.
- Let cool and package up into freezer bags or containers I was able to get about 10 cups out of the one package of dried pinto beans.
Notes
Nutrition
Hi!
Ginny Collins is a passionate foodie and recipe creator of Savor and Savvy and Kitchenlaughter. Indoors she focuses on easy, quick recipes for busy families and kitchen basics. Outdoors, she focuses on backyard grilling and smoking to bring family and friends together. She is a lifelong learner who is always taking cooking classes on her travels overseas and stateside. Her work has been featured on MSN, Parade, Fox News, Yahoo, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and many local news outlets. She lives in Florida where you will find her outside on the water in her kayak, riding her bike on trails, and planning her next overseas adventure.
When you make the mistake of forgetting to soak your pinto or great northern beans for hours before cooking, my Mom found a way around the problem. She taught me to always “look” the beans, open the package and make sure any small rocks or bad looking beans are removed then rinse the good beans in extremely hot tap water in a strainer or bowl for a couple of minutes then place them in the pressure cooker, add salt to your taste and water to cover completely and a bit more if you like to have soup for corn bread with them. Then add 5-10 extra minutes to the recommended cooking time for your pressure cooker. Let the pressure come down slowly if possible then add extra seasonings if you wish, such as a ham bone and let boil as few minutes for flavoring. Being Southern, we like our beans soft and soupy and this works every time and saves that 8 hour prep time.
when cooking the beans in a slow cooker get them going at night before bed season the water so the beans absorb it and fill the water to the top even cooked on high the water wont dry up by the time you get up. in the morning just stir and taste check and there done!
Ah, what a great idea! Especially if you are having a big get together and need a lot of beans. This is genius. Thanks so much for sharing and linking up to Thrifty Thursday.
This would definitely be a good way to knock out a large amount of beans in a small amount of time. Thanks for stopping by, Ruth!
Fantastic idea! I made some beans yesterday and my pot boiled over (oops!) This will be much less messy.
A brilliant idea. Over the cold season here in Tasmania we have our wood burning stove on pretty much 24/7 and even though I can put a huge pot of beans on to boil for as long as I like to harness all that free cooking energy our house ends up looking like a Turkish steam bath. Never thought of putting them into the oven (also free energy…I KNOW…don’t hate me 😉 ). Cheers for this revolution. As a vegan I eat a lot of beans. This is going to revolutionise my winters (lucky we have 2 dogs that I can blame 😉 )
I love the idea of cooking once and freezing beans for later use! Thanks for sharing at Simple Supper Tuesday.
So you got 10 cups out of a one cup package?
I did get 10 cups out of the package. Unfortunately, I forgot to take note of the size of dried beans before I tossed it, but I’m sure the package was much larger than one cup. If memory serves, I believe it was about a 1lb bag.
Thanks for the tip. I found your blog on Blissful and Domestic’s Friday Linky Party 🙂
What was the size bag of pinto beans you used?
I’m sorry Patty, I forgot to look at the size before I tossed the bag.
I have never heard of cooking them in the oven. Great idea, because you can just pop them in there and forget about it until they are done! Pinning this!
Thanks for sharing at Wine’d Down Wednesday! I hope to see you again next week!
That is exactly why I love this method – set it and forget it.
sam
What temperature was the oven and did you cover the pan?
Hi Sam, I did not cover the pan and I set the temp at 350.
Have you tried cooking beans in a pressure cooker? I have a plain old stovetop pressure cooker. YOu soak them as usual, drain, and cover with fresh water, 1/2 inch above beans. Pressure cook for 3-5 minutes depending on the beans and thats it! I usually cook most beans for around 4 minutes.
I haven’t tried that (I don’t have a pressure cooker), but that sounds like such a quick way to cook the beans.
Great idea… I assume you freeze them for later use?
Yup! I just let them cool down and then pop them into a freezer bag.
Oh my goodness! I need this for my readers! LOVE it!
Thanks, Linda! I hope it’s useful for them. 🙂
I’ve only heard about stove top cooking and cooking them in a slow cooker. But every time I’ve tried the slow cooker method, the water always steams off and they get dried and crusty to the point where you can’t even add water or milk to rejuvinate them. I’m going to try your method next – thanks for sharing.
I’ve never tried to make them in the slow cooker before but now I know to avoid it. Thanks, Jill 🙂
I use the slow cooker all the time for making beans. I think Jill of all trades must either be using too little water or cooking them too long. I’ve done beans this way for 20+ years and never once had an issue with them drying out. It only takes a few hours and I like not having to run the oven! Sometimes I run both slow cookers at once for giant batches to cook and freeze because I have 10 kids and I cook in huge amounts.
You will need to watch them in the crockpot and add more water if they seem to be getting low. The crockpot is nice in that it doesn’t heat up the house, but you cannot forget about the beans like you could if you were making them in the oven. Thanks for the awesome tip!!!
I do them in a crock pot and live how they come out. Put the beans in with about 7 cups of water, out the meat of choice, seasonings, and onions and bell peppers if you’d like. I cook on low and they come out perfect.
I slow cook beans all the time, after soaking them. I just check them every couple of hours to make sure they are still covered with water. I cook them longer if I plan to make them into refried beans or bean dip.
Great tips, de! I’ve started slow cooking my beans since writing this post and I love the results with both methods, but the crockpot is a bit more set-it-and-forget it which I love!