Making Dried Beans in the Crock Pot

After posting my recipe for Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Stew the other day, Kendra said, "This looks wonderful. I love using my crock pot, especially in the summer. If you don't use the canned ingredients, what do you use? I'm assuming dried beans, but what is the conversion for that? Also, using dried beans kind of intimidates me, with the whole soaking thing. Any tips? :-)"

Yes - I do use dried beans. And YES - I have easy tips!

Dried beans are significantly cheaper and easier to store. I buy them in bulk and keep them in glass jars in my pantry along with other bulk items like lentils, raisins, cranberries, oats and wheat germ.

I started buying dry beans when Mike was out of work a while back, but hated soaking and cooking them, so we rarely ate them. Then I learned how to make them in the crock pot. They're so easy, Kendra, you're going to want to fly out here and hug me after you try it.

Are you ready for how easy this is going to be? This tip is for soaking any kind of dried beans, though I'd recommend doing one at a time because they cook at different rates. There might be some exact science to how long they need to cook, but I'll tell you the method that I use and I've never been disappointed.

Step 1: Before going to bed at night, put dried beans in your crock pot (if you're not measuring, 1/4-1/3 full is fine).
Step 2: Fill your crock pot with water (about 1 inch less than full to the top).
Step 3: Set crock pot to low.

That's it. Go to bed and you'll wake up to soaked, cooked beans. I usually turn off the crock pot when I wake up and remove the lid while I get through breakfast, then drain the water in a strainer and let them cool a bit before handling them.

Tip: I always make a bunch of one kind at a time, measure them out in 1- or 2-cup portions and stick them in the freezer. Then you can toss them into a recipe the same as a can of beans. (I pull them out and thaw them in the fridge overnight or on the counter when I know a recipe calls for beans the next day.)

I make my own kidney beans for my favorite Chili, black beans for Mexican dishes and white northern/cannellioni beans for soups and White Chicken Chili.

If you want to make exactly what you need, here are the conversions:
1/2 cup dry beans = 1.5 cups soaked beans
2/3 cup dry beans = 1 (15 oz) can of beans

I hope that's helpful, Kendra!