new to cooking beans, how do you make these bastards taste good?

Mix with rice, add some mushrooms, spices and onion.

Throw away, and then make pancakes.

What type of beans are you trying to cook up?

try a little bit of molasses when stewing them.

Try slow cooking with a medium ham hock and bacon grease, and I think corn bread makes a nice side.

Hot sauce!

Did you soak them well? I don't think much of the fast-cook method.

Try using Indian spices to change the flavor. Eat them with fried eggs like Huevos Rancheros. There's lot of types of salsa, so mix it up. Make refried beans too, mash them, mix in garlic, cilantro, some bits of bacon and bacon grease, and spread those with a good cheddar cheese and put them on tortillas.

Try lentils too. Totally different flavor.

Mix the beans with a topping of corn bread. The corn bread can be made sweet, or spicy with a variety of hotness. Trying mixing different kinds of corn, cream-style, nibblets, hominy.

Cook the beans and add them to a fresh salad. Then it's just one more added in ingredient.

Mix black beans with pintos to get a new flavor. I often mix those two to make refried beans.

Have you tried edamame? It's steamed soy beans in the pod with added salt. It's very good.

Try beans with many styles of rice: wild, basmati, traditional sushi rice, long grain white rice, etc.

I agree, if you mix some pinto beans and some white rice, it's very boring. But there's no reason to do that.

You can get some organic seasoning packets for beans at Trader Joes. They're about $1.50 a packet and pretty good. If you're not vegetarian a couple slices of smoked bacon slow cooking in there are pretty good.

Slo cook them with tomato paste.

Hot sauce, rice and Mexican Tortillas! Throw on some fresh tomatoes! Black beans are extra tasty.

If you are cooking Pinto Beans, throw some pork into those bad boys.

A good tip when cooking beans is that when they are soft, take out about 1/4 of the beans, put them into a bowl (without liquid) and mash them up with a fork until you have a paste. Return to pot to continue cooking for a while. This will give you a thick and tasty broth.

Make Chili with Pinto Beans or Red Beans. Add ground beef, canned tomatoes, onions, garlic and chilis.

Red Beans and rice

And don't add salt to the beans until they are finished cooking. Otherwise they won't be soft and will give you enough gas to put on a 1000 chinese lantern hoax.

You just need one sauce:
Sriracha!

I use the Cristianos y Moros recipe (white rice/ black beans) a lot, not only with black beans, it works with others as well

[link to www.epicurious.com]

good one

important: make sure you soak the beans overnight in cold water then drain (don't use the soak water to cook in)

your crockpot method seems ok for a good base of beans to start with - add the water to about 1 inch above the beans and add some bouillon granules, i usually use a cpl tsp of chicken flavored depending on how much water (1tsp/cup). this is also salty so i don't add salt at this point. you might also try some dry onion flakes, some red pepper flakes, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, dash cayenne, etc - i just sprinkle a bit of each that i'm using on top of the water and then stir it all up and cook it a LONG time. the longer the better, 10ish even 12ish hours.

at that point you can taste a little of the broth, re-season if necessary (s & p usually) and mash a little bit and stir to thicken up the pot

options
add a squirt of ketchup
or spoon of tomato paste
a small can of green chilis
hot sauce / chili sauce
fresh onions
a tbsp butter
add potatoes & carrots, extra broth (bean soup)
serve on rice
add shredded chicken

you get the idea.

Sazon

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If you're making pintos, be sure to soak them over night; drain off soak water; place into large pot; cover liberally with non-tap water source over a couple of inches; bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer; as water boils off, add sliced onions, garlic, and sliced jalapenos (amount based on tolerance); salt to taste. Enjoy!

Well, it's time to start a new batch, first of all.

Then it's simple: just use plenty of salt, pepper, and cumin in a base of sauteed garlic and onions.

And it will help if you don't call them bastards.

Always soak them overnight. Drain and rinse them. Then slow cook them on the stove with nothing in the pot but water and beans. Most anything you try to cook with the means will make them hard and they will never get soft. (pinto, red, )

In another pot. Put in some ground beef, onions salt & pepper and fry it up nice and brownish with a good fry look.

After the beans are cooked and soft, mash them a few hits to make them partly creamy. Leave mostly whole. Add about 4 tablespoon of vinegar and stir it in. (that gets rid of the gas). Add one tsp. sugar.

Then add the beans to the meat and let simmer. You can add tomatoes and needed salt now. This was for a pinto type bean.

If you are making white beans...fry up some bacon chunks with a nice load of chopped onions till nice and brown, add two tablespoons of brown sugar then add the beans and simmer.

We do not do spicy beans but that is just us.

You can take either of the above beans and add one cup of brown sugar, some mustard, tomato paste and a bit of BBQ sauce to make a nice sweet BBQ beans.

Eat half the beans one way then add the BBQ stuff for the rest of the batch. It breaks up the tedium.

You can also germinate the beans for variety. It's a way to get more nutrition from them. See:
[link to www.isga-sprouts.org]

Lots of beans can be spouted. Farting occurs because of a lack of an enzyme to digest it. That's why you need to follow the vinegar rule to help, but also beano or similar
(alpha galactosidase).

Believe me, having been on survival school seminars, and everyone primarily eating stews with beans in it, then the amount of farting is ridiculous.

some 30 to 40 years ago i was vacationing in southern calif, and i went across the border into Mexico, some 100 miles west of Tijuana and i stopped at a roadside burrito stand and got a bean burrito.

it was the best bean burrito i have ever had and i still remember that evening stop. simply delicious. the best. viva Mexico.

the beans were mild tasting and tender slow cooked, delicious.

Add ketchup and mustard, and brown sugar to what you are already using and the fat as Trinity suggested.

It may not sound good but it is. Just not to much of either maybe a tablespoon of ketchup and a teaspoon of mustard. Brown sugar to taste.

^^winner^^ mm with fried potatos an corn bread

if you dont like the "gas" side effects,put a cpl table spoons baking soda in while you cook them,no gas,although i find the gas entertaining myself,im still a kid at heart

Tomatoes.

LoL Nothing makes beans taste good

Put a good amount of beans into a pot, add water, boil them for 5 minutes, turn off, let them sit for 24 hours, buy a ham shank, cut the pork skin off of it into 1 inch squares, cut the good meat off and save for sandwiches, cut All of the remaining scraps up and throw them into the pot with the bone and some onion, you can add some of the good meat also if you would like, I always do. Cook on low for about 3-4 hours, till beans are soft. add some seasonings( cumin, chili powder, salt pepper, oregano, garlic , whatever) for the last hour or so of cooking.

correction: make that east of Tijuana. East. Somewhere near Mexicali or so

Chicken or beef boullion cube <= can also be used to make bland rice better. I like to use garlic power.... Throw in some sausage (red beans) or ham (white beans) salt meat is good as well.

Rice is awful with beans I have never liked rice with beans.
It sucks.

Cube up a pound of country ham in those bad boyz.