I bought some fancy smancy organic heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo. Truth be told, I can't taste a difference with these beans but they do have different varieties that I don't usually have access to. Such as Yellow Eyes Beans.
One of the cooking methods Rancho Gordo mentioned was to use a crock pot. Now, I have used the crock pot method before but honestly, I haven't had a whole lot of success with this method. The beans are hardly ever done. Rancho Gordos method was a bit different - not all that different - but I thought I would give it a try. So, I put the beans in my crock pot and covered with a bunch of water, I'd say about 5 inches above the beans.
One of the major differences with the Rancho Gordo method is that they recommend NOT soaking the water. They say throwing it out is an old wives tale and you ended up losing nutrients and delcious flavor. And I have to say, the bean broth from this is awesome! To the soaking water, I then added aromatic vegetables. In this case, that was one onion, celery, 2 bay leaves, a smashed garlic clove, and a whole jalapeño. The actual directions say to sauté these but I don't really have time for that, I just add them.
I let it soak overnight like this and in the morning, flip the switch to high. Let cook all day until about 5 or 6 for donenest.
The softness of the beans depends on the variety. These yellow eyes were falling apart. At this point I added 1/2 tablespoon of salt. It is very important to salt your beans. This amount with give them pretty good flavor but allow to to season them later if you like. I always like to add smoked salt at the table.
This does end up being a great addition to a csa meal. I served with brown rice, corn bread, and kale chips.
Enjoy! Wish I could eat them now. Ugh!
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