Like most beans and legumes, black beans are an excellent source of dietary fiber and packed with nutrients.

In fact, the nutritional value of black beans is nearly identical to the nutritional value of pinto beans. They both have nearly 200% daily value of molybdenum in a 1 cup (cooked) serving, but black beans are just the tiniest bit higher in molybdenum than pinto beans are (about 1%).   Molybdenum helps to detoxify sulfites, a common preservative that causes equally common reactions, such as headaches.

Black beans are a good source of dietary fiber as well, which is particularly useful to diabetics and those who are insulin resistant, as dietary fiber helps to balance blood sugar levels.   Also found in black beans (in high enough levels to be useful) are folate, tryptophan , manganese, protein, phosphorus, iron, magnesium, potassium, copper, and vitamin B1 (thiamin).

Pinto beans are slightly higher in folate than black beans, but black beans beat pinto beans in dietary fiber and tryptophan.  But really, their nutritional profiles are nearly identical and they’re bred from the same original bean, so feel free to interchange as taste and aesthetics demand.

How To Soak Black Beans:

Cooking black beans is very easy. They need to be sorted (remove damaged beans and gravel) and rinsed, then soaked.

You can soak black beans one of two ways. The quick soak method is to put the cleaned beans into a pot of water, bring it to a boil, then remove from heat and let sit for an hour or two.  The other soaking method is to simply pour the beans and water into a bowl or pot and allow them to soak overnight. Soaking the beans makes them cook quicker, but it also reduces the sugars that cause flatulence.

Please note that dried beans will expand to 2 or 3 times their size when soaked. Please leave ample room in your soaking container.

How to Cook Black Beans:

Once black beans have been properly soaked (see above), simply pour off the soaking water and refill the pot with fresh water. Make certain that there are at least 2″ of water above the beans. Bring the pot to a boil, and then simmer for 1-2 hours.

Do not add salt or any acidic liquids or foods (such as tomatoes or vinegar) until after the beans are thoroughly cooked. Salt and acid will toughen black beans, and it will take much (much!) longer to cook.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 at 5:00 am and is filed under Nutrition Information, Tuesday Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.