Why buying dried beans instead of canned is cheaper
Canned beans are convenient. Dried beans are cheap. The gap between the two is some forward planning and fairly little effort.
Cooking beans at home instead of buying them in cans greatly reduces cost.
Here is the math for dry red kidney beans: One pound yields the same amount of cooked beans as three 540ml cans. But the canned ones are about 2.5 times more expensive. The difference is even greater for chickpeas, where canned ones are about 3.5 times more expensive. Imagine how much money home-made hummus could save!
Cooking beans is fairly simple. Soak them overnight covered in cold water. Drain, rinse, cover with fresh water and bring them to a rolling boil for at least 10 minutes, then simmer for 45–60 minutes until tender. Soaking is optional, but the rolling boil is essential to kill harmful lectins present in beans. If pressed for time, the beans can be finished in a slow-cooker, after the initial boil.
A big batch can be divided into smaller portions and frozen, to get the convenience of canned beans at a fraction of the cost.
Switching from dried to canned beans could save a significant amount of money each year. However, Canadians on average eat less than 2 pounds of beans per year per person! That means that the potential of saving money is huge when households start planning more meals around beans and other pulses.
