yes, you have to wait for them to soak before you can cook with them...my Mum used to use dried red chilli beans for blind baking pastry

Blind baking is the only thing I will use them for in the future.

It is just so anticlimatic you soak them overnight, and then they take longer to cook than canned beans. Texture wise it is a bit diff

and lower sodium, but....my dried beans are high maintenance they have been simmering for two hours.

I use dried beans, but I cook them in a pressure cooker to get to the same stage that they are in the can. Then you can use them for your

recipes.

go to this web site and scroll down for pressure cook times for beans. fastcooking.ca/pressure_...

2 sets of times for most beans where you can cook with or without soaking.

I need to get a pressure cooker

maybe for christmas

if you buy the canned version, check the ingredients... some contain more unnecessary calories than others!

I have been using dried beans for a very long time. A pressure cooker is great, make sure it is one that goes to 15 PSI for the best bang

for the buck.

The other pages on that same website has great information on pressure cookers.

ChefKarl: Thanks for the info, I find that only having used certain things in commercial kitchens. When I have bought for home

I tend to be like...I don't know which brand to buy.

syangtz: I know the feeling. I research and research before I buy, sometimes a year goes by before I make a decision.