The Weird Reason You Should Be Adding Baking Soda to Your Beans (2024)

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The Weird Reason You Should Be Adding Baking Soda to Your Beans? ›

Your Beans Will Cook Faster

Baking soda can help significantly since it increases the pH of the water, disintegrating that pectin and allowing beans to soften quicker. Baking soda also removes minerals from hard water, which can prevent beans from hydrating as quickly.

There is evidence that adding baking soda reduces some nutrients, particularly vitamin B. Baking soda also can make the beans taste saltier or even soapy, so they should be rinsed very well if you use it. Adding baking soda also may affect the texture, making the cooked beans mushy instead of tender.

As it turns out, baking soda significantly decreases the levels of raffinose, the gas-causing sugar present in beans. When should you add baking soda to beans? It works best with just a pinch (about 1/16 of a teaspoon) sprinkled into dried beans while they soak in water before cooking.

This is a bad practice, however, and you should avoid adding baking soda when boiling any type of vegetable. It has various unwelcome effects, such as softening the vegetable, altering the vegetable's flavor, destroying thiamine content, and hastening the loss of vitamin C.

Wait until the beans are tender but not quite done to add a splash of apple cider vinegar and a couple teaspoons of salt to the pot. The apple cider vinegar breaks down indigestible sugars to help digestion and also brightens the flavor of the beans without the need for excess salt.

But most people can enjoy more beans with less gas with the help of these tips: Soak beans overnight in water, then drain, rinse and cook in fresh water. This decreases the oligosaccharide content. Cooking the beans in a pressure cooker may reduce the oligosaccharides even further.

But that's exactly why you don't want to simply transfer your pot of soaked beans to the stove and start cooking them: By cooking the legumes in their soaking water, you'll ultimately still be ingesting the raffinose that transferred to the water.

Dissolve ½ teaspoon of baking soda in 8 ounces of water and drink it. This can help reduce acid and bubbles in the stomach. Be cautious about following this carefully, as consuming too much baking soda on a full stomach could lead to stomach rupture.

Soak your beans overnight and change the water frequently. You can add baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to the mixture to further neutralize lectins.

Does adding vinegar to beans reduce gas? ›

#3 - Soak and rinse beans

An added tbsp of vinegar in the water can also help, as can changing the water a few times [6]. Using hot water can speed the process too. Soaking can reduce the amount of oligosaccharides in them. Cook the soaked beans in fresh water (not the water they have been soaked in!)

3> Add vinegar or lemon juice: Some people add a small amount of vinegar or lemon juice to the soaking water, which may help reduce gas production. If they're dried beans, you can soak them for a couple hours, then throw the water away. While hydrating the beans, the water dissolves some of the starch that causes gas.

Epazote has been used for generations in traditional cooking

People love using it, especially when they cook beans. Bean can sometimes make people feel a bit gassy. Well, Epazote is famous for helping with that! It makes beans more enjoyable by reducing the gas they can cause.

Too much baking soda, however, can make your beans taste soapy and not at all as you intended.

Thanks to its high sodium content, it's also possible to consume too much baking soda. An overload of sodium can cause vomiting and diarrhea, as well as more serious problems like seizures and kidney failure. When using it as an antacid, it can actually make GI problems worse if it produces too much gas.

High sodium levels in the blood: Sodium bicarbonate might increase sodium levels in the blood. People who already have high levels of sodium in the blood should avoid sodium bicarbonate. High blood pressure: Sodium bicarbonate might increase blood pressure.

You don't need much, just a half teaspoon of baking soda for every 1 1/2 cups of beans (this is the typical yield of a 15-ounce can). The longer you boil the beans with baking soda, the more it breaks them down.

“This is essentially a DIY antacid,” says Dr. Dweck, explaining that baking soda is basic in terms of its pH content. This neutralizes stomach acid along with bloating and discomfort.

Hot soaking is the preferred method since it reduces cooking time, helps dissolve some of the gas-causing substances in beans, and most consistently produces tender beans. Quick Soak: This is the fastest method. In a large pot, add 6 cups of water for each pound (2 cups) of dry beans.

Modern cooking websites often say it doesn't matter. In a way, they're both right. Soaking beans can help improve the texture of the final product once the beans are cooked and reduce the gas produced when the food is being digested. But it isn't necessary to soak them.