Plenty of Water and Plenty of Time
Dried scarlet runner beans can be stored for months in a cool, dark, dry place – so you always have them on hand throughout the year, even outside harvest season. You’ll find Styrian Scarlet Runner Beans PDO in our Steirerkraft online shop.
Before we get to cooking, we’ll show you step by step how to prepare dried scarlet runner beans perfectly.
How do I properly prepare dried scarlet runner beans?
No need to worry – even without cooking experience, scarlet runner beans (also known as fire beans) turn out reliably well. What you’ll need above all is time. To become tender, the dried beans need to soak first.
Important to know beforehand: raw scarlet runner beans contain phasin, a lectin that can cause gastrointestinal discomfort. It’s destroyed by thorough cooking. So be sure to follow steps 3 and 4 – that’s what makes the beans safe to eat.
The Steirerkraft 5-Step Guide
1. Wash the dried scarlet runner beans
First, wash the dried beans thoroughly, sorting out any damaged or discoloured ones.
2. Soak the beans for several hours
Place the beans in a pot with cold water and let them soak for several hours, ideally overnight. Use roughly three times the amount of water to beans – they’ll nearly double in size.
Allow plenty of time for this step, so the beans truly become tender once cooked.
3. Drain the soaking water and start fresh
Pour away the soaking water and cook the beans in fresh water instead. Substances that cause bloating collect in the soaking water – along with phasin, which shouldn’t end up in the fresh cooking liquid.
Pro tip: season the cooking water with a pinch of sugar, one or two bay leaves, or savory. This makes the beans easier to digest.
4. Bring to the boil and simmer until tender
Bring the beans to the boil and let them boil rapidly for at least 10 minutes – this is the step that destroys the phasin. Then reduce the heat and let the beans simmer until tender.
The total cooking time is around 60 to 90 minutes, depending on the age and size of the beans.
5. Salt only at the end
Only salt the scarlet runner beans towards the end. Salt prevents the skins from softening properly during cooking. This, by the way, also applies to other legumes like chickpeas or lentils.
Tips from Our Bag of Tricks
- For cold dishes, let the beans cool in the cooking water. This prevents the skins from splitting.
- While still warm, the cooked beans are especially easy to purée finely.
- Bean purée makes sweet dishes moist and light. It can replace part of the flour – for example, in our Scarlet Runner Bean Curd Cake.
- Cooked beans freeze well. Simply thaw before using and continue as desired – as a purée, in a salad, as a soup garnish, and more.
- No time to soak? Our ready-to-eat scarlet runner beans are already cooked: just drain, rinse, and you’re done.
How much do dried scarlet runner beans yield?
100 g of dried scarlet runner beans yield about 220 to 250 g once cooked – roughly two and a half times the amount. For four portions of scarlet runner bean salad, plan on about 250 g of dried beans.
