SOAKING

Soaking your beans helps them cook faster and more evenly, and it can also make them easier to digest by liberating some of the physic acid. If you add salt to the soaking water (in other words, make a brine), your beans will cook even faster; the salt helps break down their skins. Here are a few methods; choose the one that best fits your schedule.

And keep in mind that you never need to soak legumes like lentils or split peas.

OVERNIGHT SOAKING
Cover beans with water by 2-3 inches, add 2 tablespoons coarse kosher salt (or 1 tablespoon fine salt) per pound of beans, and let them soak for at least 4 hours or up to 12 hours. Drain them and rinse before using. 

QUICK SOAKING
Another option is quick-soaking, which allows you to make a pot of beans within a few hours flat without sacrificing flavor or texture. Put the beans in a pot on the stove, cover with water by two inches, and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and let them soak for an hour. Drain, rinse and proceed with your recipe.

STOVETOP METHOD

Place your beans in your pot and cover them with at least 2 inches of water, and turn the heat to low. Stir them gently and occasionally, never letting them hit a strong boil; this can burst their skins and make them mushy or unevenly cooked. Depending upon the variety, dried beans will cook quickly (about 15 minutes for red lentils) or slowly (up to 3 to 4 hours for un-soaked chickpeas or lima beans).

SLOW-COOKER METHOD
To use a slow cooker, cover your beans with 2 inches of water or broth and salt to taste, and toss any aromatics you like into the pot. Set your machine to the low setting and cook until the beans are done, usually 3 to 6 hours. If you are cooking kidney beans, you need to boil them on the stove for 10 minutes first before adding them to the slow cooker. This makes them much more digestible.

PRESSURE-COOKER METHOD
To cook beans in a pressure cooker, place soaked beans with enough water to cover by 2 inches into the pressure cooker. Add salt, any aromatics you like. Make sure not to exceed the maximum fill line for your brand of pressure cooker. This is usually around the halfway mark for beans. Cook at high pressure for anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes for small beans such as black-eyed peas, lentils and split peas, to up to 35 to 40 minutes for larger beans such as chickpeas. Soaked beans will cook more quickly than un-soaked beans.