One of the growing concerns in food health is sodium. Too often we are eating foods that contain levels of sodium that can be dangerous for our health. A good rule of thumb is anything under 200mg of sodium per serving is good, 200-399mg is alright and anything over 400mg is a bit high.

Personally I find it quite frustrating that even things that are supposed to be good for us can be swimming in sodium. Canned beans for example can have anywhere from 280-500mg per one cup serving (depending on the brand and breed of bean). But there is an easy work around this. Though it takes a little planning you can use dried bulk beans instead – not only do they contain much less sodium, but they are even cheaper than those found in cans.

My newest video posting shows you step by step how to re-hydrate dried beans.

As promised here are the slow cooker cook times for your dried beans.

Presoaked Dried Bean Cooking Time on High
Anasazi 3 hours
Black Bean 3 hours
Black eyed peas 3 ½ hours
Cannellini beans 3 hours
Chickpeas 4 hours
Fava beens 2 ½ hours
Flageolets 4 hours
Great Northern Beans 2 ½ hours
Kidney Beans 3 hours
Lentils, green 2 hours
Lentils, red 1 ½ hours
Lima beans 2 ½ hours (small) 2 hours (large)
Navy beans 3 hours
Pinto beans 3 hours
Soy beans 4 hours
Split peas, green or yellow 2 ½ hours
White beans 3 hours

Cook times may depend on your slow cooker, remember that if you are planning to use the beans for soup you can stop the cooking time when they are still a little dry inside so that they will continue to cook in your soup and absorb that liquid/flavour.

Cooked beans can last up to one week in your fridge.

Happy low sodium cooking!