prepping white beans for sunday night's supper

a super easy recipe that makes plenty of leftovers to store for later (remember my flank steak recipe from last friday using leftover white beans?).  all you need is a slow cooker, which is ideal for cooking beans since it allows for many hours of hands-off gentle simmering, and a little planning and organization since this recipe requires some work the night before. slow cooked white beans:

first put 2 pounds of dried small white beans, like cannellini or navy, into a large pot and add cold water to cover.  cover with the lid and let the beans soak overnight.  next, over medium-high heat warm 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 chopped onion, and 4 cloves of minced garlic in a skillet for about 4 minutes.  add the onion and garlic mixture to the slow cooker pot and refrigerate overnight.

in the morning, drain the beans and transfer them to the slow cooker pot.  add 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt and stir to combine the ingredients.  add enough cold water to cover the beans by about 2 inches.  cover and cook the beans on the high-heat setting for four hours or the low-heat setting for 8 hours.

this recipe will make about 10 cups of beans.  for tommorow's soup, you will need only 4 cups of beans (set this amount aside and refrigerate) for 4 servings of soup.  let the remaining beans cool to room temperature and then store in plastic freezer bags in 2 cup portions in the freezer for up to 3 months.  you will be using 4 cups of the beans in thursday night's dinner, so i would freeze them until wednesday, then pull them out to defrost overnight in the refrigerator.

prep work finished!  recipe for the white bean soup tomorrow...