How to Use Instant Black Beans

Beans are a great source of fiber, healthy carbohydrates, and plant-based protein. Let me show you how to use Thrive Life’s Instant Black Beans in your food storage pantry and for everyday eats!

My favorite comfort food as a kid was my Grandma’s homemade family recipe, ham and bean soup. Salty chunks of ham, warm, flavorful beans, with plenty of cornbread slathered in honey butter on the side. Simple, cheap, and yet so delicious, this is a recipe passed down from my family members during the Great Depression.

But the thing is, I never made that soup for myself. Ever. Want to know why? Because the overnight process of soaking the beans drove me nuts! When I wanted (no, needed) Grandma’s ham-and-bean soup, I wanted it ASAP. Soaking the beans was an extra, annoying step that I never felt like taking. (I’m not very good at the whole, “delayed gratification” thing.)

Enter: Thrive Life Instant Beans

Oh, yes. You heard me. Instant Beans. While not entirely instant, these babies whack the typical cook time of dried beans in half. Actually, less than half. Like, an eighth? I don’t know, but it’s really fast. Get this — all you do is boil your instant beans in water for 15-20 minutes, and you’ve got dinner! There’s also a delicious recipe on the package for a black bean soup that we will definitely be trying.

Since these “Instant Beans” seemed too good to be true, I decided to put them to the test. Soup is great and all, but a decent vegetarian bean burger is hard to pull off if your little legume friends are still crunchy. I used this recipe for black bean burgers from Buzzfeed Tasty and made two batches — one batch using traditional, canned black beans, and one using ThriveLife’s Instant Black Beans.

Let’s cook!

The set up

This was the assembly process! Everything was surprisingly easy to make, and once you make a batch or two of veggie burgers, you’ll see how simple it is to add variety with spices, herbs, and other tweaks to create your own unique version.

Step one: rehydrate the Instant Black Beans

Instant Black Beans measure out cup-for-cup, the same as fresh or canned beans. In the above photo, these are the rehydrated instant beans, and as you can see, they look very similar to the canned version.

I should have cooked these a little longer as I realized a bit too late (read: as I was eating my burger) that I’d left them a bit crunchy still, so I recommend taste-testing a couple of the rehydrated instant beans to make sure they’re as soft as you would like them to be in your recipe.

Ready to cook!

Here are my black bean burgers waiting to go into the oven.

I know, so pretty. I should be a food stylist. But don’t be fooled–they smelled and tasted amazing. I added fresh cilantro to mine for an herby punch.

The finished products side by side

These are the finished products. The burger at the top of the photo was made with store-bought, canned black beans. The burger on the bottom was made with Thrive Life’s Instant Black Beans. The instant bean burger is much darker and didn’t hold together quite as well (probably due to the under-cooked beans), but the flavor and texture were great!

The Verdict

These burgers were amazing! You can definitely see the difference between the two in the picture above, but taste-wise, there was virtually nothing to distinguish the instant beans from the regular ones! No weird aftertaste or texture at all. I was insanely impressed with this product!

If you’re interested in adding Thrive Life’s instant beans to your pantry, I definitely recommend them! Beans make great meal stretchers, without sacrificing nutrients or protein. ThriveLife also carries Instant Red Beans, and Instant Refried Beans (say what?!) if you prefer those over black. All three options are very affordable at less than $12.00 per Family Size can (#10 can).

For food storage and for everyday cooking, instant beans will make your meal prep, and therefore, your life, much simpler! After all, when you’ve gotta have a bean meal, you want it right now!