Brothy Beans That Don’t Need to Simmer All Day

When you need a quick salad or sandwich, the convenience of canned beans is hard to beat. But when you want a brothy bowl to soothe a cold, or a thrifty dish that will wow your friends at a dinner party, dried is almost always the way to go.

After hours on the stove, dried beans become plump and buttery. Thanks to the savory aromatics, your home smells better than even the fanciest candle. And there’s a savory stock left behind to slurp by the ladleful. Slowly simmered legumes are one of life’s great joys, one of those dishes whose flavor belies its simplicity. You can taste the time and care.

The only problem is, I can never seem to nail dried beans. Embarrassing! Despite my best efforts—soaking, not soaking, covering the pot, uncovering the pot—most times I end up with chalky chickpeas after an eternity or blown-out pintos before the first timer goes off.

If this happens to you too, I have good news.

My brilliant colleague, senior test kitchen editor Shilpa Uskokovic, just taught me a cheat code: Simmer canned beans in some broth with a few aromatics, and they’ll taste just as good as a pot of dried ones that you babied for hours. It sounds counterintuitive—after all, canned beans are already cooked—but this little step reaps big rewards.

Shilpa’s method goes like this: Sizzle a lot of garlic in oil. Add a couple sprigs of thyme if you have some around, followed by canned chickpeas, store-bought broth to cover, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, then go do something for an hour. Might I suggest my latest obsession, Couples Therapy?

Where dried beans are prone to user error (me), canned ones are exceedingly forgiving.

Even if you get distracted, the resulting beans are impossibly tender, with a golden exterior and deep umami. And my favorite part, the broth is just as slurpable as the from-scratch sort. You could serve them as a starchy, protein-rich side dish, or just add some toast and garlic mayo and call it a day.

As with dried, this method is customizable too. Don’t have chickpeas? Try pintos or navy beans. Use any kind of stock—vegetable, mushroom, chicken, dashi, be it homemade, boxed, or bouillon. In addition to the garlic, throw in other alliums, like onions or leeks, and whatever’s hanging around your crisper drawer, like carrots or ginger. Maybe a sprig of oregano in lieu of thyme. Maybe a splash of sherry vinegar or a big squeeze of lemon goes in at the end.

The whole point is, you can’t mess this up. And if you’re eating with someone else, they’ll never know you did not, in fact, spend all day hovering by the stove. Unless you can’t help but tell them all about it. A trick like this is too good to keep to yourself.

Chickpeas With 40 Garlic Cloves

Braising canned chickpeas in chicken stock and olive oil makes them unbelievably tender and buttery. This is worth the effort of peeling 40 cloves of garlic.

View Recipe