How to De-Gas Beans. What Works and What Doesn’t
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Do you love beans, but they don’t—er—love you? Beans are delicious, nutritious, and cheap, which makes them great for so many reasons. However, they cause gas (aka flatulence or tooting), which is isn’t so great.
Thankfully, I’ve learned how de-gas beans easily to improve your digestion and your relationships! I’ve tried a bunch of methods and I know what works–and what doesn’t.
You know how it goes: beans beans the musical fruit. Well, there’s nothing magical about stinking up a room. But what is magical is that once you learn how to degas beans, the stinky music actually stops.
When I say that I know how to de-gas means, I mean it.
We used to be vegan and ate a lot of beans. We aren’t vegan now, but we cook a HUGE pot beans in our large pressure cooker several times a week.
Benefits of Beans
Just in case you wondered why adding more beans to your diet is a good thing to consider, here are some great reasons.
Nutrition powerhouses
Beans are very high in fiber, protein and complex carbohydrates.
Cheap, cheap cheap
Even the price of heirloom organic beans pales in comparison to that of meat. Now, I am not saying that you shouldn’t eat meat, but beans sure can help you stretch your food budget.
And who doesn’t need a bit of stretch these days?
Long shelf life
In these days of concern about inflationary food prices with folks storing up food for leaner days ahead, beans are a logical choice. They may take longer to cook as they age, but they do not spoil.
Why Do Beans Cause Gas?
There are two reasons why beans cause flatulence (otherwise affectionately known as gas). We actually called this “poohstinkies” in my family, but that’s beside the point.
Fiber
Beans are high in dietary fiber, which is mostly soluble fiber. Soluble means it dissolves in water. The fiber absorbs water in your digestive tract to form a thick substance.
Fiber is known for its health benefits, but if you increase your fiber intake too quickly, you can end up with (you guessed it)–intestinal gas and bloating.
When dietary fiber makes it to the colon, it’s fermented by beneficial bacteria there and gas is produced.
Raffinose Oligosaccharides
Beans also contain oligosaccharides, specifically the raffinose family. They are sugars that are also found in cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts. Alpha-galactosidase is an enzyme that digests these sugars, but since it’s not that prevalent in the human digestive tract, you get gas when you eat them.
For the same reason, if any food ends up in the large intestine without being digested, it can cause gas as well.
The enzyme is derived from the fungus Aspergillus niger and is sold as Beano as well as under other names.
If you don’t want to spend a huge amount on Beano, you definitely need these de-gassing tips.
Side note, there’s an article online stating that we get gas from eating beans because we don’t have an enzyme that the beans contain. That makes no sense at all. We don’t have much of an enzyme to digest what beans have in them.
Does Baking Soda Degas Beans?
Well, yes, but there can be a big problem with this method.
There are some who claim that baking soda doesn’t work and that it only changes the pH of the cooking water. Others say that changing the pH of the water reduces the amount of raffinose in the beans.
In my experience, it’s true that a little baking soda works to degas beans. However (and this is a BIG however), you will end up with VERY mushy beans.
I mean seriously mushy especially if you cook them in a pressure cooker. Sometimes mushy beans are great (for refried beans, this bean dip, or this savory hummus,) but not so great for chili or bean salad.
How Much Baking Soda Do You Need to Degas Beans?
If you’d like to try the baking soda method, you can. As mentioned, if you’re cooking your beans in a pressure cooker or Instant Pot, just be prepared for some mushiness.
Simply add 1/4 teaspoon baking soda to the cooking water for every pound of dried beans and cook as usual.
How to De-gas Your Beans
Here are my very well tested tips for perfectly de-gassed and non-mushy beans. It’s actually a full court press against bean gas. You can do any of these and it will help, but doing all of them is pretty much guaranteed to give you gas-free beans.
These are the basics. Make sure to read the recipe card below for more details.
soak, drain, and rinse beans
add de-gassing herbs, spices, or other de-gassing aids
pressure cook the beans
Spices That De-Gas Beans
There are a number of spices that work to de-gas beans. Here are some that work the best. We used to use ajwain and epazote all the time, but more recently have used ginger and fennel. They all work great.
- ajwain
- epazote
- ginger
- cumin
- fennel
- asafoetida
- kombu (This isn’t a spice, but it can work well too. You’ll want to put about a 2 inch piece of dried kombu seaweed in the pot with the beans. It’s more costly than other options, however.)
Now, here are some more detailed instructions about how to get the toot factor out of your beans.
Instructions
- Soak beans or for at least 8 hours. Cover the beans in filtered water with at least enough water so you can touch the beans with your middle finger's tip and have the water cover your second knuckle. If you're planning to have beans for dinner, you can always start soaking them in the morning when you wake up and then cook them starting 8 hours later.
- Alternatively, speed soak in a pressure cooker. You can soak beans in only 2 minutes in one of these amazing kitchen tools. Just cover the beans with filtered water (as instructed above) and cook on high for 2 minutes.
- Drain and rinse the beans
- Bring beans to a boil, then skim off the scum/foam that builds up on top.
- Add a total of 1 heaping teaspoon total (for every 3 cups of beans) of one or more of the following to the beans ajwain or epazote gingercuminfennelasafoetida (an Indian spice that is a good substitute for onion or garlic).For ajwain, use 1/2 teaspoon for every 2 cups of cooked beans (or 2/3 cup dried)For epazote, use 1 tablespoon for every 1 cup dried beans.
Notes
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It may vary depending on ingredient brands, substitutions, and preparation methods. Optional ingredients are not included. Net carbs are typically calculated by subtracting fiber and sugar alcohols (such as erythritol) from total carbohydrates. This information should not be relied upon for medical or nutritional purposes.
Can You De-gas Canned Beans?
To reduce the effects of gassy components from canned beans, rinse the beans twice before using them in a recipe. It’s not as effective as de-gassing dried beans, but it canhelp.
Bean Recipes
Here are some of our favorite bean recipes (surely there will be more in the future!)
- Pizza Hummus
- Fast and Yummy Bean Dip
- Buckwheat Lentil Crackers
- Lentil Recipes – from Breakfast to Dessert
- Indian Lentils
More Digestion-Boosting Tips
I’ve mentioned a few of these already, but these are some other topics regarding digestion that might be of interest.
Beans are good for you, good for your budget, and good for your family (and friends) if you de-gas them. Get it? If you eat a lot of beans, by using these tipcs, hopefully you can keep all of your friends and not get disowned.
Do Beans Give You Gas?
Got another de-Gassing tip to share?
Hey Adrienne,
I just did a post on soaking grains and beans this week. You soak kidney shaped beans differently then non kidney shaped beans and you add a touch of baking soda to the kidney shaped beans. This is WAPF (Weston A Price Foundation) method of preparation. Here is the post if want to read further 🙂 Love the title BTW! 🙂
https://wholelifestylenutrition.com/articles/is-soaking-grains-and-legumes-necessary-and-how-to-properly-soak-and-prepare-them/
I de-gas by sprouting the beans, which reduces phytates as Kerry was saying.
I tried the vinegar soaking, but found it toughens the skins and nobody in the family appreciated that. Cook’s Illustrated teaches a method of softening the skins by adding a touch of salt to the soak water, so for the last day of sprouting I salt the water the beans are soaking in and wow! the skins melt in your mouth and the beans seem very creamy using the salt soak method. Just make sure you do NOT cook in salt water, that also toughens the skins. Wait to add salt for seasoning til after the beans are done.
nice tips – thanks!
Where is the fun in this??!! haha, j/k
I saw your #53 link-up @ Foodie Friday,wow…you have lot’s of us bloggie’s popping over here(who knew-that this would surely be a “blow out”,teehehe).
We eat some kinda dry beans here at least once a week,sometimes twice,I must say we make beautiful music around here…this is such a fun blog post,thanks for the giggles.
And I must start soaking over night,….we would sure eliminate some cheese cutn’ around here,~laughing out load~
Awesome! I have some black beans soaking this very moment. I heard that cooking them with a bit of seaweed helps. Not sure why, but I’ll be trying that for sure! 🙂 Have you heard of that?
Yes- a reader mentioned it I think.
I always use Kombu sea vegetable while cooking my beans. As another writer said- use 2-3 inch strip. I rinse it first to get rid of excess salt and remove it just prior to serving. Kombu works great to prevent “digestive disturbances” in our family. It’s very easy to use. And I don’t find that it changes the flavor as long as I get it out before serving. Also, be sure to wait to salt your beans until after they are already soft. I first found out about Kombu many years ago from one of my all-time favorite cookbooks, “The Vegetarian Mother’s Cookbook” by Cathe Olson. This is a wonderful cookbook even if you aren’t veggie, I highly recommend it. I refer to this cookbook more than any other.
Thanks for the recommendation!
I found both spices at an East Indian grocery store. I have to agree that the Epazote does not look very appealing. I also didn’t realize I shouldn’t use that for the fudge recipe. Oh well, those beans will go in soup and I’ll try again with the Ajwain. Is there anything I can do to minimize the spice flavour or is it mild enough to be mixed in the fudge?
I honestly don’t think it will be a problem since you are adding sweetener and carob or chocolate. I just think in some sweet dish variations you might wish to use the ajwain instead. You could rinse the beans but I wouldn’t bother :).
I’ll be sure and pass this tip along to my husband! 🙂 Thank you for sharing at Fit and Fab!
🙂
Since I read this post a while back, I’ve been looking to find ajwain or epazote but have had no success! Where should I look?
Hi there. I bought mine at Mountain Rose Herbs. One pound of the ajwain should last a very long time. It doesn’t spoil. Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Your comment ended up in my spam folder, which I have never checked until now :(.
I have a friend who adds something to her beans to make them more digestible, I bet it is one of those. I should look into getting some. We eat a lot of beans. Two more options is to eat them more often, your body gets used to them, and to soak for longer with an acid then proceed with your recipe after draining them.
Thanks for linking up to Healthy 2day Wednesaday. Hope to see you back next Wednesday.
Beans are high in oligosaccharides, substances that produce gas in the lower intestine. To get rid of this, soak 1 c beans in 2 c water & 1 T raw apple cider vinegar * (acv) (w/ the “mother”) (instead of acv, you can use liquid whey or lemon juice); soak for 12- 24 hours, or even up to 36 hours. (You can also double this recipe with 2 c beans, 4 c water, and 2 T raw acv). Drain water after soaking, rinse beans til all the scum is washed away. Add beans and 2 c fresh water (per cup of dried beans) to a crockpot, along with a 2-3″ strip of kombu seaweed and/or ajwain, epazote, cumin, fennel, or ginger. The last 15 minutes of cooking time, add 1 t sea salt (per cup of dried beans) and a little oil or ghee (you can also sauté an onion & garlic in the oil or ghee, then add to crockpot). Take the kombu out after beans are done. In addition, you can add kombu to individual servings of beans (just let it soak in the liquid for 5 minutes before serving – do not cook).
Different beans will cook different times, so test for yourself if you want to know exactly how long to cook them (soaking will cut down on cooking time, also):
Lentils & split peas do not need soaking time & usually cook in about 50 minutes or less.
Beans that take about 1 hour to cook: turtle beans, black eyed peas, split peas, great northern beans, white (navy) beans.
Beans that take about 2 hours to cook: chickpeas (garbanzo beans), black beans, pinto beans.
* Because of its nutrients and acidic nature, vinegar is used to make beans less gas producing and to bring out the flavors in many foods.
https://www.apple-cider-vinegar-benefits.com/cooking-with-vinegar.html
There is anecdotal evidence that cooking beans with kombu (a type of sea vegetable) and plenty of spices can also improve the digestibility of beans, Adding kombu to your beans will also increase their nutritional value by adding trace minerals to your dish. Cumin, fennel, and ginger are among the spices that are especially effective in preventing the formation of gas, but any of your favorite aromatic spices will help by inhibiting bacteria and stimulating digestion. (Link deleted by Whole New Mom due to it not working anymore)