Faded Red Beans? (buy, better, baking, chili)

[yellowsnow]

I like soaking and cooking my own beans. But I want then to look like the red kidney beans you buy in cans. I start out with beans that color but they always fade to brownish/pink. What can I do to keep my beans from fading?

[Dirt Grinder]

There are light red kidney beans and dark red kidney beans - I use the dark red for Red Beans and Rice and a mix of both for chili.

[yellowsnow]

I will look for some that say dark red and see if I have better luck with them! Thanks.

[MoonBeam33]

I'm pretty sure the canned has something added to preserve the color.

[DataWarehouse]

I don't mess around with beans. I eat em out of the can !

[oregonwoodsmoke]

I don't cook kidney beans. However, I cook a lot of pintos and I discovered that if I drain off the soaking water, I lose a lot of flavor. So I clean the beans carefully and rinse well before I soak them and I cook them in the soaking water.

You might try that and see if it makes a difference. Or don't soak and just cook them longer. If I cook the pintos without soaking they are darker in color than if I soak them. The color appears to soak off a little bit.

[momtothree]

Are you overcooking them? That could cause the loss in color.

Try putting a pinch of baking soda in with the cooking beans. It will help soften the beans faster. (and supposedly give you less gas)