There is some dispute over whether or not soaking beans before cooking is necessary, and there are certainly some advantages to soaking beans before cooking. However, it is not absolutely required, although when a recipe calls for soaked beans, you should take the time to soak them, as the cooking time will be skewed otherwise. There are also some distinct advantages to using soaked beans rather than dried ones, which you may want to consider when preparing bean recipes.

Whether or not you soak beans, it is essential to wash and pick through them before using them. Otherwise, you may cook pieces of gravel, twigs, and other objects from the field the beans were grown in along with the beans. It helps to rinse beans in a large colander, allowing the beans to spread out as you rinse them so that you can pick out any foreign objects. If you plan to soak beans, cover them in warm water, changing the water every now and then until the beans have swelled to twice their original size; you can also simply soak beans overnight.

The primary reason people soak beans is to cut down on cooking time. Soaked beans cook in a fraction of the time that dried beans do, saving energy in the cooking process along with time. In addition, by slowly allowing the beans to fill with water, you will encourage them to cook all the way through, rather than cooking on the outside while the middle remains raw. Soaked beans are also less likely to fall apart during the cooking process.

Some people also believe that the longer you cook beans, the less nutritional value they have, and it is true that heat damages some essential vitamins and minerals, but the beans will still be extremely nutritious. You should also simmer the beans slowly, rather than boiling them, to encourage gentle, even cooking without burning.

All of the above reasons are pretty strong arguments to soak beans, but there's a clincher. Soaking helps to break down the sugars in beans which your body finds hard to digest. These sugars are the root cause of the gastrointestinal symptoms which are infamously associated with beans, and by soaking beans before cooking them, you can drastically reduce gastrointestinal discomfort along with the associated symptoms.