Foods

I usually just rinse them off to get rid of the sodium.

But I read on another website that it might be beneficial to soak them overnight if you have time as well.
What do you think of this?

What do you usually do?

I would definitely rinse them off; however, no one/nothing I've seen has been able to tell me how many calories and/or how much sodium this eliminates. I think that just rinsing them in a collinder or something should be fine.

A good rinse under a running tap is all that you need.  The amount of salt absorbed by the beans would be negligible. 

Soaking is usually reserved for dried beans.  The soaking/cooking time puts people off using them which is a pity.  My solution is to soak and cook an entire packet at a time, drain the results really well, allow to cool and then transfer to a freezer bag.  It means you can use beans & chickpeas straight out of the freezer as you would something like peas or sweetcorn.  They're a lot cheaper that way too.

Are there any health/nutrition benefits when comparing frozen beans, canned beans and dried beans??

Not really..... Canned have added salt and sugar in the canning water which, as discussed, can be rinsed off.  But they're all equally nutritious and versatile.  The main difference is price.  I bought 500g dried kidney beans this week for 50p ($1) and they made 1.3kgs when cooked....  38p ($0.73) per kilo.  From the same retailer their 'no added sugar' canned kidney beans are 35p ($0.70) for a 420g can... £1.46 ($2.92) per kilo when drained.

jane!  I have never thought about freezing beans after they're soaked.  And I freezed everything!  What a great idea, thank you!

Curious though, do you find they break down after freezing and get mushy when cooking?

I'll be honest here:

Buy the beans raw in a bag... it's cheap, and just put them in a gigantic tupperware with warm or hot water overnight. In the morning rinse them out. Boil them for a while. Then they are ready. Just use no salt and use garlic instead or a quarter of an onion... tastes awesome! I llike refried black beans myself... I do all that and then I put it in a food processor or blender. Package it up in the frig and I eat a spoonful like I do PB and it's a great little pick me up :). Plus it makes for awesome huevos rancheros in the AM if I'm wanting it! :D

They don't break down at all after being frozen in my experience.  In fact they behave just like peas and sweetcorn...   I tend to throw them into things frozen and they defrost and reheat quite quickly.  I've frozen kidney beans, butterbeans, chickpeas, black-eye beans... if they're not mushy when they go in the freezer they're not mushy when they come out.  The only one I don't bother doing are lentils, which cook quite quickly from dry anyway.

The important part is allowing them to drain very welll indeed and cool right down before transferring to a roomy freezer bag.  With no surface moisture they don't clump together but stay 'free flow' - again like peas and sweetcorn.  A 500g bag of dried beans (1.3kgs cooked) lasts me several weeks and, for calorie-counting purposes, it's handy to just weigh out the amount I need straight out of the freezer rather than having a half-used can sitting in the fridge.

I cook black beans, freeze in indiviaual bags and its perfect for adding to things.  Cheaper but mostly to avoid sodium.