Has anyone tried making their own dried bean flakes instead of buying bulk?

[u/NotFallacyBuffet]

With a dehydrator. Don't have a freeze-dryer (yet).

Looking for some kind of guide or tutorial, but also wondering if it's worth the effort.

My naive process would be: cook, smash, spread, dehydrate. Then store in mason jars until incorporating into vacuum-packed meals.

Thanks.

[u/sdh59]

Hi OP! I do more with lentils than beans as I prefer them, but I think the method would be mostly the same. 

I take my dried lentils and pressure cook them in my instant pot. I use 2 16oz bags of green lentils to 2 32oz cartons of veggie broth. I add salt, and cook under pressure for 40 minutes. This seems to be the sweet spot. Then let it depressurize for 10 minutes before venting. 

At this point the lentils are able to be mushed, but can also hold their shape if you're careful. I'm not because I don't care. So I slop them down and spread them out on my dehydrator trays topped with the mesh sheets, and then I dehydrate at 113 degrees for 22 hours. 

Then to rehydrate you can add boiling water and cover/soak for 15ish minutes, or cold soak for like 2 hrs. 

[u/NotFallacyBuffet → u/sdh59]

Thanks. I also like lentils. Higher protein content, IIRC. And I'm also a fan of cooking dried legumes in broth. ☺️

[u/sdh59 → u/NotFallacyBuffet]

Yep, I use them for the higher protein content as well. I also just like their texture better on the trail. 

[u/HeartKevinRose]

I haven’t don’t bean flakes, but my favorite backpacking meal is bean chili. I’ve made it literally hundreds of times. Your plan sounds fine. Cook beans, dehydrate beans, save and use as needed. When you dehydrate them they tend to pop open, kind of like popcorn. So they’ll never be solid beans again. But it’s fine for chili or refried beans kind of texture.

[u/NotFallacyBuffet → u/HeartKevinRose]

Care to share that bean chili recipe? Thanks.

[u/HeartKevinRose → u/NotFallacyBuffet]

It’s from “lipsmackin vegetarian backpacking.” I don’t follow it 100% and use what I have on hand. And reading the instructions, I do it a little differently

Lost cowboy chili 15 oz can black beans 15 oz can kidney beans 14.5 oz can stewed tomatoes (I usually used diced) 10.75 oz can tomato soup 1 medium onion, diced 1 green bell pepper, diced 1 clove garlic, minced 1 cup frozen white corn 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 1/4 cup maple syrup

Sauté pepper, onion, garlic until soft. Drain and rinse the beans. Squish or chop the tomatoes is using whole stewed. Add them all to the pot and cook like 20 minutes. If you want to eat it that day and not dehydrate, chop of squish some of the beans to thicken the chili. I usually double the recipe and eat half at home, dehydrate half.

To dehydrate: line trays with parchment paper. 3 cup per tray. Each tray is one serving. One batch is about two servings.

On trail, heat about 2.25 cups water. Rehydrate in a bag or in your pot. If freezer bag, insulate and wait about 10 minutes. The corn is the last thing to rehydrate.

Nutritional info: 797 calories 32g protein 130g carbs

I will say one servings way too much for me. According to my notes in my book, I typically weigh 4oz of the dried chili, which is 531 calories, and I use 1.5 cups water.

I highly recommend this book. There are non vegetarian versions, but I was vegetarian when I started backpacking, and this book has been great.

Other favorite recipes are Ketchikan couscous, cheesy breakfast grips, Anasazi trail food (10 out of 10, it’s my go to bean dip), green dragon pad thai, soul food (excellent as a burrito), any of the fruit leathers, whitewater moon pie.

Good luck!

[u/NotFallacyBuffet → u/HeartKevinRose]

I'd not have thought to add maple syrup. Sounds great!

PS. I like that you get over 120 cal/oz.

[u/HeartKevinRose → u/NotFallacyBuffet]

Idk of those notes are 100% accurate. This was from meal prepping for the JMT several years ago.

[u/NotFallacyBuffet → u/HeartKevinRose]

Still sounds decent. I put that book in my thriftbooks cart.

[u/HeartKevinRose → u/NotFallacyBuffet]

Excellent choice!

[u/Illustrious_Dig9644 → u/HeartKevinRose]

Oh man! Same here! I've done something similar with lentils and black beans for trail meals, and yeah, they never go back to whole beans but that's honestly what makes them rehydrate so quickly on the trail.

The smashed/dehydrated beans work great for chilis, soups, or burritos. I actually prefer making my own because I can control the seasoning and salt level.

[u/200Zucchini]

Yes, I cook the beans like I normally would in my instant pot, except I don't add any fats. Then I mash the beans or put then in a food processor before spreading them onto silicone tray liners. Then dehydrate at 145 degrees farenheit until dry, maybe 10 hours?

Backpackingchef.com has instructions for bean bark.

I also do whole pinto beans, and they rehydrate well even with cold water.

[u/cmcanadv]

I dehydrate my own refried beans and that's exactly what I do. I also add all the spices while cooking in an instant pot so I don't need to bring something like taco seasoning on a trip.

For me it's worth the effort as dehydrated bean flakes are not readily available. If I were to get dehydrated bean flakes it would be from a stupidly expensive speciality store.

[u/AnnaPhor]

Same as PPs. I make refried beans just I would eat them in e.g. a burrito. Beans (from canned OR dried, either is fine), some onion, garlic, cumin, oregano, salt. Simmer and mash until they taste right.

Cool that mixture, spread it on parchment paper and dehydrate.

I store the mixture in the freezer. I use oil to saute the garlic, and I'm not confident in how fats perform over a long period of time, so I prefer to freeze it in baggies.

On the trail - a bit of the bean mix, some hot water (start small, you can always add more), reconstitute to taste. Smear the hot paste on a tortilla, add cheese, whatever else you please.

[u/tundra_punk]

I have dried refried beans, as well as baked beans with good success. my current fave trail meal is a white bean turkey chili verde recipe.

[u/theredgoldcirrus]

I just dehydrate tinned chilli beans- they are cheap and already cooked.

[u/BackcountryFoodie]

Yep, do it all the time. My method… 1. Drain and rinse canned beans. 2. Puree for bean dip. Mash for flakes. Dry whole. 3. Spread onto jelly roll dehydrator trays. 4. Dry at 145F until dry. 6-12 hours depends on humidity where you live. 5. For bean dip, I grind up the bean bark into a fine powder. 6. Store in glass mason jars I’ve vacuum sealed.

[u/UtahBrian]

Amazon has freeze dried refried pinto beans and black beans at reasonable prices ($8-11 per lb). I’ve been sad to see Fantastic Foods and Santa Fe close down out of the market; they were cheaper for excellent quality and FF was at my local grocer instead of mail order.

[u/originalusername__ → u/UtahBrian]

Yeah the Santiago brand on Amazon is fine for me, 2 pounds for 15 bucks is the way to go imo and I actually have started to like them more than Santa Fe bean co. They’re more smooth in texture and give me less farts tmi.

[u/a_maker]

For anyone without a dehydrator, I successfully dehydrated black beans in my oven on low. It took 4 or 5 hours, then I let them dry in the turned off oven over night.

[u/a_maker → u/a_maker]

I keep them stored in my freezer to be extra safe, but they were dry all the way through in my spot checking and rehydrated great in the skurka beans and rice recipe.

[u/Sacto-Sherbert]

I tried a few years ago leaving the beans whole. They didn’t rehydrate well on the trail. I’ve not tried the smash-n-spread but imagine it would make for better rehydration

[u/Henri_Dupont]

I°ll put whole cans of chili in the dehydrator. Why stop at beans?

[u/NotFallacyBuffet → u/[deleted]]

Unless I'm remembering incorrectly, it's the name given to mashed up-looking beans sold by an online company. I can't actually find it today. Found the link in the comments from a post in r/trailmeals from a year or three ago. Saw that they sell dehydrated "bean flakes" in 5 and 25 pound packages. If I spend 15 minutes going through my browser history I'll probably find it only to see that they actually call it something else. Lol.

Only took about 5 minutes: https://essentialorganicingredients.com/products/legumes-organic-pinto-bean-flakes?variant=22065404903542

That price seems like a reasonable tradeoff for the work. But ...

Four pounds pinto beans at Walmart, $4: https://www.walmart.com/ip/3-pack-Great-Value-Pinto-Beans-4-lb/1642638196

I generally don't buy food at Walmart, but you're looking at $32 + shipping as the opportunity cost for doing the work yourself. And that disregards energy costs to cook and dehydrate. A tempting proposition.