Undercooked beans in chili?

Question

I made a bit of a mistake, being a lazy bachelor and inexperienced at cooking. I was making chili and when it came time to add beans I discovered I didn't have any canned beans. I did however have some dried beans. I decided to save time and add these directly to the pot of chili and add some water.

However, after much simmering the beans maintain a certain unpalatable crispness. I have also read that undercooked beans contain a chemical lectin which can cause stomach discomfort. I have also read that beans should be soaked, the water discarded to remove the lectin, and then boiled to cook them.

Is there any way to salvage this? Should I just continue cooking the chili for hours? Will I have to throw out my potentially delicious chili?

Answer

If you cook them long enough, they'll still soften up, you just might have to simmer them overnight or even into the next day.

Although I'll refrain from the obvious jokes, prolonged cooking also reduces one other common side effect of beans. I'm sure you can guess what the side effect is.

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