Where can I buy beans?

Che1990 said:
What you can get quickly, easily, ready-made and of decent quality in a supermarket in the UK, in Argentina needs to be done manually, from scratch, buying each ingredient from a different place, and the hours of work that implies. I understand that to cook beans you need to leave them in water over night, too, so it'll easiy take you two days to make baked beans - it’s two minutes to buy in the UK 😅. Home cooking is very nice, idyllic and "wholesome", if you have the time/patience for it.
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there is a difference of having cans of food ready in your kitchen for those time you are too busy and need something quick. I do this. Still the mushy, extra salted, extra preservatives cans are not ideal for something I eat often.

So the majority of the time, when I am in USA or Argentina it takes 2 minutes to put in water before going to bed, and then the 1-2 hours cooking in water while I do other things in morning. This is simple food prep done once per week.

There are many premade foods to buy to keep in freezer or canned or bagged. Most have more chemicals, sugars, salts, etc… that are not needed. Buying real food instead of a food invention created only in the past 60 years is what makes more sense to me. There are even quicker 30 second meal options I have seen people “eat” who say they are too busy. NYT wrote about them just this week.

 
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If you're searching for organic beans, Club Saludable on Callao near Av. Cordoba has several varieties (black, mung, aduki) in small packages. I recommend Schatzi organic lentils and garbanzos available in 3 kilo bags on Mercado Libre.
 
Che1990 said:
What you can get quickly, easily, ready-made and of decent quality in a supermarket in the UK, in Argentina needs to be done manually, from scratch, buying each ingredient from a different place, and the hours of work that implies. I understand that to cook beans you need to leave them in water over night, too, so it'll easiy take you two days to make baked beans - its two minutes to buy in the UK 😅. Home cooking is very nice, idyllic and "wholesome", if you have the time/patience for it.
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Let's hear it for time/patience! Everybody ought to have something they do, simply because they enjoy it, and for me, one of those things is cooking from scratch.

Let's also hear it for therapy! I've been making bread by hand for decades. It started when I was really under a lot of pressure at work and rather than up my alcohol intake, I found beating and pounding and stretching dough on the kitchen worktop made me feel a whole lot better. And the time I now spend going from favourite shop to favourite shop in my corner of CABA, and similarly in my home country, to buy the ingredients I want and the time spent preparing them is, for me, an investment in peace of mind.
 
carride said:
there is a difference of having cans of food ready in your kitchen for those time you are too busy and need something quick. I do this. Still the mushy, extra salted, extra preservatives cans are not ideal for something I eat often.

So the majority of the time, when I am in USA or Argentina it takes 2 minutes to put in water before going to bed, and then the 1-2 hours cooking in water while I do other things in morning. This is simple food prep done once per week.

There are many premade foods to buy to keep in freezer or canned or bagged. Most have more chemicals, sugars, salts, etc… that are not needed. Buying real food instead of a food invention created only in the past 60 years is what makes more sense to me. There are even quicker 30 second meal options I have seen people “eat” who say they are too busy. NYT wrote about them just this week.

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Canned beans et. al. must be rinsed thoroughly before cooking.
 
Rich One said:
Canned Alubia beans at Coto have no tomato sauce, just a liquid. Heinz Baked beans etc. is another subject.

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The OP wanted baked beans but that's fine, the conversation has moved on.

I'm a make it from scratch guy, I find having a few 500g bags of dry white beans is very useful for making Greek / Mediterranean bean salad, or a Minestrone soup. If you make the tomato sauce also from scratch you could have a very nice combination, far superior to anything you could ever get in a can.

As @Rich One says, buy the bags in any supermarket, check the expiry date (the beans get very hard if they're out of date), and make sure no bugs (weevils?) have bored into the beans (small holes in the beans are evidence of this, it happens sometimes).

Soak overnight, I add a spoonful of sodium bicarbonate which helps soften the beans and shortens the cooking time. Next day, wash well, and boil until they reach your desired texture. It all takes a bit of time, but there's nothing too difficult about it.

Mrs. Pintor does the same process with her black beans ("caraotas") for Venezuelan-style dishes. Argentinians use the red ones for their locro (locro season is in May). And you can use different kinds in Ecuadorean Fanesca for Easter (bit more involved, I only made it once).
 
I typically use the red colorado beans here for chili from cans.
Friends make the black porotos Venezuelan style. I love them.
 
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