Slow Cooker Gigante (White) Beans
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These gigante beans cook in the slow cooker for 6-12 hours with tomatoes, thyme, onions, garlic, and olive oil until they become stewy, creamy, and delicious! If you can’t find gigante beans, the method works well with Great Northern, Cannellini, Lima, or other dried white beans.
On Wednesday morning, inspired by a Dinner, A Love Story post, I dumped half a pound of dried gigante beans into my crockpot followed by half a can of crushed tomatoes, a bay leaf, pepper flakes, water, smashed garlic, chopped onions, thyme, and a drizzle of olive oil.
I whisked the kids off to soccer tots then to the bagel shop, and when we returned three hours later, the house smelled as if I had been working away all morning.
Dried beans in the crockpot for the win! This is where the crockpot really excels: No browning required. No measuring required. The crockpot keeps the one-pot wonder simmering at the steadiest simmer, ensuring creamy, not mushy beans.
How nice to be able to leave the house while a machine works away? And to have the oven and stovetop free should I feel like making bread or the children their favorite dinner.
The beans cooked all day — they needed 8 hours in the pot — and when the dinner bell rang, I toasted bread, placed a slice in each of our bowls and ladled the stewy white beans overtop. With a few cracks of pepper and shavings of parmesan, dinner was served.
More Slow Cooker Bean Recipes to Try
- Slow Cooker Butternut Squash and Apple Soup
- Simplest Slow Cooker Black Beans
- Slow Cooker Flageolets, Gratinéed
- Simplest Slow Cooker Chickpeas
How to Make Gigante (or other white) Beans in the Slow Cooker
Here’s the play-by-play:
Select your bean. I love gigante beans but they do take a long time to cook, anywhere from 8 to 12 hours, so plan ahead. Great Northern, Cannellini beans, Lima, or other white beans would all work here, and those varieties will cook in 6 to 8 hours. Also, if you get on the Rancho Gordo mailing list, they’ll let you know when they get beans (such as these Corona Beans) back in stock:
Dump all of the ingredients into a slow cooker. (I never add pancetta anymore.)
You can use whole peeled tomatoes — simply crush with your hands. Or use crushed tomatoes.
Give everything a stir. Then cover the pot and cook on high heat for 8-12 hours.
When done, the beans will be creamy and cooked through, and the broth will be plentiful.
Ladle the stewy beans over a hunk of bread.
Shave parmesan over top if you wish.
Crack lots of pepper over top, too.
Slow Cooker Gigante (White) Beans
- Total Time: 12 hours 5 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
Adapted from this Dinner, A Love Story post. As Jenny notes, the beauty of this sort of meal is that you really don’t have to measure.
If you don’t have a slow cooker, here’s my mother’s oven method.
Beans: I love gigante beans but they are hard to find, and they’ve gotten so expensive. Use any white bean you like here. Cooking time will vary depending on the age and type of bean you are using.
Note: You can soak the beans prior to cooking if you wish, and I recomm end doing so if you are using Gigante beans, but you do not have to. If you do soak, the cooking time may be shorter. Gigante beans take anywhere from 8 to 12 hours, so plan ahead.
I love these spooned over this oven-roasted polenta.
Ingredients
- 8 oz dried white beans, such as Gigante, Great Northern, or Cannellini (see notes above)
- 1 bay leaf
- pinch red pepper flakes (I use 1/2 teaspoon)
- a few cloves garlic, smashed
- two onions, chopped to yield about 2 cups
- 1.5 cups crushed tomatoes (I love Pomi finely diced tomatoes)
- a few sprigs thyme
- parmesan rind if you have one
- 4 cups water
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt or to taste
- fresh cracked pepper to taste
- shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano for serving
- toasted bread for serving or oven-roasted polenta
Instructions
- Place everything with the exception of the Parmigiano Reggiano and toasted bread or polenta, into your crockpot. Cook on high for at least 6 to 8 hours. Depending on the type of bean you are using, the times will vary. If using unsoaked gigante beans, it may take as long as 12 hours to cook.
- When the beans are done, taste the broth. Add more salt to taste.
- Ladle broth into bowls over toasted bread or serve toasted bread on the size. Shave Parmigiano Reggiano over top. Crack pepper over top. Drizzle more olive oil over top if you wish.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 hours
- Category: Beans
- Method: Slow Cooker, Crockpot
- Cuisine: American
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
215 Comments on “Slow Cooker Gigante (White) Beans”
Easy and so delicious!
Great to hear, Sandra! Thanks for writing 🙂
I made this today and it came out like yours, just thick enough. I was able to find the Rancho beans online, they are fantastic, so creamy and delicious! I reduced the salt since I’m use to using less now, but I think I will reduce it even more. Other than that, it’s very tasty. I drizzled additional olive oil on serving. This is the perfect mediterranean dish so healthy with such great ingredients. Thank you for another fabulous recipe!
Great to hear, Lisa! Thanks so much for writing and sharing your notes 🙂
Love, love, love these!! I think cooking with Parmesan rinds creates such richness and depth. I’ve also found my Whole Foods in suburban Detroit has self serve bulk gigante beans! Can I freeze the finished product? Thanks!!
Great to hear, Adrienne! And yes, you can freeze the finished product 🙂
I made this last night with the slow-cooker polenta and it was AMAZING. I’ve never made anything quite like this before, but it felt like a familiar comfort food — like a warm hug on a chilly evening. The creamy polenta reminded me of southern grits my mom used to make growing up, and the beans had so much flavor for something just thrown in the crock pot. (I couldn’t find gigante beans so used large limas.) I will definitely be making this again! Thanks for sharing your recipes and making them so approachable for everyday life.
So nice to read all of this, Anna! I think this time of year I could live on creamy polenta + beans. You are so right: it’s like a warm hug. Thanks so much for writing 🙂
FYI — there seems to be an issue when printing GIGANTE slow cooker recipe.
Hi! Try this direct link: https://alexandracooks.com/2015/01/15/slow-cooker-gigante-beans-tomatoes-pancetta/print/51800/
I made this with the regular canned cannelli beans. Absolutely delicious. Can i use this recipe and just make in a regular pot?
Sure! It’s a little hard to keep the temp at such a steady, low temperature, but it will work.
Hi Alexandra! I don’t have a slow cooker so planning to use my instant pot on the slow cooker setting. I already soaked my beans. I wonder if I should use the low/medium/high slow cook option on the instant pot?
Hi! I’m not sure. I have to confess, I used the slow cooker option once on my IP and it did not work well, but that likely is because I didn’t use the right setting. I’m probably too later here… what did you end up doing and how did they turn out? I just remember mine taking forever in the IP, so again, probably the wrong setting.
As you suggested, it didn’t go so well. Beans soaked overnight plus 7 hours in instant pot on slow cooker/high setting and they were still not cooked through. Going to throw them in a soup pot today and keep them on the stove for a few hours at least. I’m sure that will get the job done. Thanks!
My fingers are crossed! It’s such a bummer that the slow-cooker option on the IP is not great. Hope the stovetop simmer did the job 🙂
I love this video. I laughed out loud when the kid in the background exclaimed, “Ew, that’s gross!” My kids would do the same! It looks delicious.
Ha! Thank you 🙂 🙂 🙂