To bean or not to bean.

Why food bloggers & recipe sites need to be honest about their prep times.

If you’re looking for a quick weeknight meal, a recipe with an 11-hour prep time is a big turn-off. But what if it’s not really 11 hours? But also it kinda is. Let me explain.

I recently published my Ash e Jo recipe, which is a Persian barley soup with white navy or cannellini beans. There are a variety of Ash e Jo recipes out there, so when I did some research to compare our family recipe to what already exists, I was confused.

To make this recipe using dried beans, you have to soak them in water overnight to soften them. This rehydrates them and cuts down their cooking time when it comes to making the actual soup. Now, overnight means soaking them for at least 8 hours and an additional 1 hour simmer on the stove. Including the actual time to make the recipe, my total prep time would be 11 hours.

So why did every recipe online say it only took 2 hours? I did some sleuthing. I realized that most bloggers were including the bean-soaking step in the written recipe, but left it out of their total prep time that shows up in search engines. People searching for this recipe would likely skip right over mine, seeing the prep time comparison.

At this point, a massive internal debate arose in me. I considered, where should I include the bean soaking time? Do I include it at all? Do I recommend canned beans or popping them in an Instant Pot (which not everyone has), which would cut down the time, even though I usually use dried beans?

Side note, I have this same internal debate with marinated meats, but for some reason not with bread-proofing times. Why is my brain so inconsistent?

If I didn’t include the extra 8+ hours, I decided it wouldn’t feel honest. No one wants to open a recipe they think they can make that night only to realize they needed to start 8 hours ago. To me, that’s the opposite of a user-friendly experience. Could someone make it in under 3 hours? Absolutely yes, but that is a shortcut option. The reader should have the flexibility to choose their preferred bean option and be prepared for the prep time needed. Right?

My ultimate goal is to produce a recipe that anyone can easily follow. No surprises, so confusion. I always ask myself, what does my reader want? What would be the most helpful for them? The problem is that I’m not exactly a mind reader, so sometimes it’s guesswork.

This is one of the many dilemmas of a food creator. Some smoke and mirrors around the Ash e Jo prep time might get me a better ranking, but in the end, it felt like trickery to not be honest about it. And transparency is what the reader needs, so that comes first… I think.

I did publish the recipe with the full 11 hours listed at the prep time. It felt like the right thing to do. If this part ramble and part cry for help resonated with any food blog readers and cooks out there, what would you have wanted?