Yes. And then I boil for 20-30 minutes, and they’re tender and I don’t notice any bitterness. That’s the same way I cook other beans.
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Hmm… I’ve tried doing that with these Lablab beans and result was bitter tasting. Granted I used Surati White Lablab beans, apparently known as a more wild field lablab bean.
The only way I successfully removed any bitterness, was pre-soaking them, letting them germinate in a cloth, removing the skins and then boiling them.
Result is really delicious beans with Umami like qualities but a lot more work.
If yours somehow were not bitter despite cooking them like regular common beans, perhaps a different variety makes all the difference.
There are 2 kinds I saw at my Indian Grocery Store, I got the one on the left labeled “Surti Val”.
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Have you tried asking someone at the store if they have experience preparing them? Or consulting cook books/culinary resources from India that reference this specific variety? If there’s an existing culture/tradition of using them safely, it’s likely they’ve already figured out the optimal way of preparing them.
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I found out how to cook them on youtube, lots of Indian Chefs!
They all do the removing skin part after sprouting the beans, then cooking!
But good idea on asking someone who works there, they probably will tell me the same thing but maybe could explain Surati wild types used for skin peeling & the other Lablab for cooking like normal beans?
You’re Spot on! That’s exactly the thinking that made me research recipes on YouTube and ask around forums!
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I’ve been using a pressure cooker to cook dry beans for the past couple years. What used to take 8 hours in a Crock pot now takes 1-2. Did not know about pressure canners.
My sister recently told me that she’s discovered any beans that are older than about a year tend to end up woody in texture, no matter how long she cooks them. This concerns me, because I have about eighteen zillion bags of dried beans in my food storage . . . 
Do any of you guys have experience with that? If that does tend to be the case, does sprouting the old beans ever rectify that issue?
I have not had success with sprouting old beans, they don’t germinate well. I also cook them in the pressure cooker but they take a long time. That’s why I said up to 2 hours. Max I did was 4? I start with maybe 45 minutes, but I had a batch I knew was old so I programmed it for 60-90 minutes. Stir it and if it’s not done, do it again, or boil without cover if there’s just a little ways to go… make sure there’s a lot of water in there to start. You don’t have to add the salt while cooking, it can slow down the water absorption if I understand correctly.
Actually, come to think of it, trying to sprout old beans before cooking them might be a good idea, just from a landrace perspective. Anything that sprouts well could be planted to try to get seeds out of it, and anything that doesn’t could be eaten. Having beans with a long viability window could only be a benefit! 
Of course, that would only be reasonable if I’m trying to cook beans right in that narrow window of time when I’m also planting them . . . 
But hey, if I planned to do a pressure canning batch around that time, it might be a good way to start out!
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