Not offering a recipe here, but curious, why do you think canola is more "heart healthy" than olive oil? As far as I know, it's definitely the other way around. And why wouldn't garbanzos be "heart healthy"?

Beans have some fat in them, but it is unsaturated, and they have fiber and anti-oxidants to go along. And they are relatively low calorie, low fat, compared to meat as a source of protein.

Marinated Blackeyed Peas (I have only ever made this with canned beans)
1 can blackeye peas
1 rib celery chopped
1 TBLSP finely chopped onion
1 TBLSP salad oil (use whatever kind you like)
1 TBLSP vinegar (I usually use wine or balsamic)
1 TBLSP mayo
1/4 tsp. salt
dash cayenne
1 ripe tomato diced (or equivalent amount of cherry toms)

Drain and rinse peas. Add chopped stuff. Combine dressing ing. (I use a lemon pepper/salt mix instead of salt) Chill several hours. Serve over lettuce cups.
It this is too bland for your taste, add some chopped chili pepper and double the dressing. I think I almost always add additional green pepper, diced.

Missouri Botanical Garden's 3-Bean Salad.
Serves 10.
1 15 oz. can black beans or kidney beans
1 15 oz. can northern beans
1 15 oz. can garbanzo beans (just sub another kind of bean, like mentioned above)
1 large tomato
1 cup chopped sweet peppers, can mix colors
2/3 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 TBLSP dried crushed basil, or sub 3 TBLSP fresh
2 TBLSP snipped parsley
2 TBLSP olive oil
2 TBLSP lemon juice
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. ground red pepper
Lpink's notes (dab of mayo)

Combine ing. marinate until chilled through. Again, if bland, double lemon and olive oil.

Tofu "Tuna" and White Bean Salad
8 servings, serve over lettuce leaves

This is a vegetarian take on a Mediterannean classic. I guess you could sub real tuna for the tofu. I have not tried it that way, but tuna and white bean salad is a classic.

2 cups cooked canellini beans (1 can)
8 oz. italian style baked marinated tofu (diced)
1/3 cup black olives, preferably cured kalamatta
2 lg. celery stalks (diced)
1/2 cup diced red onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 TBLSP extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1/2-1 lemon, depending on your taste and how big the lemon is.
Freshly ground black pepper.

Combine ing. and marinate until chilled. Again, adjust seasonings to your taste.

And then there's Annie's Southwestern Bean Salad which I love, but don't have time to copy right now.

L,

It's my understanding that olive oil is very heart healthy, not just OK for you but actually beneficial.

In that bean dish I would use a better grade of olive oil than I use for regular cooking. A high quality extra virgin olive oil is very flavorful and is good to use for making a vinaigrette or drizzling over food as a finish.

Salt will help but it can take an awfully lot to make a difference in something so bland as beans. You can perk them up easier with some cayenne or Tabasco. It's a different flavor from salt but will do the trick.

Jim

I can't comment on the recipe, but I would agree that Bittman's directions for cooking beans are good - his instructions were what finally got me over my dried bean fear.

I made a bean salad a couple of weeks ago with black eyed peas, chopped tomatoes, red onions, garlic, cilantro and lime juice. A sprinkle of salt, pepper and sugar since it's not really tomato season. While it was good the day I made it, it was much better the following day after the flavors had blended.

Becky

I think Jim hit the nail on the head regarding salt. I used to love beans of all kinds in any kind of dish. But once my husband had to restrict his salt intake, I discovered that beans prepared without the full complement of salt can be beyond bland & boring. I takes an awful lot of vinegar or lemon juice to brighten up a cold bean salad if the salt has been either removed altogether or lessened during cooking.

And, of course, that's the dilemma with all the supposed "heart healthy" foods. They may be low in fat but to get them to taste palatable, you have to pour on the salt. And that's definitely not "heart healthy."

I think Becky's suggestion of letting the salad marinate a day with the vegetables & dressing is also a good one. Give the beans enough time to absorb some of the wonderful flavors. I know I toss warm pasta & potatoes with a few tablespoons of a vinegery dressing immediately after draining. That helps to immediatley get some flavor into the macaroni or potatoes that were cooked in unsalted water.

I'm not sure about the salt thing. I make almost all homeade foods so I think my salt intake is much lower than average, but not especially "no salt" and that would make a huge difference. Also, beans cooked from scratch would be MUCH lower in salt than beans from a can, but again, I still use salt. Although I must say, not that much really. I use bay leaf, and epazote when I cook beans. And I agree, bean salads benefit from fresh herbs, lots of vinegar and or lemon, a dash of cayenne or tabasco, and good quality olive oil. That's what I always use for salads, EVOO. Also, since beans are kind of "mushy" for lack of a more positive word, I like lots of contrasting "crunchy" things in my bean salad--celery, green pepper, etc. And something strong flavored for contrast, like tuna and briney olives in the one case, and lime and cilantro and hot pepper in the case of southwestern style bean salad.

Oh, you guys are great!

Re olive oil: yup, I know it's deemed "heart healthy" because it's got "good fats" and it's got good Omega-3 etc., but it's also a bad choice for (some? many?) heart patients because it's very high in Vit. K (compared to other fats, and especially with the higher quality, fresher varieties) so we can't use it very much, or very often. On the smaller test batch of beans I made, I did use only high-quality EVOO. Unfortunately, the olive oil didn't make much of a difference. The Vit. K thing is also why chickpeas are off the menu, as well, even though my DH adores them. Me, not so much, so I sure don't miss skinning them.

One of the most frustrating things about adapting one's kitchen to special diets is the prescriptive ingredient cul-de-sacs one gets dumped into by all the (often conflicting) dietary recommendations. Use good oils for heart health, only the best ones are bad for you for another reason; so use the other fats, but they are bad for another reason, and so on. Early on in this transformation I remember standing in the aisle of my supermarket and just bawling because I didn't think I would be able to find anything that would allow me to make tasty meals for my husband. Thankfully his health has improved a good deal, so we have much more latitude. I finally also sussed out that a lot of the recommendations really didn't apply to us since we always ate mostly home-grown, home-cooked, plants, and made most things from scratch and we're very thin, active people, so calories are not an issue. A huge amount of the special heart-healthy diet stuff like vegetable protein hotdogs, or fake bacon, or those supposedly healthy margarines would never make it past my doorstep. I conscientiously bought the American Heart Association cooksbooks, but when I got to recipes using products made with Jello or Coolwhip, I gave it up. I found that I had much better luck with cookbooks like Bitman's that use real stuff, not frankenfoods.

Of course, canned beans are off the list due to the low-salt needs. I've tried every brand of no-salt-added beans and they are generally excreable, with a slimy texture, or metalic taste, or both. I think the salt added to canned vegs. is purely there to cover up nastiness. That's OK with me since I am generally a scratch cook anyway. But perhaps since I routinely cut back on salt in recipes, I cut it back too far considering the blandness of beans and that I was using a Bitman rec. I find that many cook books and most food mags (are you listening Cook's Illustrated and Fine Cooking, I'm talking about you guys!) have so much salt in them that even cutting it down by 50% still leaves them tasting too-harshly salted for my palate.

Jim's suggestion of adding hot or picante flavors is excellent and I will try it tonight on the remaining beans that have beeen in the fridge marinating. I served the potato-free potato (bean) salad last night and it had improved from the first day and I thought I'd dig out the plain Bitman Bean Rec. batch and serve them as a salad component, not as I had intended as full portion item.

It's a hot night here, maybe I'll mix it up with some tuna, and celery and cherry toms.

Thanks a lot for your recipe suggestions. I'll give them a try.

L

Can you get excessive vitamin K from the amount of EVOO you would get in a bean salad? I'm wondering same with salt, if your beans are homeade. I often make a big pot of beans over the weekend and freeze them in 1 pint jars. Right now I have garbanzoes, red beans and black beans in the freezer, so very easy to throw my own "canned" beans instantly into a dish. I found out the beans thaw pretty fast in the microwave (if I take off the metal lids!). And I use maybe 1 tsp. salt for the whole batch. But I also cook them with an onion, maybe stuck with a few cloves, bay leaf and epazote, all kind of resinous flavors. I also add no salt vegetable bouillon cubes. I save the bean broth for soups. I don't know the sodium content but I'll bet it is 1/2 if not 1/4 what the canned stuff is. Since I cook all the homeade stuff I am like you Lirio, I find most pre-packaged and restaurant food way too salty for my palate. Same with sugar, I almost routinely cut sugar in recipes by 1/4 and often up to 1/3, and never notice it.

I don't know for sure, but I think a lot of those dietary guidelines come about because they say "X" is good for you, and then some people eat nothing BUT X, or take super high concentrate supplements thinking that will work. And then they get the bad side effects from the nutrient taken in excess, without the fiber and other nutrients that would go along with it if you found it in a natural form. I know that is the case with vitamin C, and I think if I'm not mistaken some of the B vitamins are toxic, like maybe B6 or niacin? But anyway, I'm sure you've been round the block on all of this!

But I can see where a person could overdose on garbanzo beans, I LOVE hummus!

Here's Annie's Bean Salad recipe, I know she's at a huge wedding this weekend, where she made hor'doeuvres (or however you spell it) for 600!

All Purpose Southwestern Corn and Black Bean Salad
from "Cooking Light" magazine
Makes 12 servings and keeps in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Can add shredded chicken and serve as a filling for tacos or enchiladas, tostadas, whatever. Great with baked tortilla chips as an extra chunky dip. Or serve on a bed of lettuce for a salad.

1 lb. dried black beans
11 1/2 cups of water, divided
1 tsp. olive oil (I think you could get away with canola on this part)
2 tsp. cumin seeds
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups fresh corn kernels
2 cups chopped seeded tomato
1 cup vidalia or other sweet onion, chopped
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 cup chopped green bell pepper

For the Dressing:
1/2 cup fresh lime juice (about 3 limes)
1 TBLSP chili powder
3 TBLSP olive oil
2 tsp. salt (I'll bet you could get away with one, or 1.5)
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. honey
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 jalepeno peppers, seeded and minced
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro (or parsley if you don't like cilantro, I love it!)

Sort and wash beans. OK, at this point, cook however you like. The directions say combine beans and 5 1/2 cups water in a 6 quart pressure cooker. Close lid securely; bring to high pressure over high heat. Adjust heat to medium or level needed to maintain high pressure; cook 1 min. Remove beans from heat; place cooker under cold running water. Remove lid. Drain beans; rinse with cold water. Drain and cool.
Lpink: "Um yeah, right. Or soak in the water overnight, and then drain off the water before cooking in new water in the crockpot."

Heat 1 tsp. oil in cooker over med. heat. Add cumin seeds and 2 garlic cloves, cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add beans and 6 cups water. Close lid, do the whole pressure thing again, adjust heat to maintain cooking at high pressure. Cook 12 minutes. Remove from heat, place cooker under cool water to lower prssure. Remove lid, drain beans and rinse with cold water.
Lpink: "Or, use ground cumin instead, and throw the beans and a couple veg. bouillon cubes in the crockpot and cook on high for about 3-4 hours, or on low for about 5. Drain the broth into a tupperware container and label it "bean broth" for chili later."

Meanwhile, make the salad with the cooled beans and the chopped veggies. Then make the dressing and pour over the salad. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 min., but I would say longer.

I know a pressure cooker is the BEST way to do beans, but I have never gotten the knack of it and can't be bothered. Maybe if I got on of those new fangled ones that are just for cooking I might like it, but no money and no room in the kitchen, so that's not going to happen. I like the slow cooker method though, I can make them over the weekend and forget them until they are done.

Is someone in your family on Coumadin? That would be the important proscription for excess Vitamin K, and it's only in excess that it becomes a problem. If you normally use olive oil or eat broccoli or brussel sprouts or cabbage, etc, you can continue to do so. It's not the foods per se, but changing (decreasing or increasing) the foods you eat that leads to problems. If you have always used olive oil or eaten broccoli three times a week, continuing to do so will not be a problem, but stopping or increasing will - the dose of coumadin will have to be adjusted to account for the changes. Consistency is important.

Canola oil and olive oil are actually very low in Vitamin K. You would have to use it by the many cupfuls daily to have any harmful effects. Olive oil has 8.1 micrograms/Tbs, Canola oil has 5.9 mcg/Tbs. Peanut oil actually has the least amount of Vitamin K at 0.1 mcg/Tbs. These are insignificant amounts in a balanced diet.

Lirio, I agree with you regarding Cook's Illustrated. I get so very tired of the constant pushingof brining and pre-salting meats before cooking. It seems like I am unable to even try most of the recipes in the magazines just because of this one issue.

LPink, I've struggled with wanting to add that 1 tsp. of salt you speak of to homemade cooked beans. All the low sodium websites have recipes with absolutely no added salt and I feel like a failure if I can't do the same. But the truth is that without some salt, beans are way too bland for me to want to consume. Same with mashed potatoes. Once the potatoes are boiled in salt free waater, it's hard to get them tasty.

However, I've found bean salads marinated in a vinegary dressing are good as are barbecue baked beans. And I found a source for a low sodium ham base that really does perk up any kind of bean soup.