What is Your Favorite Dried Bean to Cook?
9 years ago
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cooking with dried beans
Comments (22)I pick and sort for stuff in my dry beans. Much cleaner then they used to be I've noticed. Used to be a pebble in most every bag but I've not found a rock or dirt clod in years. Still a weed seed now and then. I rinse them to remove dust. Chop up an onion into a pot of water and add the beans. Bring to a boil and then simmer for a couple hours. Got beans! More gas then those that soak them but gas is good for your digestive system. After two hours you have cooked but firm beans. Six or eight hours and you have soft beans. Reheated the next day and you have bean mush... my favorite! When they break down they take on lots of liquid. Use low heat and stir often when reheating soft beans as they burn to the bottom of the pot. In a hurry? Nuke them with some water for about 20 minutes for a pound package with two cups of water. Check after ten minutes and add more water if needed. Use fresh beans! After a year beans take on a bitter flavor. My grandfather taught me to throw out last year's beans as they are not worth eating. Watch where you buy them... I grabbed a package without looking at Meijer's and they were over a buck a pound! Local grocer is about half that price... not that fifty cents kills my budget. I'm eaten several pounds of dry peas recently cooking them the same as the beans. I'm using up some ham but a couple drops of liquid smoke would do as well for flavor. I love a sliver of habenera pepper... not enough to make them hot but it gives a nice tangy note. I think dry lentils are my most common food of these types. Just lentils and an onion makes a good filling energy providing food. A side note I just past the 15lbs lost mark from about the start of last November. A couple holidays and many beers so I'm really happy with my diet. Beans, peas, lentils, and rice have been major "filler" foods that help me feel full with lots of energy for work. Wing your chili and never look back! I love kidney beans and cabbage with hot peppers... some cumin and you could call it chili. Garlic if you want it sweet. Good tomatoes really help but I've used a squirt of ketchup when in a hurry. Either I've got a magic touch or chili is really hard to make bad. I make everything from skillet chili which has almost no liquid to chili soup that is mostly liquid. If I made vegatarian chili for someone I'd probably go a half pot of tomatoes, quarter pot of beans, some onion, squash, couple mildly hot peppers, bit of garlic, few shakes of cumin, tablespoon of chopped cumin seed, and maybe a handful of corn. I salt and black pepper it to taste at serving time. Making for just myself I pour on the hot peppers but that is my taste. good luck! : ) lyra...See MoreWhat's Your Favorite Meal? To cook, to eat, to repeat...
Comments (23)Interesting thread... So hard to answer though. I enjoy so many foods it's hard to pick just one but I'll say to eat something like lasagna or chicken parmigiana- can't pass up anything with melted mozzarella and red sauce. To make is anything new that teaches me a new skill. Like the first time I made gnocchi or pasta from scratch. I love making new things and after I've done it a few times I generally don't enjoy making it again, unless I really want to eat it then I dont mind. To repeat is usually simple, sautéed green beans, and salmon. I used to make it a lot but now I won't eat farm raised salmon and the wild caught can be cost prohibitive. I've even found frozen Alaskan wild caught that was made in China, I won't buy that either. I'm assuming they catch it it Alaska and package in China....See MoreWhat is your favorite forum besides cooking? Help tuna casserole.
Comments (30)We are all triangles, lol. Such an interesting observation about the internet and forums. I know eyes probably roll at most of my posts, but someone somewhere might use my non-recipe jumble way of cooking or use a hint since we cut out most sugars and salts a long time ago. Mentioning pharmacists Barb...i've done the same. I wandered into a pharmacist in the city....seems to be one on every NYC block...two young girls behind the counter, young meaning younger, probably early thirties. This was a couple years ago, but i decided to ask about a possible urinary tract infection and we ended up chatting for 20 minutes. They were so helpful and suggested a non-invasive over the counter thing to try first before seeing my primary care as i just had no time...they were a fantastic wealth of information. And made me promise to seek doctor help if it was not solved in a few days. Researching on our own is just good knowledge to have along with your primary care office. We really are responsible for our own basic needs at home and to eat as healthy as we can. It is difficult to start making changes to a dish that is so familiar but i feel pretty shitty after eating comfort food. DH made red-eye gravy, scratch biscuits, the day after a party. With leftovers after i made a de-salted roasted ham NewYears day...we ate tiny portions and it was a treat, then felt crappy all day. We just don't eat that way anymore. (it was delish going in!) Not had tuna casserole since my my mother made it when i was a kid. Loaded with wasted calories. Lots of ways to replace that with vegetables and still be creamy and filling. I've been making a no-mayo nicoise tuna salad for years. Even better, With your prep bowls...6 or 8 soup bowls near your chopping block...chop a half red onion, or white, a half red pepper, a couple ribs of celery, some green onion...pull some peas, limas, spinach, out of the freezer,,,,(i buy the bags over the rectangle cube boxes from the freezer section). Any good veg choices you like...) in the bags you can just take a handful, then wrap it back up with a rubber band. A veg in each bowl, the frozen as well and they start to thaw a bit. Some olives if you like them, capers if you have them. A half a chopped apple and some lemon zest with a 1/4 juice...grate a couple cups of cauliflower. Or chop. Even chopped mushrooms. Saute your onions and celery, grated carrot, garlic...whatever you want and place in the bottom of a casserole, add all other veg and layer with tuna and cooked rice pasta or regular egg noodles but use a 1/4 portion. Just replace all that pasta with 3/4 veg. Cauliflower is such a great pasta/rice replacement. We use non-fat greek yogurt mixed with cottage cheese, feta, or a slice of goat cheese...we like all of those and usually have them on hand. I use a bit of water but skim milk is a good choice for some moisture. And egg stirred in is good but not necessary. I always have citrus ice cubes frozen with some herbs. a couple of those on top...cover and bake...then cover off near the end of oven cooking to get a nice bubbly light brown top. Browning a bit adds flavor. Packed with lots of veggie you can eat a bit more. The rest of the fresh chopped veg and apple/lemon/herb, olives etc goes into a fresh tuna salad for the next day or two. Cucumber and avocado is super on that salad. You then have a crisper drawer of leftover veg not cut up for another few meals at the end of the week. Half a red pepper, half and onion, etc. My veggie lasagna and Shipwreck pie, both are 75% veg and keep winning cooking contests. Because they are baked casserole dishes they have all the elements of comfort food without the high starches and empty calories though very filling and comforting...and we don't feel shitty the next day....See MoreWhat is your favorite dry bean?
Comments (37)I have heard it often said that dried, cooked beans have no flavor. To my tastebuds and all of my family's that is not true. We definitely know the differences in the tastes of any of the dried beans, as well as the different textures of the beans. After I posted my favorite dried beans, I wanted to pull up on old recipe I had for 4-Ingredient Bean Soup, it was made with Navy beans. However, it must have been lost in the ransomeware attack that occurred on my computer. I don’t even recall where the recipe was from. I have Googled it and the only one that came up was for black beans. Do any of you happen to have such a recipe for Navy beans. That was the very best Navy bean soup and we all loved it....See More
9 years ago- 9 years ago
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