Think, Eat, Be Healthy

Get Bean Power

Stueben Yellow Eyed Peas

Stueben Yellow Eyed Peas

Dried beans are a wonderful whole food and deserve a place in every healthy diet. They are cheap, readily available, easy to prepare and have a long shelf life. A very versatile food, dried beans can be a main course, a side dish, a soup ingredient or part of a sauce. Beans also pack a lot of nutritional power.

Black Turtle Beans

Black Turtle Beans

Dried beans are really seeds, and like all seeds, they contain all the nutrients necessary for a young plant to grow roots and leaves and become self sufficient. They are the egg yolks of the plant world. When we eat beans instead of planting them, all of their nutrients become available to us. I like to think of beans and seeds as mother nature’s little nutrition bars.

Garbanzo Beans or Chick Peas

Garbanzo Beans or Chick Peas

There is a great variety of dried beans to choose from, and like edible mushrooms, each kind has its own unique nutritional profile. Also like mushrooms they all share a wide range of nutrients. Sometimes I enjoy one type of bean but often will cook a medley of varieties together.

Adzuki Beans

Adzuki Beans

All dried beans are a good source of dietary fiber, protein and low glycemic index  carbohydrates. Beans are also high in vitamins K, B1 and folate. Minerals available from beans include molybdenum, manganese, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, copper and iron.

Green Split Peas

Green Split Peas

The fiber in dried bean is of both soluble and insoluble types. This mix of fiber types produces a host of proven health benefits from lower serum cholesterol to better digestion to lowered risk of heart attack and colon cancer. The fiber also moderates the glycemic index of any other foods eaten with the beans, thus reducing large insulin spikes.

Great Northern White Beans

Great Northern White Beans

Beans contain small amounts of complex raffinose sugars which cause some people problems with gas. This issue can be overcome by soaking beans overnight and then cooking the beans until thoroughly tender. The problem sugars are removed and/or broken down with this method.

Black Eyed Peas

Black Eyed Peas

I like to cook a pot of 4-5 mixed varieties of beans every week or two. If I make a large batch I can freeze some for future use. During the week some are reheated as a side dish and some are added to stews and soups. I might drain some and mash them into patties, then use the liquid as a sauce base for those patties. Occasionally I will cook one variety of bean to make chile or garbanzo cakes, Boston baked beans or red beans & rice.  Add a salad and some cooked & raw vegetables to make a meal.

Lentils

Lentils