Back to Basics Cooking

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by Jill Nussinow, MS, RD, The Veggie Queen™

Trying times call for good food. If the economy’s got you down, here’s an easy way to do double duty – cook beans at home. Forget the cans, and make them from dry. Yes, they come dry in packages at the supermarket, or even better in bulk at the natural food store. If you want to upscale your purchases, buy heirloom beans from http://www.timelessfood.com/, www.ranchogordo.com or www.indianharvest.com. However, you’ll do just fine with the $1 per pound kind, too.

I prefer cooking beans in the pressure cooker because it’s fast and easy. But you can also use the crock pot or a pot on the stove. In any case, I like to presoak the beans by doing a quick soak:

Put 3 inches of water above the beans, bring to a boil for 1 minute. Turn off heat, let sit for 1 hour and drain. Then proceed with cooking.

In the pressure cooker, I use ½ cup water for each cup of beans. On the stovetop or in the crock-pot, be sure to cover the beans with liquid, or they will not thoroughly cook.

If you are pressed for time, make lentils or split peas, which don’t require presoaking and are ready in 45 minutes or less.  Older beans (and it’s hard to know what you’ve bought) take longer to cook which is why I suggest buying them from a store with good turnover. In addition, adding salt, tomatoes or other acidic-foods to beans tends to make them tough.

Legumes are packed with fiber, B vitamins, iron and other important nutrients.  If you can boil water, you can cook them. They absorb flavors well, which makes seasoning them easy. Use Indian, Mexican, Thai, Greek or your favorite herb and spice blends, or just cook them plain. Make extra when you bother so that you can stash some in the freezer for when you don’t have time to cook.

Say goodbye to the sodium-laced beans in cans, and save money, too. It’s part of going back to basics. Next up, it’s grains.

Easy Peasy  Brown Lentils

Makes 4 servings

These are plain but you can add seasonings to the cooking water if you like, just do not add salt until after they are cooked. If you use French Green lentils, aka lentils du puy, they cook even more quickly. 

2 cups lentils

Water to cover by a few inches

Salt to taste, after cooking

 Spread lentils out and pick through them to remove any rocks or dirt. (A step you always do with beans but even more important with lentils.) Rinse them and then add them to a saucepan.

Cover with water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and simmer, making sure that the water covers the lentils, for 35 minutes. Check to see if lentils are done. They should be easy to smash between your fingers. If not, keep simmering them, checking back every 5 minutes. When cooked through, turn them into chili, dip, stew, soup or your favorite lentil dish. Freeze in 2 cups increments and use later. 

Jill Nussinow, The Veggie Queen™, http://theveggiequeen.com/ and www.pressurecookingonline.com keeps extra beans in the freezer at all times. Beyond lentils you can often find her favorites: garbanzo, cannellini, appaloosa and mayacoba beans stashed.