Bike Forums - Beans are Nutritious?

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Quote:

Originally Posted by late (Post 8694995)

If you get cumin seed and grind it fresh, it tastes a lot better.

And if you gently toast the seeds in a dry fry pan before grinding, they'll taste that much better. Actually, most spices benefit from this treatment- something an Indian friend taught me...

Quote:

Originally Posted by satbuilder (Post 8694947)

Here are a couple recipes for beans. The first is relatively cheap and nutritious. The second is a little more time consuming but worth it.

Basic Beans.

1 lb beans, soak overnight with 1 TBS salt (keeps the beans intact)
(my personal favorite is cranberry beans).

Drain and wash off with lots of fresh water before cooking.

Ham hock, bacon, cheap hunk of sausage or some other smoky piece of meat.

1 onion, chopped, maybe 2
1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes with green chilies, maybe 2 cans
5-6 (or more) cloves garlic
Couple boullion cubes

Cover beans, ham hock (or whatever ) with water, add everything else in pressure cooker and let her rip for 20 minutes at 15 pounds.

Serve with cornbread.

Second recipe is my modified version of minestrone. This recipe came out great.

1 cup dried cranberry beans
1 cup dried garbanzo beans
1 cup dried cannellini beans

Soak overnight, change water, over with water and cook for 1-1 ½ hrs until tender

2 slices pancetta, about 3/8 inch thick, diced

3 stalks celery, diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 8 oz package button mushrooms, stems removed, sliced
Small handful porcini mushrooms, soaked, soaking liquid reserved

Two tbs good olive oil in a stockpot along with 1 ½ tbs butter. Saute pancetta, then vegetable mixture until onions are soft, about 10 min

Add 3 quarts chicken stock. I used Swanson 99% fat free.

1 bunch Swiss Chard, de-stemmed, rough chopped
2 Zucchini, quartered and sliced into small chunks
1 red bell pepper, chopped
3 leeks, rinsed and sliced into ½” pieces
1 potato, peeled and cubed
1 28 oz can tomatoes, roughly chopped, juice included
1 tsp pepper flakes
1 Knorr chicken bullion cube
1 Knorr beef bullion cube
1 sprig rosemary or to taste
3 sprigs thyme or to taste

Add to pot

Add 1 small can tomato paste

Add beans and cooking liquid (liquid should be thickened)

Salt and pepper to taste

Add 1 box small shells shortly before serving. Adjust consistency of broth as needed.

Makes a lot.

Okay, I bought Ham Hocks yesterday afternoon, Made Pork & Beans!

I used my own recipe though, but thanks for the Ham Hock suggestion.

One thing to keep in mind with beans is that acidic components like tomatoes should be added toward the end of cooking because if you put acids in early the beans may not soften up. Don't know if that holds true if you're using a pressure cooker.

I've also heard it said that adding salt early will prevent the beans from softening, but that's a myth. Salting beans early is fine.

I'm not sure I agree with salted beans not softening a myth. I've had problems if I add salt to beans while cooking. Maybe it depends on the bean, I don't know.

The salt in the pressure cooked version seems to keep the beans together, but it's only used during the soaking stage, and the beans are thoroughly washed before cooking . Pressure cooking soaked beans sometimes turns them to mush. This seems to prevent that. Cooking time and of course the type of bean you're using also has an effect.

The Ro-Tel tomatoes used in the recipe I posted don't seem to have a hardening effect on the beans. Probably because they don't cook but for 20 minutes.