The Magical Fruit–Busting The Holiday Calorie Blues
Does your body need a break from the calorie and fat-laden goodies that prevail this time of year? Want to re-acquiant yourself with your food storage? Want to lower your cholesterol? If you answered yes to any of these questions, follow along boys and girls as we travel the road laden with all sorts of goodness thanks to the wonders of legumes!
Yes, the lowly bean and/or pea is a great source of cholesterol-busting goodness that will provide not only a healthy break from the cookies, candies and calorie loaded buffets of the Holiday Season (or that time of year when the average person gains 5 pounds), but a low-cost, easy to prepare and quick to reheat meal for hurried evenings. And you can pretty much ignore the little beauties as they cook! What could be better?
Beans are an integral part of any food storage plan. They are inexpensive (though rapidly rising in cost so get them now) and if stored carefully, can last nearly forever. As they age, they will require a longer soaking or cooking time, but retain much of their nutritional value. Though many people avoid these lowly members of the food pyramid due to ignorance or intestinal issues, your body will quickly adapt to these high fiber honeys and thank you later with better health.
What sorts of beans should you store? Any and all that you like! If you say you don’t like beans, you probably haven’t eaten many varieties or eaten them when carefully and creatively prepared. Some of the least expensive and easiest to work with include pintos, black beans, red kidney beans, navy beans, great northern beans, split peas, and small red beans. Canned beans are good additions to salads while dry beans are a ’staple’ of any healthy food storage program. Remember, too, that you can ‘hide’ beans in many other foods. A cooked, mashed bean can be added to breads, cakes, cookies or used as a thickening for other soups or stews. Dry beans can be ground into a flour and added to all of the items listed above.There are even recipes for pinto bean fudge.
For a fast holiday season dinner and/or lunch, try your hand at making a hearty bean soup. You can find thousands of recipes online, including some which are pureed. Pureed soups are a good introduction for a bean-phobic family; they needn’t know what the soup is made of!!!
As I am a bit of an ‘improvisational’ cook, this recipe is open to a great deal of interpretation by you. The important steps are outlined carefully and you can take it from there!
Basic Bean Soup–or Get Creative Bean Bonanza
Ingredients:
1 lb dry beans (try any variety or for best results, mix your beans up!)
about 5 to 8 cups of stock (chicken, beef or veggie depending on your preference and end product desire. The higher your proportion of stock to water as the beans cook, the richer your soup will taste. Use low-fat or fat-free stock for healthiest results)
about 10 cups of water
1 onion chopped
1 can chopped tomato (or chop up one in your frig..substitute a can of tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, tomato paste, salsa, V-8 juice–anything you have that you want the soup to taste like)
Seasonings: (here is where the fun comes in) I like to utilize some or all of the following:
salt, pepper, ground red chili powder, dark chili powder, curry powder, garlic powder, onion powder, bay leaves, Italian seasonings, chopped celery, chopped carrots and cumin
Chopped meat such as browned hamburger, sausage, ham, chicken, pork, etc. This is a great way to use up leftovers or meat that was a bit tougher than you had hoped for.
1. For dry beans, soak overnight in a large pan completely. Water should be 3 times as high as the beans in the pan.
2. Drain water in which beans soaked. Add water to twice the height of the now swollen beans and bring to a boil.
3. Add 1 tablspn of baking soda when the water boils. This will FROTH up so be prepared!
4. Add stock, chopped onion, spices and tomato products. If you wish, add any meat that you are using. Some ‘tender’ meats should be reserved until an hour or two before serving or they will completely fall apart. Falling apart is okay, too.
5. If you need to go away for the day, put everything into a crockpot at this point and leave on high. If you don’t want your house to smell like beans, put the crockpot in the garage and let the neighbors enjoy the aroma!
6. An hour or two before you want to serve your soup, taste it. Add any vegetables you desire. Adjust seasonings, add meat, more stock or anything else you think it needs. For a heartier flavor to a ‘tomato-y’ soup, blend one can of whole tomato and one large onion until pureed in the blender. Add to the soup and continue to simmer for one hour.
7. 30 minutes before serving, taste again. Adjust seasoning as needed.
8. Serve with a big salad and your choice of wholewheat bread, cornbread or rice.
Note: Remember that this is YOUR soup! Add whatever flavorings and meats you enjoy. If you want an Italian Wedding Soup, simply use white beans, chicken stock, more Italian seasoning and cooked Italian sausage. For chili, use kidney beans, hamburger, more tomato and lots of chili powder. If you start cooking the beans and can’t finish the soup that day, simply turn to low on the crockpot. Add water as needed and continue to cook.
You can also begin by adding beans to your own vegetable or chicken soup. If your family is bean novices, add beans slowly to the diet and allow their systems to acclimate.
Store leftovers and reheat one serving at a time!
