what does the health nut zombie desire? GRAAAAAAAINS...

[tiedyedave]

As part of learning to be a vegan, I have been improving my basic cooking skills. As part of improving those skills, I have been investigating staple dry goods as a starting point: grains, legumes, and the like.

My conclusions so far:

Rolled oats are victorious.
Brown rice is satisfactory (the trick: turn the heat way down).
Black beans and pinto beans are full of fail.

Not that beans aren't tasty, and in a sense they are very easy to prepare. But soaking for 8 hours and then cooking for 2 more is far too methodical for my compulsion-based cooking and scheduling habits. I max out at an hour, which is about what brown rice takes, since that's about the time interval required to lazily prepare the accompanying components of a dish.

So oats, rice, lentils, and possibly amaranth have a place in my culinary future. But from here on out, my beans will be canned.

Comments

[etotheipi.livejournal.com]

I have the same bean problem. I have tons of dry beans, but I never eat them because I am not organized enough.

[redglasses.livejournal.com]

Canned beans are just beans that someone else has soaked for you.

Someone would probably make the case that soaking the beans yourself means fresher beans, but I would make the case that they're not enough fresher for me to care.

[pa3be.livejournal.com]

try buckwheat (that's really all I have to add)

It is a Lent that never ends...

[ikarpov.livejournal.com]

http://www.russianfoods.com/recipes/group00029/default.asp

[sleepsong.livejournal.com]

1. There are many varieties of lentil (French, green, brown... I'm sure there's more than that, too) and many ways of cooking them, so it takes a while to get bored of them.

2. Fresh beans (green beans, wax beans, snap peas, mung beans, chickpeas, broad beans, runner beans, butter beans, lima beans, etc) and frozen beans are your friends.

3. Barley. Barley is a wonderful thing. Especially if you like making bread and have a good source of barley flour (mm, East End Food Co-op).

4. Have you tried making polenta yet? It can be a little finicky, but well worth it. It's very tasty when cooked with low-salt broth and red bell peppers.

5. Hi. How are you?

Slow cooker?

[azzil.livejournal.com]

Eh, the only dried legumes I end up using are for indian cooking, and then only daal. typically split daal, they cook more quickly.
If you want to get rid of your beans you could probably give them to a soup kitchen or invest in a slow cooker?

PS You should make sorbet.

[annecognito.livejournal.com]

Ten words, including the ones before the colon: pressure cooker.

Makes all the difference with beans.