Easy Bean Ideas – Nutrition Nuggets 51
We’ve all heard the saying….”Beans, beans….they’re good for your heart…” but, many people don’t know how to cook with beans and what kind of recipes to make.
With so many Mediterranean cultures enjoying bean dishes, and the variety of different legumes, pulses, lentils and beans that are available in all sorts of forms, there are delicious bean dishes for everyone.
We challenge you to ‘show us your beans’ (and we’ll show you ours!)😉
Visit our Facebook page and share the way you use beans in your weekly meals. Look for our post featuring Rob’s delicious gigantes recipe.
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Dietician tocom as well as our social media Pages we’re on Facebook Instagram and YouTube enjoy the show it’s Robin Sandra from my wife the dietician and this is nutrition nuggets nutrition nuggets beans beans they’re good for your heart we got to talk about bean dishes today yes we do for a couple
Reasons um one uh they’re good for you and two a lot of people don’t really know uh how to cook with beans a lot of people that is like my number one question people ask me like cuz I’m always talking about well do you have like meatless Mondays or do you include
Beans anywhere in your week not really sometimes we have chili maybe once a month or maybe you know I might have taco salad when I go out to eat but anyways this is a good one because so many people would like an idea of how to
Use beans more and why should we use beans beans are good for your heart right they have fiber they have protein they’re plant protein you got it they’re plant-based protein like it’s an alternative to meat yeah they’re so easy to make oh they’re so easy like so easy
So don’t eat raw beans like so you can buy them in the dry goods or like the bulk or get them in a bag that are dried and then you have to soak them and cook them and like boil and rinse or you can get them canned and they’re not raw if
They’re in a can is that what you mean by raw beans the raw beans are the ones that are like Harden in a bag that you need to cook exactly the ones in a can are already cooked you just have to heat them yeah and we’re talking about beans
Legumes lentils pulses those are all different terms for legumes and we know that they fit into the Mind diet which is the diet that’s a mix of the Mediterranean and DASH diet so dietary approaches to stop hypertension is Dash and the Mediterranean you know all those different areas like Italy uh Greece
Spain Northern Africa morocc France yeah all all the countries around the Mediterranean this is kind of a diet that is very common in a lot of those countries yeah and it’s like a lifestyle really and so that’s the whole thing is the Mind diet is the one that we spoke
About I think it was episode 14 somewhere back there yeah it’s a really important one because if you start using the principles of the Mind diet when you’re younger you can actually help to reduce your risk of developing dementia which seems to be growing in our generation with older people so beans is
A big part of it and we talked about it with Michelle sari in last week uh when we talked about aging well in the blue zones and Longevity and that’s one of the common factors in all the different areas in the blue zones around the world is
Eating beans of like three four times a week and if you haven’t seen that documentary I know we’ve mentioned this before I think I have awesome documentary it’s called the Blue zones and it’s a three or four-part documentary we watched it on Netflix I’m sure it’s you could probably find it on
YouTube or somewhere else but uh it was released a while ago so it’s out there but really really interesting information on healthy eating healthy life and and What factors contribute to that and that’s where we’re getting some of this information from anyway about the Mediterranean diet because that was
Sort of one of the results of of this study was that the Mediterranean diet and some elements of the Mediterranean diet were really a big factor in these people’s ability to to live into their hundreds yeah in good health that’s right yeah that was the neat thing
Mediterranean is part one part area of the blue zones like there was a place in Greece and Sardinia like cre um I ious in Greece yeah and Sardinia and Italy but there’s other places around the world like um okanawa Japan and lominda and California so there’s little pockets
And areas around the world where they’ve studied and they’ve they looked at why people are living longer in good health and we’ll do another whole episode on this but today we’re talking about beans and the fact that they’re so undervalued and actually good value when you go to the grocery
Store they’re so inexpensive yeah they really are I didn’t really eat a lot of beans until well recently I think I just I’m like yeah why aren’t we including them and it’s and the big reason is like I don’t know what to do with them yeah
But now I do and yeah it’s just so easy so what do you do with them well I we’ve always got a can of some sort of bean like there’s lots of different kind there’s black beans which we really like and um are quite good for you there’s
White kidney beans red kidney beans there’s chickpeas which are also called garbanzo beans I think um we’ve got lentils Great Northern beans yeah there’s there’s all sorts of different beans you can you can buy like the bean salad too that’s ready to go but as far
As cooking yeah I just I have a can of beans in I I buy one every time I go shopping it’s one of the Staples and they’re just so easy to open and add to whatever you’re making like uh past a sauce or a a um uh some sort of chili or
Any kind of thing that you know they go with everything so yeah Taco Sal I make lentil soup most weeks so there’s always a lentil soup um in the fridge to eat for lunch or dinner and then chili is good and black bean burritos black bean brownies um Pinto like refried beans
There’s so many ways to eat beans and so many cultures have beans as their staple like you think rice and beans yeah exactly I was just at my parents uh over the weekend and they had asked sort of how we use beans because I was saying
You guys should you know you need to eat more beans and they’re like well we don’t know what to do with them and and so I’m like okay I’m going to show you a meal that I make I started making recently uh that’s really easy it’s
Called gigantes which is a it’s a Greek dish that uses Gigante beans I guess uh which are harder to find so you don’t have to use Gigante no no you don’t have to uh butter beans I think is another one you can use you just want a really
Large bean the lima beans yeah that’s another one I use white kidney beans CU that’s just kind of what was available in the store when I bought them and what kind did you make when you made it a couple weeks ago at home it was so good
Dish yeah white kidney beans it look it was like a lasagna but with beans yeah it’s so like explain it it’s so good it’s so easy so my dad and I went to the store and I just said I’m like just come with me and I’ll show you because this
Is stuff I buy every time I go to the store because it’s really easy they’re good they’re good Staples to have on hand cuz you can do so much with them so we bought a can of white kidney beans I bought a can of sliced mushrooms just just because they’re cheap and they’re
Easy to add to stuff and it saves you from having to cut up mushrooms and fresh fresh is always good but these are just easy if you want a quick easy meal can of mushrooms to have on hand inexpensive too and inexpensive exactly um can of Stew tomatoes with uh the
Herbs and spices I like that one because it adds a bit of extra flavor and you can get low sodium canned tomatoes too for people if that’s an issue exactly so we got a can of be can of mushrooms can of stewed tomatoes uh what else did I
Put in there onions garlic oh yeah I bought a bag of frozen vegetables that had like a bag of diced cuz it’s really small they’re not big huge chunks of vegetables I like the little diced ones for this so it had onions Peppers celery and carrots in it I think so yeah you
Just you just put some oil in the pan you throw in your vegetables let them kind of warm up a bit and then you just start dumping your cans of stuff in and spices yeah and spice it however you like smok ppra yeah we like that one but
How whatever you like for your spices Italian spices would probably be good you know your oregano and and uh parsley and and those types of spices would be good in there and then you just heat it up and then you actually you bake it for
A little while as well I throw it in a lasagna tray and we bake it just it dries it out a little bit which is uh kind of what you want cuz it’s a bit soupy from the from the canned tomatoes so you you just yeah we you can throw
Some feta cheese on it too which is really good oh yeah that was the oh I love that contrast like the salty flavor and the creaminess yeah exactly and it all kind of melts in and everything and yeah and it’s just easy and you pull it
Out and then when you serve it you put olive oil on it and that is like the Finishing Touch it’s like the cherry on top it’s I forgot it until I was on my third bite and I’m like oh I forgot the olive oil and what a difference it was so good and
There’s just so much in it you’ve got your veggies you’ve got your your beans which is like your protein and your fiber and yeah it’s just and is rice or any kind of grain so that’s the thing I said to my parents cuz they have a ton
Left over and I said so you can make another meal out of this you could add it on top of rice you could put it quinoa yeah right any kind of grain you know past past or anything yeah and or you could just sort of turn it into a a different kind
Of sauce you know that’s awesome yeah and it’s it was just so easy to make and I always talk about my chili as well and that’s exactly the same way I make my chili except I add the the um we use the eaves just like ground it’s a a a soy
Based ground beef basically it’s like a ground beef it’s like um textured vegetable protein yeah TVP but but I can’t I like it way better than that stuff I always found that stuff you could tell it wasn’t real but the the um just like ground that we use is so good
It’s very realistic as far as the the the texture and feel of it you know compared to ground beef and so that’s my chili and then a little spice packet and talk about like easy like it’s an easy meal to make oh it took us like 5
Minutes to make it and then we just waited for it to kind of heat up five minutes minutes that’s even that’s faster than the hello fresh meals yeah cuz they’re they’re about 20 minutes I mean you just had to open cans I mean how long does it take you to open a can
I mean that’s that’s how long it takes you to make the meal and it’s you know the longer that you leave it to sort of simmer the better it’s going to be but really as far as I mean you don’t have to be there for that part you know you
Can go and have a shower or do whatever you got to do while your your thing’s simmering yeah absolutely the prep part is super fast yeah and that that’s a fast way like if people want to use fresh vegetables and cut them up and add their own you know the fresh that’s
Another option or you can do a combination of frozen vegetables and like fresh garlic and fresh onions oh yeah garlic I put Garlic in it too okay that’s a necessity oh yeah absolutely that’s a necessity and everything yeah oh wow sounds delicious another one yeah but yeah that’s that’s one you can play
Around with too I mean you know you could throw some spinach in it you could throw some frozen corn in it you know there’s a there’s a whole bunch of different things that would work oh yeah corn right or canned corn yeah cuz it’s like you said it’s kind of like a
Especially with the cheese on it it ends up coming out of the oven looking like a lasagna because of the sort of tomatoey color it’s it’s red you know and well it’s color it’s like a color of the rainbow which is really good cuz that’s what we promote is eating a variety of
Different plant foods like the vegetables and the beans and it’s so delicious too especially with all the different herbs and spices you put in there and the onions and onion and garlic and oh yeah it smells so good when you’re cooking it and yeah it was
So delicious yep that’s a good one so uh that’s one easy one but there’s so many more and I just I just sort of looked that up on the Internet I’d heard about it and I thought I’m just going to figure out how to make that cuz it looks pretty good and
I looked it up I’m like oh this is so easy you know so there’s there’s other bean recipes there too that that you can look on the internet get an idea and then just play around and you know like we always say experiment don’t be afraid to just try something and see what
Happens and yeah and I remember on remember we interviewed Scott fierson vegan Runners MH vegan for runners that’s right and there’s an article on the blog and he’s there’s a couple recipes he he eats like 120 gram of protein from plantbased sources every day and a lot of his intake are beans
Yeah so uh and nuts and seeds but yeah beans there’s a lot of ways you can use beans to have delicious meals absolutely so yeah we’re going to post a a little questionnaire on Facebook on our Facebook page we want to hear what your bean recipes are and we’ll maybe share
Our Gigante recipe on there with a picture of it and then uh yeah shoot us a comment let us know what you like to eat what your favorite recipes are maybe uh a picture if you have one that’ be kind of fun we can have a a bean uh a
Bean dish contest yeah I should mention some people have reservations or issues with beans because of the gas and you can buy things like Beano an enzyme that will help reduce it’ll help your body break down the fermentable sugars that are causing that gas but as you start to
Get used to as your body gets used to eating beans then it will naturally help with uh reducing that issue but I just wanted to mention that and you know eating more beans if you do this regularly it really reduces your risk for so many chronic diseases that’s why
They’re a big part of the blue zones and the mind diet they’re plant-based protein they add soluble fiber give bulk to the stool so they have more regular bowel movements there’s so many good things about beans so I really encourage people to start to experiment and take Rob’s advice and try those gigantes
They’re so delicious absolutely you were going to say something about lectin too weren’t you oh yeah don’t eat raw beans because that’s uh they have lectin and if you cook them or if they’re canned beans then the lectins are broken down so that’s not not an issue yeah cuz I
Think there’s a lot of people who don’t eat beans because they you know they’ve heard oh don’t eat beans there’s lectins and lectins are bad and so beans are bad but that’s only with people that eat raw beans which I don’t think anyone eats raw beans I’m hoping that’s a food
Safety issue there you go awesome well hopefully that was helpful like I said check out our Facebook page we’ll we’ll post a a little picture of a recipe on there and and you can have a look at that and see if it’s something you want
To try and let us know what you’ve got go in with your beans there and let us let us see a picture of what you made and leave a comment all that sort of stuff yeah and two of the main take-home message foods that Amanda archal mentioned on the genomic Kitchen on a
Recent episode were lentils and chickpeas they’re garbanzo beIN they’re just loaded with nutrition and those are also beans and legumes and pulses that add to um good health for your eating eating plan and you know what you can make with chickpeas hummus hummus exactly that’s that’s another super easy
Uh thing to whip up if you have a food processor or blender it’s uh we’ll maybe post quick recipe for that too cuz it’s that’s easy we do it all the time and yeah easy and the combination with the sesame seed the Tahini paste is uh those that combination of chickpeas and sesame
Seeds is a just double whammy of nutrition yeah huge huge benefits it’s speaks to your jeans and it’s good for you right on so we’ve got something new we’ve uh We’ve mentioned this a couple times now but we’ve got a newsletter that we’re starting to put out and if
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Too you can do that on most of the different platforms social media and all the podcast platforms have a a way to rate and review uh the show you’ve listened to so that’s super helpful as well if you’re interested in doing that so that’s it for this week I hope you’re
All going to go out and buy some beans and start experimenting in your kitchen with with some different bean recipes and we want to hear about it so be sure to visit our Facebook page and we’ll we’ll all compare beans uh bean recipes bean dishes exactly we will be back next
Monday with a full episode episode so have a great week everyone thanks Rob thanks for joining us today on my wife The dietitian if you like what you heard don’t be shy leave us a comment or review and be sure to share our podcast with your friends if you’d like to hear more hit that subscribe button you can
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