Switching from canned to dried beans was one of the first things we did in our effort to reduce eating processed food. Most people do not really think of canned beans as processed food, but any item that has been cooked to death in large quantities and then mixed into a viscous high sodium liquid to increase shelf life is suspect in our opinion.
Besides once you have tasted dried beans you cook yourself, its hard to imagine going back to canned beans, the difference is taste is that distinct. Not to mention using dried beans is so simple to do, environmentally sound (no more cans!) and cost-effective. You’d pay $.75 to $1.75 range for a 15.5 oz can of beans, depending on the brand, organic/non-organic, etc. Compare that to buying a bag of dried beans by weight. We typically buy organic dried beans from the bulk bins at our co-op or at Whole Foods and the average cost is $.90 to a $1.00 per pound. It takes about half a cup of dried beans to make 15.5 oz of canned beans.
Like most other DIY food projects, using dried beans requires a bit of advanced planning. Typically we soak ours the night before the day we plan to cook with it. Ideally, I would suggest soaking them on a Saturday evening, cooking them on Sunday and using them just like you would your canned beans during the week. Just remember the beans you cook yourself are not in any gooey high sodium liquid to extend their shelf life indefinitely, so you have to make sure to use them within a day or two.
And how do you cook dried beans? Soak them overnight in water (3 cups for every cup of dried beans) and cook them in the same water to bean ratio. Make sure to add some salt to the water when cooking, just like you would for pasta. You will need to adjust the amount of salt you add to your dish accordingly. You know it is done when the beans are no longer crunchy. This could take half hour to an hour depending on the type of beans as well as the soaking time.
Once you have these infinitely better tasting beans ready, there is so much you could do with them. Take your pinto beans a step further and make refried beans, or try one of the bean burger recipes on Vino, or do your own thing. The possibilities are endless….
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), just that we are making an effort to practice the food ideas we consider to be important. Yet, we feel like there is so much more we could do to eat responsibly. Once you really start thinking about what you eat and why you eat the way you do, you start looking at food very differently.
The snow peas are a no show so far but we have been putting the sugar snap peas in salads or stir fries or just eating them plain cause they are so delicious.
I have been busy with work and with travel and have had little time to tend to it. All that will change come 2011. I am still not sure what I want to grow at home but I have decided to not be too ambitious. I have to accept that we have limited space and there is only so much you can grow in a 28.9 X 19.7 X 16.5 inch container. Here are some photographs from the garden this season. More about how things turned out some time early next year.
