Aiding the Digestion of Beans

I got some comments about asafoetida’s anti-flatulent properties, so I thought it would be useful to list other natural ways to increase the digestability of beans. 

 

First – and most important – is proper soaking.  We already know this, though, right?  I actually learned about this from my mom who does this every time she makes beans, and she probably learned it from my grandma who also did it.  I can’t say that my family is all about traditional food preparation, but this has always been a non-negotiable.  The quick soak isn’t, in my opinion, worthwhile, because a long soak (preferably 24 hours, at least 12) is gentler on the beans, preserves more nutrients, and gives the finished product the best texture.  In a pinch, I’d rather use canned beans (though not as economical and the lining of the can has BPA if they’re not Eden Organic brand).  I should probably get over this all-or-nothing mentality and just opt for the quick soak when it’s needed, though. J

 

In addition to asafoetida, there are other herbs that aid in the digestion of beans.  Some of the more common ones are savory, turmeric, and ginger.  Less common is epazote, which is used in southwestern cooking.  I’ve never used epazote, but my favorite vegetarian chef, Deborah Madison, is a big fan.  I finally found it at my local Whole Foods (after several months of searching!), but I haven’t had room in the food budget lately for a new herb.  Kombu (dried seaweed) is used as a digestive aid in Japanese cooking, but I’ve never tried that, either.  Perhaps with some adzuki beans, though?

 

Fermenting the beans with some vinegar, lemon juice, or whey also helps break down some of the gas-producing sugars.  Even better, letting them sprout will increase their nutrition while further breaking down the complex sugars.  Not all beans are

 

I’ve heard people say that the more often you eat beans, the more your body becomes accustomed to them, thus reducing any indigestion that may occur.  I’m not sure how true this is, though, because Husband eats all the bean meals that I eat and still has trouble digesting them.  I don’t always add herbs that will neutralize that effect, and I usually have no problems.  So I guess we’re all just different?

 

 

How do you improve the digestability of your beans?

 

If you still haven’t found the right reason to hate HFCS…

I first saw it here, then here.  Just to make sure this was for real, I googled it and found it here.

 

Do we need any more convincing that high-fructose corn syrup should be avoided?

Black Bean Soup with Chard and Sweet Potatoes

 

We postponed date night until Friday, so my menu will be a bit off this week.  But it always is. J

 

I went ahead and made the black bean soup, since I knew the chard and sweet potatoes would get eaten for lunch if I waited too long.  I love the combination of the black beans, chard, and sweet potatoes – something I discovered by accident while combining leftovers – so I continue to plan my menus with this in mind.

 

These instructions are for a slow cooker, but this could be done on the stove with a dutch oven, as well.

 

Black Bean Soup with Chard and Sweet Potatoes

 

1 pound of dried black beans, rinsed and soaked 24 hours

2 quarts chicken bone broth (or enough to come 2 inches above beans)

3 pinches of asafoetida (scroll down through this post to see why)

Salt and pepper to taste

1-2 cups sautéed chard (leftovers – I made extra last night just for this)

1-2 cups roasted sweet potatoes (also leftover from last night)

 

1.     Place beans, broth, and asafoetida in slow cooker, cooking on high for three hours – or low for 7-8 hours – or until tender. 

2.     When beans are done, add salt and pepper to taste and the leftover chard and sweet potatoes.  Don’t worry about preheating the vegetables before adding to the pot – just stir them in and let them sit with the beans for a few minutes (with slow cooker still on) and they will warm up.

 

We ate the soup with gluten-free banana muffins. The muffins are based on this recipe, since it was the best one I could find using the Bob’s Red Mill GF All-Purpose Baking Mix and not calling for xanthan gum.  They were light and banana-y.  Much better than I expected, since I’m very new to baking — especially gluten-free baking!  I really wanted to make them with coconut flour, but I only had about a teaspoon of coconut oil and no other suitable substitute (we can’t use butter because of dairy allergies).  Maybe next week!

 

For more nourishing soups and stews, visit the Nourishing Gourmet.  For more gluten-free ideas, visit the Gluten-Free Real Food carnival at Cheeseslave.

Curried Chicken and Quinoa with Chard and Sweet Potatoes

 

This is easy week.  So if you’re looking for something elaborate, this is not it.  Very tasty, though, which is all that counts.  The prep was all done ahead whenever I found time, and putting it together was easy.  This is the basic timeline:

 

In the morning:

 

Soak three cups quinoa in almost twice as much water, plus add a swig of raw apple cider vinegar to help break down the saponins.  You could soak it overnight, but I wanted a sturdier grain with more of a couscous texture – unfortunately, I cooked it a little too long and it turned to mush anyway.  On the plus side, quinoa is a quick sprouter, so at least the nutrition is enhanced.

 

Slice chicken (I used boneless, skinless breasts, but any part would work well) and marinate in raw apple cider vinegar (still on the counter from earlier!), toasted sesame oil, and curry masala powder.  Store in the refrigerator until later.

 

About an hour before dinner:

 

Drain and rinse quinoa and put into a dutch oven with fresh water.  Bring to a boil, then let simmer until the water is absorbed, stirring periodically.  If you add too much water or cook it too long, it turns into mush (like mine did tonight!), but the leftovers can be eaten for breakfast.

 

Chop sweet potatoes into cubes and coat in olive oil.  Place in an even layer on cookie sheets.  Roast at 375 degrees until pleasantly browned.  I also cut a butternut squash in half and roasted it along with the sweet potatoes – this will probably end up being for my 1-year old.

 

Rinse chard well.  Because I want to puke anytime I taste a rogue grain of dirt, I like to give leafy things a quick rinse under the water in the sink, then submerse them in a bowl of water for ten minutes, then thoroughly rinse each leaf under the sink water again.  This is not as labor-intensive as it sounds, and it’s MUCH better than biting into dirt.

 

Cut chard into bite-sized pieces and spin in a salad spinner.  Sauté in a tablespoon of olive oil – I used this citrusy olive oil from my hometown –

 

 

with a clove or two of minced garlic and some sea salt.  This cooks quickly, so I just pulled it out after it wilted enough and cooked the chicken in the same pan.  The chicken also cooks quickly because I cut it into small pieces.

This might seem like a lot of steps, but I cooked large batches of everything but the chicken.  I will use the extra sweet potatoes and chard in some black bean soup, and the quinoa will be tomorrow’s porridge.  If it had turned out better, it would’ve shown up at dinner again later in the week.  Oh well – it’s not a complete disaster!

Menu Plan Monday: January 26, 2009

You will notice the word leftover a lot – that’s because I’m planning on making larger amounts of certain things to ease my cooking load for the week.  It’s part of my recovery strategy!  Most of this is stuff that I just throw together, so I’ll detail it more later on this week.

 

Monday: Curried chicken and quinoa with sautéed chard and roasted sweet potatoes

 

Tuesday: My Spaghetti for kids, date night for adults (hopefully!)

 

Wednesday: Black bean soup with leftover chard and sweet potatoes

 

Thursday: Salmon, green beans (from freezer), rice or leftover quinoa

 

Friday: Millet, black bean, and mango salad

 

Saturday: Burgers and Brussels sprouts

 

Sunday: Butternut squash soup, Italian bread (if I get around to it!)

 

For more menu plans, visit Organizing Junkie.

Sustainable Saturday: Reusing Mesh Produce Bags

I’m not entirely sure that this is a feat of sustainability so much as MacGyvering, but I thought I’d share it anyway.  After all, I’ve got to keep up with my 2009 Sustainability Goals!

 

Earlier this week (Tuesday?  Wednesday? who knows), I toasted some bread in my toaster (which is actually a combination toaster and toaster oven) without realizing that I hadn’t cleaned the toaster oven tray the last time I used it.  It became apparent that this was the case, however, when I smelled smoke coming from the appliance and saw a large black spot on the tray.  The last thing I cooked in there had probably been oily, which explained the shape and texture of the black spot.  I put the tray in queue next to the sink, awaiting some future time for cleaning.  I knew it would have to be scrubbed, and there’s nothing I hate more than scrubbing.  Husband, thankfully, usually does all the scrubbing tasks around here.

 

Well, I’m thinking Husband didn’t attack this one because he couldn’t find a scrubber anywhere in the kitchen.  I hate wasting my precious grocery money on disposable items like scrubbing sponges when food keeps getting more expensive, plus I rarely ever need anything abrasive for kitchen cleaning – most stuff gets cleaned up pretty quickly.  The same bathroom scrubbers have been in use for quite awhile, and whenever my mom visits, she usually buys new ones because she hates using old ones.  Not that we’d use a used bathroom scrubber in the kitchen anyway.

 

So tonight, while cleaning up from our meal of burgers and roasted Brussels sprouts, I noticed this bag that the sprouts came in…

 

 

…which looks kind of like some of the scrubbers out there.  So I tried it on this

 

 

with some Biokleen Kitchen & Bath Soy Cream Cleaner that I bought for 75% off on Manager’s Special at Kroger (Ralph’s for the Cali people).  I scrubbed until I realized that I didn’t want to spend my children’s sleeping time doing mundane cleaning tasks (which, needless to say, was not for long), and made the tray look like this:

 

 

Not bad, considering that the tray never looks perfectly silvery – the reddish-colored gunk is the residual build-up that I can never fully remove, so the black is what’s left from earlier this week.  I think I’ll let it soak in more Biokleen and let Husband finish up tomorrow.

 

And as for the plastic mesh bag: it will be my kitchen scrubber until it becomes smelly or otherwise dies!

Sweet Potatoes Fried in Coconut Oil

I wish I had more in the way of fun recipes I tried this week, but I’ve been steeped in laziness.  I’m still sick, but that’s no excuse!  I’ve avoided going out to eat, though, so that’s good.  So far we’ve had tacos and the buckwheat pancake dinner, and I ate at a friend’s house on Wednesday.  So it’s been very low key.

 

For lunch today, in an effort to curb my sugar cravings, I fried up some sweet potatoes in coconut oil.  This was also to ingest some lauric acid, which is antimicrobial and is the main fatty acid in coconut oil.  Anyway, this was a shallow fry, as I’m not fond of many things being deep-fried – unless you’re making fish tacos, of course.  Then I want the cod beer-battered and deep-fried.  Speaking of which, I could totally go for three of those right now.  But back to the sweet potato fries…

 

There’s not much of a recipe here, but let me tell you how I did it.  I made enough to feed myself a large helping and to give a baby and two toddlers a small side helping, so this is about two small sweet potatoes’ worth.  Cut the potato into pieces of equal size (this helps them all cook at the same rate), and put into a medium-sized sauté pan with 3 (or more if you need it) tablespoons of melted coconut oil.  Fry until the pieces become pleasantly brown – not quite to the crispy point, because they crisp up more after you take them out and they cool – then transfer the pieces to a plate with a paper towel on top.  (If you’re more eco-friendly than I am, use a kitchen hand towel!  My main use for paper towels, though, is blotting items that have been fried.)  Blot out as much oil as you can, since an oily mouth feel is NEVER what you’re going for, and they’re ready to eat!

 

 

I think the coconut oil is a great complement to the flavor of the sweet potato, but you could add cinnamon and a little of your favorite natural sweetener if you wanted to.  If the sweetness is too much, a little sea salt tastes great, too.  I didn’t add anything extra, and the kids were delighted by the sweetness. 

 

If you prefer sweet potato fries from the oven, I talk about how I make them in this post.

Speaking of salads…

If you’re as much of a salad junkie as I am, check out this great LA Times piece on throwing together great salads.  There’s a video that goes with it, but you don’t have to watch it to get all the information.

I like how she mentions that salads don’t necessarily have to be based on greens — you can go the non-traditional route and use fruit, vegetables, pastas, grains, or legumes as a starting point.

Enjoy!

Another (Crappy) Health Update

I’m so sick of telling people that I’m sick.  Really, how many infections are normal in the course of a year?  My sinuses have always hated me, but it appears the tonsils have joined in.  I have a non-strep pus pocket on my tonsils for the second time in just over a month.  They say it will go away with a course of antibiotics, but I have my doubts.  The alternative is getting my tonsils removed, which isn’t much of an alternative.

 

Actually, I’m pretty sure I know why I get sick so often.  Even though I eat well for meals, I have an evil sweet tooth.  Sugar is a known immune suppressant and even considered by some to be a drug.  My biggest crutch is chocolate milk – something I’ve been writing off as semi-healthy (don’t laugh!) – since it can be made with real milk and homemade chocolate syrup.  This would be true if I had a glass, say, once a month, but I have anywhere between one and three glasses per day.  Now that I’ve uncloseted my addiction, it’s time to do something about it.

 

I cannot continue consuming sugar like this.  I’ve even tried switching things up by buying bars of dark chocolate, but I have no willpower, and I end up eating half the bar instead of the two bites I allow myself.  I don’t eat a lot of refined sugar, so switching to only unrefined sugar is not an option.  Sugar itself is the problem.

 

In addition to being prone to infection, I have a history of grand-mal seizures that are unrelated to epilepsy.  We haven’t figured out exactly what triggers them, but low blood sugar (from forgetting to eat) seems to be connected.  Often, I skip a meal because I’m busy, only to “make up for it” by drinking chocolate milk.

 

And how timely is this – Scott at Modern Forager posted this today about repairing years of damage your immune system.  The only thing I seem to be doing wrong is eating sugar!  Somehow I am not overweight, but that only makes my problem worse.  I think a lot of people think that as long as they’re not fat, then they’re healthy.  Weight is only one indicator of health, however, and can sometimes be very misleading.

 

There is not an easy solution for me.  I’ve been trying to cut back on the chocolate milk for some time, but I really do believe that sugar acts like a drug.  Luckily, I have no desire at the moment to consume sugar, but that can always change.  I think it would be beneficial for me to limit my grains, too, but I’ll explore that later.  For now, I just want to heal.

Healthy Food, Fast!

My go-to fast foods are really basic – they’re things I’ve enjoyed for most of my life and never get tired of, and I’m sure they’ll be on other people’s lists, as well.  Still, I’d love to expand my repertoire, so I’ll be looking around for new ideas!

 

 

1.     Bean and Cheese Burritos

 

For a good portion of my life, I ate one of these for lunch or dinner everyday.  I still eat them at least twice a week.  I guess that’s what happens when you’re from Southern California and spent much of your life as a vegetarian!  Of course they can be junk food if made with highly processed ingredients, but they can easily be nourishing when made with a high-quality cheese, properly soaked and home-cooked beans, and a tortilla with a short ingredient list (even better, make your own with sprouted grains – I just haven’t evolved that far yet!). 

 

I make at least one batch of some kind of bean every week, and we always have cheese and tortillas on hand, so this is a great fast food solution for us.  You can also add rice to the burritos – my dairy-allergic daughter eats them with just beans, rice, and salsa – which is easy to do if you make a large batch of rice once a week to use in other dishes.   That large batch of cooked rice will also come in handy for making a quick pilaf to accompany a meal or for fried rice – a few cups of cooked rice fried with two eggs, a tablespoon of coconut oil, and some sea salt is a simple, delicious, nourishing treat!

 

2.     Mediterranean Feast

I really heart hummus and tabbouleh, both of which are easy to make in large batches and use later for a quick meal.  I have my own basic hummus recipe, but I’ve been dying to sprout some chickpeas and make this raw hummus.  Or add some flax oil like Ms. Fallon does in Nourishing Traditions.  But I digress. 

 

As far as the tabbouleh, I have fallen into the rut of using a couscous salad recipe I got from a friend a few years ago.  I make a triple batch, and if I’m lucky, it lasts three days because I’m eating it every chance I get.  Give me some hummus, tabbouleh, some seasonal raw veggies, maybe a tortilla or some freshly baked bread, and I’m in heaven.  No thoughts of going out to eat for me!

 

3.     Quick Burgers

 

I’m such a kid at heart, because I could eat a burger every day.  Not that I do, but I think my proclivity toward anemia fuels my red meat cravings.  So here’s an easy solution: buy a few pounds of your favorite grass-fed ground meat, throw it in a bowl, and season it however you like you’re burgers seasoned.  Then form it into patties and freeze them, separating each burger with some wax or parchment paper.  When the craving arises, you can take out however many you need for the meal without having to go through all the above steps.  Of course, it also helps to have some good buns on hand, but I’ve noticed that better quality buns keep well in the freezer.  Better yet, make your own buns – this has been on my to-do list for awhile, and since we’re pretty confident with the bread recipe, this should be a logical extension!

 

4.     Salad Bar

 

I love ordering salads when I go out because of the sheer variety – but why not just keep a mental note of my favorite salad arrangements and try it at home?  This seems like a no-brainer, but somehow I’ve only gotten around to this in the last two years.  So I keep a variety of things on hand that will make my salads interesting and add some nutrition to my lettuce – beans, nuts, dried fruit, etc.  Dried cranberries and pecans, or fresh oranges and cashews, are two popular (and so yummy!) combinations.  Sunflower seeds are inexpensive and highly nutritious, so that would be a good option if you’re on a tight budget.  Wait, aren’t we all?

 

You could also hard boil some eggs to have on hand to add onto a green salad, make into egg salad, or just snack on whole.  Deviled eggs are a wonderful treat, too, but maybe just for me – I can’t live without my eggs!

 

I wish this list was longer – but at least I’ll get some great ideas from other bloggers.  Be sure to visit Kelly the Kitchen Kop to see what other people are doing when they’re tempted to grab some fast food!  I’ve also listed this at Rocks In My Dryer for Works-For-Me Wednesday, so check that out for some helpful tips!