Those of you who know me, know that I am pretty competitive!! My husband often talks about the time he did the SNAP challenge (while I was visiting family with the kids) and how beans are impossible to cook...blah blah blah. You can read about his failure with beans here!
This week I found a bag of red beans and a bag of lentils in the cupboard and I decided I would follow the instructions on the packet and cook them for dinner. J was very smug and was certain that I would fail!!
Newsflash...The instructions are on the packet for a reason!
There were 4 easy steps listed on the package for quick cooking;
- Boil the beans for 2 minutes
- Add 1 teaspoon of salt for every cup of beans
- Cover them and soak for an hour
- Cook on low for 2 hours
I followed these 4 simple steps (and added the lentils for the last hour as that packet suggested) and everything was cooked to perfection! No internet browsing or crowdsourcing needed! Sometimes you just need to read and follow the instructions given! Haha.
J was actually super impressed and I was a little surprised at how easy it was.
The only downside to my obvious win, was that we had enough beans for a week!! I had to get creative with our recipes, if you need inspiration here is what we had this week!
Taco Soup
Beans and Rice with Polish Kielbasa Sausages
Lentil and Bean Burgers
Chilli
I used a little leftover Chilli to make Chilli Cheese Dogs
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Bean Burgers inside
We have enough lentils and red beans for one more meal, so if you have a good suggestion please share below.
I'm a direction fighter. I can't cook from recipes - too straight forward. Too predictable. Too...successful. ;)
Haha I usually wing it when I cook too, but I had never made red beans before and wondered if whether J had followed the recipe his beans would have worked!
I love cooking with..and eating..dried beans and lentils. All your ideas look great! Just wondering what else you added to the burgers to hold their shape. I've even started growing my own beans to dry. So easy.
I used breadcrumbs, an egg and some herbs for flavour. The burgers actually had a nice consistency after cooking, I'm normally prettt scepticak about non mest burgers!
I look forward to reading about your beans when they are dried and ready.
This is cool - you have some great ideas to use with the beans that you made.
I used to have a cookbook with a recipe for lentil loaf (like meatloaf but using lentils instead of ground beef). It was mashed beans, onions, peppers, celery, and seasonings, with a flax egg and rolled oats to bind it together, and topped with tomato sauce, baked in the oven for about 45 minutes to an hour. You probably can google this and find the recipe.
I really like this idea. It is so different from all the other recipes I found (which mostly involved rice!) I have some carrots in the fridge and can pick up some broccoli to serve with it too :) Thank you