To Bean Or Not To Bean? (plus an Easy Recipe for 16 Bean Soup)
Dried beans can be a budget friendly source of nutrients, fiber, complex carbohydrates and resistant starch.
That said - Some of us are just better off without beans and legumes in our menus. Humans do not “need” to eat beans to be healthy. You can find cultures all around the world where vibrant health prevails, without beans and legumes as a part of the traditional diet.
If you have unexplained allergy symptoms, IBS, or an autoimmune condition, you might be better off avoiding beans for an extended period of time to give your gut a break.
Beans and legumes contain “anti-nutrients” such as phytates, oxalates, protease inhibitors and lectins. These are protective elements in the plants to help prevent them from being eaten by other organisms, and they can cause problems for our bodies. Lectins stimulate an inflammatory immune response in the body when ingested, which explains why people with autimmune conditions frequently feel better when they avoid them.
Some people avoid beans simply because they’re high in carbs. If you’re having trouble releasing excess weight, you might find that avoiding beans can be a helpful change to your diet, not so much because of the carbohydrate content, but because they can cause infllammatory responses in the body leading to bloating and puffiness from “water weight”. Some just don’t want to deal with the digestive effects (aka “wind”) of eating beans and legumes.
But when they’re good, they’re sooo good…
So, if you’re generally healthy and want to try adding more beans and legumes to your diet, try using the more traditional preparation methods that have been handed down through the generations from our ancestors.
Did you know that properly soaked beans can take as little as an hour to cook on the stove, and even less if you’re into pressure cooking. And did you know that pressure cooking can also deactivate the lectins in beans? Hello, all you insta-pot lovers! Me? I’m old school, I really enjoy slow simmering a pot of beans in my enameled cast iron dutch oven on my stovetop.
Did you know that beans have a lower glycemic index than brown rice or rolled oats? Excellent news for weight management, healthy blood glucose levels and diabetes management.
Did you know that soaking dried beans overnight (or spouting them), discarding the soaking water and cooking with new water (and even making the water a little more alkaline with the addition of a bit of baking soda) dramatically deactivates anti-nutrient properties found in beans and in many foods throughout the plant kingdom?
NOTE: If you’re following a low oxalate diet to help prevent the formation of the calcium oxalate type of kidney stones, talk to your kidney expert to discuss the possibility of including green and yellow spilt peas as well as black eyed peas in your menus, as they contain low amounts of total oxalates compared to other beans and pulses.
Did you know that taking digestive enzymes can help with the windy effects of eating beans?
And that adding culinary spices and herbs like cumin seed, fennel seed, ginger, asafoetida (hing), mustard greens or epazote can help increase digestibility?
Or that a little square of kombu seaweed in your pot of beans can help break down the indigestible plant sugars that cause gassy intestinal reactions?
And that skimming the white foam on top of the water as they simmer also helps?
And that with regular consumption of properly prepared dried beans you may actually experience less windy days as your gut flora adjusts to the additional fibers and starches you’re now feeding them?
If you like beans, and you feel good when you eat them, there are many ways to enjoy them as part of your healthy diet. You might want to teach your children a few traditionally prepared bean recipes too, before they grow up and move out on their own.
Try having beans as your complex carbs instead of whole grains. Salmon and roasted asparagus on a bed savory lentils, grilled chicken with a side of black beans and a simple salad, broiled lamb chops with slow cooked white beans and escarole… are you feeling it? How about a cup of bean soup with a slice of traditional sourdough bread and good smear of butter? Split pea soup, three bean chili, chickpea minestrone, red lentil curry, or pictured here - the humble 16 bean soup mix - soaked, rinsed and ready to slow simmer. You’ll find the recipe below.
16 Bean Soup Recipe
This is the kind of recipe you make when you have a few hours to be at home. You can let it simmer while you do some housework, read a book, bake a cake, or call that friend you’ve been wanting to catch up with.
Alternatively, use a pressure cooker or your InstaPot for a quicker finished dish.
Ingredients
1 16oz package mixed dry beans for soup
1 small onion - diced
1 medium carrot - diced
1 large stalk celery - diced
2 garlic cloves - minced
1-2 tablespoons olive oil, or rendered fat
1 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)
1 large bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon ground fennel seed
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
salt & pepper to taste
optional - 2-4 cups chopped leafy greens (escarole, kale, collards, mustard greens)
Instructions
Sort through your beans to find any small stones or debris that may have snuck past in the packaging process. I like to place them at one end of a rimmed cookie sheet and quickly use my fingers to move them in small amounts across the pan. The occasional small stone, stem or old wrinkled bean is easy to spot and discard.
Place dry beans in a large bowl or pot and cover with lots of cool water, allowing space for beans to swell as they soak. Allow beans to soak overnight at room temp, a minimum of 8 hours.
Drain and rinse beans in a colander.
Place soaked and rinsed beans in a heavy bottomed stock pot. Add enough cool water to come up 2 inches higher than the level of beans.
Add the bay leaf.
Bring pot to a rolling boil, reduce heat to medium low and let bean mixture simmer until the largest and/or firmest of the beans is very tender. Skim and discard any foam that appears off the top of the water as they begin to boil. Once well skimmed and simmering nicely I like to cover the pot and check back every 30 minutes or so to give it a stir and check liquid levels. I allow 2 hours minimum for a nice slow simmer, with just enough liquid to create a thick and hearty finished soup. Usually I don’t have to add any more water to the pot. Total cooking time will depend on the variety of beans in the mix. Sometimes it doesn’t take that long, but I always err on the side of too much time instead of too little.
While beans simmer, prepare your mirepoix.
Heat a large skillet or pan over medium heat. Add olive oil or fat, onions, carrots and celery and sauté for a couple of minutes, until they are very fragrant but not browning.
Turn the heat to medium low, add the garlic, ground fennel, basil and thyme and sauté one minute more.
Deglaze the pan with a quick splash of mirin and stir to combine with the vegetables.
Add your optional chopped greens to the mixture, and sauté just until greens are wilted.
Add a ladle or two of the bean soup to the mirepoix pan and stir well to combine. Return this mixture to the bean soup pot, using a wooden spoon or flexible spatula/scraper to get as much of the mirepoix pan contents into the bean pot as possible.
Allow soup to simmer on low heat for a minimum of 30 minutes more, up to another hour or two as you like.
Season with salt and pepper to taste. Start with a small amount and gradually add a little more at a time, just until the flavor is as you like
While you can serve the soup at this point, you will find it tastes even better the next day, as flavors will have a chance to mingle and marry.
Cool soup to room temperature before storing in the fridge overnight in an airtight container. I recommend using glass vessels with snap top lids like these. They don’t absorb flavors, aromas, or colors so they always wash up nice and clean, you can easily find what you’re looking for in the fridge, and there’s no harmful plastics coming into contact with your food.
You can keep this soup for days on end in a well covered container in the fridge, and it freezes well too.
Enjoy in good health!
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