Byte of Beans by Patty "Sassy" Knutson

Byte of Beans
By Patty "Sassy" Knutson

BEANS

Raise your hand if a bored feeling washes over you when you think of beans. Lordy knows I felt the same way for years. In fact, I went vegan back in 1994, but didn’t add beans to my diet (steadily) until just two years ago.

Why?

Well, the reason sort of centers around pure laziness -- I never took the time to learn how to make beans from scratch. Beans from scratch just seemed like such a time-consuming task for something that bored me to tears. Of course, there's always canned beans, but if you're anything like me you shy away from anything in a can whenever possible.

But you know what? Beans are pretty cool little powerhouses and not boring in the least. With the advent of learning the "bean ropes" comes a natural understanding of how these little guys work – the difference soaking them first can make, how to add them to your diet in fun ways without eating just a “plate of beans” every day, that perfect “bite” you’re searching for that signals the end of the cooking time, the various flavor changes that can be brought to a dish simply by changing the type of bean you use.

But perhaps the best part about beans is just how important they are to a vegetarian diet. There are many nutrients that beans provide, and each type of bean offers something slightly different than the other. Most of us know that beans are a fantastic source of protein, fiber and iron, but there’s a magical little nutrient you may not have heard of…

IT'S TIME FOR A NUTRITIONAL QUICKIE! Wink

Beans are a fantastic source of molybdenum . In fact, 1 cup of most cooked beans provides your body with 172% of its daily requirement. Zowie! But what exactly is molybdenum? And more importantly, how do you pronounce it?!

Molybdenum, pronounced mah-LIB-da-num (or moly, for short), is a trace mineral. This nutrient plays a crucial role that should be celebrated but is quite unknown to most of us.

Your body takes in and produces pesky chemicals that would act completely irresponsible if left on their own, building up to toxic levels that could do a lot of harm. Fortunately, there’s a system in place to seek out these rogue chemicals and either convert them into something your body can use, or simply escort them out the door. And the system that does this housecleaning is an enzyme called sulfite oxidase.

And guess what fuels sulfite oxidase?

That’s right, moly. It’s the mere presence of moly that helps sulfite oxidase to form and do its powerful cleaning job.

(Of special note: Sulfite oxidase rids the body of sulfites. So if you’re one of the many people who suffer from sulfite sensitivity, experiencing a rapid heartbeat, headache, or disorientation after consuming sulfites--a food preservative commonly added to deli salads and salad bars--chances are you’re deficient in moly.)

Fascinating stuff.

Fortunately for us, molybdenum is plentiful in most beans, with the exception of navy beans.

Overall, beans are a fantastic addition to any vegetarian diet, providing not only a fabulous source of moly, protein and fiber, but the nutrients found in beans can actually keep cancer at bay, help to lower cholesterol, and regulate blood sugar.

Go beans!

(Can you guess which country it’s thought beans originated from? *Answer below.)

THE MAGICAL FRUIT

Although beans are such a nutritional superstar, it seems the one thing they’re known for is producing intestinal gas. Such a bummer. But you’ll be happy to know there’s a very good reason for this explosive trait, and an equally good remedy.

Beans contain something called trisaccharides, a carbohydrate that generates gas. There are enzymes present in healthy intestines that help to break these trisaccharides into simple sugars that your body can easily digest. But first, it’s important to build up these intestinal enzymes so they can be present to do their job for you. The best way to do this is to add beans/legumes to your diet in small amounts to begin with. This will help to encourage the formation of these important enzymes so you can eat in peace! ;O)

And before you begin to add those small amounts of beans/legumes to your diet, here are a few tricks that will help you get to your destination of gas-free beans more quickly.

1.   Soak your beans overnight before cooking. Soaking not only helps beans to cook faster (saving time and resources) but soaking releases those pesky trisaccharides into the soak water. Soaking also softens skins and begins the sprouting process, which eliminates the phytic acid that makes minerals less available.
2.   Chew your beans thoroughly.
3.   Beans that digest more easily include aduki, lentils, mung beans and peas.
4.   Beans that are harder to digest include pinto, kidney, navy, black-eyed peas, garbanzos, lima and black beans.
5.   Pour a little apple-cider, brown-rice, or white-wine vinegar into the water in the last stages of cooking your beans/legumes. Vinegar helps to soften them and breaks down protein chains and indigestible compounds.

MORE ABOUT BEANS

Forget the cans, if you “can”. Beans are really quite simple to make from scratch. And you’ll have far more control over the taste, tenderness, intestinal comfort, and sodium content if you make them yourself.

How long you cook your beans will depend on the variety. Garbanzos typically take the longest to cook, while black-eyed peas and lentils cook up more quickly.

There are two basic ways of cooking beans, either boiling or pressure cooking.

Boiling is done by most people since all that’s needed is a large pot to complete the cooking process.

Pressure cooking is less widely used even though beans cook up in less than half the time. Speaking from experience here, using a pressure cooker seems scary if you’ve never used one before, or if (like me) you bought a jiggle-top cooker years ago that scared the beejezus out of you. But trust me on this one: The pressure cookers available today make cooking beans a breeze and are actually quite pleasant to use.

Each bean requires a different cooking time and space doesn’t allow me to go into detail for each and every bean. Please follow this link to learn how to cook beans both with AND without a pressure cooker, including how to Select and Prep your beans, Cooking Techniques, a complete list of “Vegan Flavor Matches” for the most popular beans, Helpful Hints, and Nutritional Information!

(Answer: Peru! From there, they were spread throughout the Americas by migrating Indian tribes.)

Happy cooking!

About the author:

Sassy is a Vegan Chef and Nutritional Consultant.

Her website VeganCoach.com was created to marry these two loves, along with over a decade of vegan experience, by teaching her fellow vegans the secret to balanced vegan nutrition and easy vegan cooking without recipes.

Pop on in for a visit. Cool

Copyright © 2007 by Patty “Sassy” Knutson
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