Could I have your favourite recipes for beans and lentils please?

[RattyTat]

I'm trying to eat more vegetarian and vegan meals and I have at least 20 cans of various types of beans, chickpeas and lentils, and a few dried bags of red lentils. Ive bought too many when they were on offer and I don't know what to do with them.

Any ideas/recipes would be much appreciated. TIA

You can substitute tinned lentils for eg mince in bolognese or lasagne.

This is my absolute favourite red lentil recipe, it is so delicious, and you could make it vegan if you used maybe coconut butter instead of butter. I found it in the Sainsbury's Magazine, but someone else has posted it here. Simmer it very gently.

forum.downsizer.net/archive/steve-s-spiced-red-lentils__o_t__t_42295.html

Smokey lentil soup

www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/smoky-chickpea-red-lentil-vegetable-soup.html

cookieandkate.com/easy-refried-beans-recipe/
Refried beans you can make with any type of tinned beans.
Very nice in burritos

I made this for the first time last week; www.motherandbaby.co.uk/family-life/food/dinner/mary-berry-s-vegetable-and-lentil-cottage-pie

This with black beans is very nice too
www.riverford.co.uk/exe/recipes/view/recipe/squash-and-black-bean-chilli

Bean chilli www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/477649/three-bean-mexican-chilli

Butter bean stew
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/giant-butter-bean-stew

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/lentil-sweet-potato-curry

This is really good for using up left over vegetables. I have butchered this recipe in so many ways and it always comes out well.

As you know, hummus is made from chickpeas, but you can puree any type of bean to make a hummus style dip. Try experimenting with different combinations of beans, garlic, olive oil, mayonnaise and things like peppers or tomatoes in oil, roasted vegetables such as onions or aubergines. It's a very good way to use up leftover cooked vegetables or tins of things such as artichokes.

Does your stash include chickpeas? If so, try this - everyone I've ever made it for has asked for the recipe.

www.asaucykitchen.com/mediterranean-chickpea-stew-with-spinach-feta/

Thank you all for the wonderful recipes so far. I appreciate them.

I do have chickpeas. I also have black chickpeas.

This is my favourite and everyone in the house eats every scrap

www.gousto.co.uk/cookbook/vegetarian-recipes/cowboy-bean-bowl

Lentil bake. There are a few different ways to make it, mine usually come out fairly solid and I don't weigh anything so might not be the best one to follow so Google might be the best way to find one to your taste.

Ditto chickpea casserole, I usually chuck ingredients into a pan or slow cooker, it involves onions and tomatoes and various other things, but you can throw what you fancy in, however, once again, suggest you look online for a recipe you fancy.

Lentils and veggie sausages is fairly easy, braised red cabbage to liven it up.

Lentil and vegetable stew, soften lentils, add vegetables, (chopped onions, carrots, potato cubes, celery, anything else you fancy) stock, cook. Can be thickened if required with potato flour or cornflour or vegan gravy mix.

This one is a tomato butter bean and greens dish tried it recently and family really liked it
www.bbc.com/food/recipes/gigantes_with_tomatoes_47546S

This one we had last night, black beans and sweet potatoes in tacos yum
www.forksoverknives.com/recipes/spiced-sweet-potato-tacos/#gs.aontyw

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/feb/18/sausage-chorizo-lentil-casserole

Awesome recipe this one

red lentil dhal is delicious -we have it with Rick Stein's lime fish - Rui's Goan Curry I think its called.

Black bean tacos from Anna Jones are brilliant
www.bbc.com/food/recipes/lime_and_chipotle_black_35645

Plakis gigantes for butter beans

butter bean cassoulet to serve with fish

Can’t eat lentils - I react.

But chickpea curry is lovely - ironyou.com

Also the Spanish butter bean dish is lovely

I often do a red lentil dahl or chick pea and spinach curry.

I forgot... Meera Sodha's chana masala is lush
meerasodha.com/workers-curry/

Soak about a cup of dried cannellini beans overnight in a slow cooker with plenty of water. Next day, tip off the water and add
2 tins of tomatoes in any state, whole, chopped or passata
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic (or more... I like garlic)
About 1/4 bottle of white wine, cheap is fine, but you can leave it out if you wish
About a tsp of dried herbs de provence
1 - 2 tsp smoked paprika
Salt

Bring to the boil then cook for 6 - 8 hours. You can take the lid off if it seems too runny.When the beans are softened, stir in a bag or two of spinach. Continue cooking until the spinach is completely wilted. Serve with sourdough bread and sriracha. So tasty! I make loads and freeze potions before adding the spinach then defrost, bring to the boil and add fresh spinach.

This is the best and closest to meat-chilli texture of the many I’ve tried! Add garlic (duh) www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/burnt-aubergine-veggie-chilli

Make a big batch as charring the aubergine takes a while. And once it’s charred pop in a freezer bag to steam the skin off. Delicious! The aubergine just melts in, you wouldn’t know it was in there.

Thank you all so much. I can't wait to try out all of these and I just found even more beans that I'd forgotten about. A frozen bag of kidney beans, black beans and chickpeas.

Don't forget that as well as using beans such as haricot blanc in recipes (bean and aubergine stew for instance) you can also use them as accompaniments, haricots cooked with sage served with sausages, Puy lentils with tomatoes served with frittata for example.

You can also add them to salads to make them more substantial, Puy lentil vinaigrette, mixed bean salad, chickpea and beetroot in yoghurt dressing etc etc.

Red lentil hummus

Just like hummus but with red lentils instead of chickpeas.