"Just add beans, pulses and lentils"

[Hagrod]

I am sick of hearing this advice given when food poverty is being discussed!

"Just add beans, pulses and lentils to all your meals, they will give you the protein you need to spread expensive meat and fish further [ad infinitum]."

Like many other people, I do not have packets of beans, pulses and lentils nestled at the back of my cupboards just waiting for the day I am so starving I need to add them to a bowl of soup. I would have to go out and buy them, I assume they are not given away for free.

I just think it's such a cliched piece of advice that has been meted out to 'the peasants' for decades now and I wish they'd stop it.

So, if I'm having, say, tinned toms on toast, at what point do I add the lentils?

Is that a serious question?

The advice is slightly patronising but your argument doesn't make sense. If you're planning to buy enough meat for, say a casserole and you buy half the meat you usually would, you'll be able to have a very well stocked pulses cupboard with the money you saved. So spend the same as usual today and save money on all your meals for weeks.

Well, it's the sort of food I eat - cheap (I'm on benefits), easy to prepare (I'm disabled), and nutritious, so... yes?

I think firstly, we all know that 'more dried beans & you'll be reet' is unhelpful advice if you're living in a studio flat with a kettle & no other cooking facilities. Or you are relying on the food bank having tinned heinz tomato soup & cereal because your dc simply won't eat unfamiliar food & you've got £5 till Monday.

But it's always going to be a good way to cut the food bill, if you are cooking bog standard family meals, tend to regard pulses with suspicion because they're unfamiliar, but are prepared to give it a go.

I would suggest red lentils at entry level. Chuck a handful in bolognese, curries, soups. They have a fairly neutral flavour/texture & just mean you get an extra portion. No need to soak them.

If you are up for making beans etc the main ingredient occasionally, for example I do a red lentil & mushroom pasta sauce - made it tonight, in fact. None of us except vegan dd2 love it, but it's dirt cheap, healthy, tasty, & it's one easy midweek meal with useful leftovers that freeze well.

I agree with OP that 'stick beans in it!' is not the answer to acute food poverty. But it's still a useful tip to cut costs for anyone feeling a bit squeezed.

Actually, tinned tomatoes with a few red lentils added as a thickener is quite good and would be a much more balanced meal than tomatoes on toast. Or you could add beans a la baked beans.

Not the answer you wanted, I realise.

I would add some butter beans to the tomatoes before putting on the toast. Adds some nutritious protein!

Adds nutritious protein!

Started making chicken and vegetable soup in our air fryer with beans pulses and lentils. Delicious! Lasts for a couple of days as well.

I'm genuinely intrigued by this idea, but unsure what I'd do with the rest of the tin... I can only get them in big 400g tins, whereas tomatoes come in much smaller cans.

Thanks. Food for thought.

And this is where it starts getting problematic for me, because if I have to save part (or in this case, most) of a tin, I need to use a different container, and I'm doubling the amount of washing up and executive function needed.

Vegan chilli and rice, made with kidney beans, butter beans and (rinsed) baked beans has been a staple meal in our house for years, in rich and poor times. It costs pennies to make and is delicious, healthy and filling. Ditto lentil and veg soup.

Ime most people wouldn't know what to do with a lentil if it smacked them in the face - considering how cheap they are, 'add more beans, pulses and lentils' is excellent advice and needs to be talked about more not less.

Betraying your absolute ignorance of the experience of the poor with that comment.
I'm talking from lived experience, you patronising person.

Hahaha - that really confused me. Who knows how I managed that!

If you wanted to add some protein I’d add lentils to tomatoes and make soup and serve with toast. Add veg oxo, seasoning and dried herbs if you have them.
My favourite soup is red lentil and tomato. I do it in soup maker (they are usually cheap secondhand on facebook buy & sell) or in slow cooker.

Butter beans are nice mashed as mashed potato alternative or add them to soup or stew.

Well we didn't have a house and were not property owners so maintenance bills were moot. It was just bloody cold and like most people we knew we had to find ways to manage best we could.

The point is that a lot of advice on cutting fuel bills is not obvious or clear as witness some of the questions we get on this forum. So what kind of property is best left unheated and what can you do if you turn off the heating and get damp issues is actually useful to know. Will a jumper keep you warm enough or are three thin layers more effective?

This is stuff which we grew up with as a survival tactic and so learned. Not everyone does learn this stuff and its therefore useful public information which can be ignored by anyone who knows it.

I find it odd that when this stuff is pitched as "save the planet" middle class armchair lefties/greens are falling all over each other to promote it but the same info to help people save money in hard times is apparently patronising according to those same middle class armchair lefties/greens.

I have to ben honest I don't know anyone poor who does not know you are better with multiple thinner layers. But that is because for most poor people keeping the heating down is not a new thing. This has been an issue for many for years anyway.

Was that comment to me?

If so, uhhh...what?

Would happily have daal every day if I could have a hot lunch

I'm sorry about my early reply @Chouetted. I cook with red lentils a lot and forget that they are unfamiliar ground for some people. Is it possible for you too cook red lentils in some stock and tinned tomatoes - takes about 20 minutes, until thick? You can have this on toast. You could make a larger portion and freeze what you don't use for another day.

... can't you just put the tin in the fridge as is?

It's good advice OP. Beans pulses and lentils are cheap and are very good for you. They also contain lots of fibre and are filling. They can be added to a casserole with meat to pad it out or can be used as a good substitute for meat - eg in a veggie chilli.

I learned to love them as a penniless undergraduate and I've never stopped eating them as a result my children all like them too now.

It's fine to leave them in the tin, I do this all the time. I have some stretchy silicone lids that I bought at Lidl but you could put some clingfilm on or cover with a saucer instead.

This is good advice on the fennel seeds, I’d never heard of that, thank you!