"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.

I might have to try this, love the idea of them and how healthy they are but I cannot cope with the texture the texture. I’m a bean-picker-outer too

A few years ago I increased my intake of beans and pulses (for health and environmental reasons) and ended up developing an intolerance and can't eat them at all now. Rather annoying as supermarkets increasingly use them in all sorts of meals these days.

It’s absolutely good advice, but I caution you not to add “unexpected” things like that to dishes you are cooking for others without telling them. Beans, pulses or lentils would all potentially kill my child and I wouldn’t be expecting them if someone said they were making spaghetti bolognaise. And less severely, I know a lot of people who have bad stomachs reactions to eg quorum mince, which people have mixed in with normal mince thinking they are being clever and saving money.

@Hagrod I hear you!

I am veggie and, the way this is often talked about, I am surprised when I exit a supermarket that I get charged! It’s a glib, throwaway comment often. Veg cooks down to nothing so you need a lot. If you compare it to expensive meat it’s less but if you compare it to processed frozen meats that come in meal deals, it’s not.

if you are going to bulk out, a few handfuls of dry orange lentils in a bolognese or equivalent cooks down to nothing recognisable in 15 mins. Green lentils less so and they cost a bit more. Chickpeas, not all meals suit these. Mexican refried beans are lovely and creamy and disappear (for picky kids) but unless on offer they are £1.60 or so. The very small black beans can be good as well as they are soft but I can’t find them in many places and pay 90p in Morrisons - cheaper than refried beans though. I’ve also occasionally used oats; handy if a sauce is watery but don’t overdo it or the whole meal is ruined.

They might be a cheap source of protein, but per 100g a tin of kidney beans for example has almost a third of the protein than beef mince (and a lot more carbohydrate). It's not like for like.

I'm confused what free food alternatives are available? It's just a cheap meal idea. There are no free options..

Dried beans are extremely cheap. Canned is a convenience food obviously it will be more expensive.

The very small black beans can be good as well as they are soft but I can’t find them in many places and pay 90p in Morrisons - cheaper than refried beans though.

Aldi sell black beans for 49p if anyone is looking for some.

I’m allergic to beans and pulses, so wouldn’t pad my food out with them, but I do stretch my meat by adding extra veg. I thought this was a perfectly normal thing to do. Tonight we had chicken and sweetcorn in a creamy sauce that had carrots and onions blended into it, served with mashed potato.

I've just bagged up portions of the rest of a big slow cooker pot of chilli that I put on earlier. I've bulked it out with some green lentils and a tin of kidney beans. Nobody noticed the lentils and the chilli has gone so much further.
I only use them in things like chilli, bolognaise, curry, soup etc but it does make a difference as I now have a few meals in the freezer instead of everyone eating it in one go! No need to soak the lentils.

This! Better for animal welfare and the planet, too. (Yeah, I know... smug veggie...)

If you are starving you have little choice. If not don't eat them.

Tinned beans: LUXURY!
When we were broke a few years ago. I got in the habit of buying larger bags of dried beans. Used to go to Asian and Polish shops.
Those beans need soaking, read instructions and add 50% time. Change the water before cooking.

But it is a good idea. For example, a 400G tin of ASDA kidney beans is only 33p and contains about 20G of protein. With a tin of chopped tomatoes (32p) some spices and a few other cheap ingredients such a carrot, an onion, and some rice and/or tortilla chips, you can make a pretty reasonable chilli for two people. Total cost about 50p per portion. Not 'free' but cheaper than even the cheapest beef or the cheapest ready meal version.

I’ve done as suggested by Jack Munroe rinsed the juice off baked beans. Cheap and tasty. Lots of people love baked beans. This is a great way of using a basic traditional food. I’ve used them in soups and squashed them with onions and fried with paprika. Cheap, tasty and easy to obtain.

I have been having a very long overdue clearing out of cupboards, and have found packs of lentils with Best Before from 2015. I clearly do not use them, so am not going to start now.
I have to enjoy my food, or I wont eat. If I want to eat to stay alive, I will buy Huel.

But refried beans are just already cooked beans, squished about a bit, plus chilli/garlic/coriander.

My dd1 is addicted to them, & as we live in the ME, she usually uses fava beans, which (Hannibal Lecter aside...) come in tins, sometimes in spicy sauces.

But ALL you need to do is: dab of oil in a frying pan on medium/high heat, tip in your tin of beans, add flavourings like chilli, garlic & coriander (or don't if you just want squishy beans).

Set about them with a potato masher. Then cook them a bit more.

Alternatively, stick your tin of beans plus flavourings through a mini chopper & then fry them off.

You now have refried beans.

They are brilliant for a weekend breakfast alongside a fried slice, mushrooms & tomatoes!

If you can then get your head around soaking dried beans, they're...pennies. Honestly.

Most pulses are pretty horrid to be honest. Lentils are positively foul, as are chickpeas. Hummus makes me gag. I'd much rather eat liver or steak and kidney (cheap cuts of steak) We've got out of the habit of eating the whole animal, that's the problem. You can hardly buy a chicken anywhere with the giblets included, certainly not in any supermarket that I know of. We would fight over the heart as children, such a tasty little morsel! There are so many cheaper cuts of meat and offal that are affordable, tasty and packed with protein and raised by our own farmers on our own doorsteps instead of being flown in from the likes of India or Canada!

I am sure the insides are in sausages and some burger patties.

@ClaraThePigeon I will look in Aldi next time I am in there. I go to Lidl more often so may have overlooked them.

I think the issue with many beans is that the outside skin can be hard and get stuck in your teeth/on your upper palette. Using baked beans (with or without sauce) I find a good option as even the cheap ones are generally soft and not many have the flakey skin going in. Orange lentils (dried) don’t suffer from this - cook for 15 mins and it’s basically a mushy soup.

@CorvusPurpureus as you are in the Middle East your bean supply might be better! I have tried making refried beans and the outside remained stubbornly hard. It was edible but not great. Ive given up making hummus for the same reason. It tastes terrible and the texture is awful as the chick peas don’t blend well. I don’t live anywhere with Asian or Middle Eastern stores. It is years since I’ve tried dried beans - I don’t have the time to soak and don’t want to spend the energy boiling for ages.

The secret to good hummus is good blender and ice😉

It's not so much that I'm unfamiliar with the use of them in, say soup and stews, it's unfamiliarity with how I would practically use them in more realistic scenarios.

Spending 20 minutes cooking would very much be a treat food for me, so I'd probably be splashing out on something other than lentils.

A quick easy meal for one, by the way (if you own a rice cooker) - crumble a stock cube into a rice cooker with the rice & water and nestle a whole tomato in the middle. The tomato will be cooked through when the rice is done, and disintegrate into the rice. Not sure how much it costs to run a rice cooker though!

It's such a weird phrasing. Not, "I think". Just saying that hummus is horrid as a fact like huge portions of the world are just stupid and don't know chickpeas are actually gross.

I bet you only salt and pepper don't you?

I'm intrigued about the ice. Do tell.

Wow we're not peasants and would eat these frequently. Tesco have great microwave packs of all types of pulses and lentils now so you can have meat free days.