"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.

Nothing needs several hours to cook. No beans, no chickpeas and definitely not lentils.

I will try the bicarbonate of soda tip though..

Even dried beans only need an about 90 mins usually. 20 mins boiled then simmered or chucked in slow cooker. Yes, not the quickest thing in the world but faster than a stew or something still.

Red lentils boiled for 15/20 mins, I put a peeled whole onion in, then pour over a slice of buttered bread. Fabulous

Apparently lentils take about 10-14 min in microwave. That's actually not bad

It's the same on the hob.

Mine usually take over to 20. I use green ones more

Only if they are tinned! If they are dried they’ll break your teeth unless pre soaked and precooked.

Lentils don’t need pre soaked when going into bolognese or stew or the likes. They cook plenty in it.

Although I use oats more now, my youngest prefers the texture of them to lentils.

I eat beans and/or lentils every day and have done for a long time. Always have them in the cupboard, always order them when I do my online food shop. They're easy to cook and cheap, I don't see the problem? (Online food shops really take the hassle out of shopping, too- our delivery is usually £2 but if you weren't fussy about the time, Sainsburys delivers for £1. And it stops me hungry-buying).

They also count as one of your 5 a day... Can't think of anything bad about them. Prob not what you wanted to hear, OP, but I really wanted to share! (#teamlentils 😜)

Yeah. Lentils don't need pre soaking.

I am a great cook but I can absolutely see why people with poor cooking skills and a tiny budget would rather buy a 66p frozen Asda pizza and a 33p garlic bread baguette than a bag of 99p split peas.

One of these options will lead you to obesity and bowel cancer. And one is a healthy protein that will keep your brain and body strong.

You sound silly.

If I'm cooking something for 25mins+, I find dried red lentils cook - I don't need to soak them.

If you've got plenty of money, I guess you don't have to worry about the cost of good choices, but the suggestion of beans and pulses is one healthy option that's less than other choices.

I can absolutely see why people with poor cooking skills and a tiny budget would rather buy a 66p frozen Asda pizza and a 33p garlic bread baguette than a bag of 99p split peas.

I honestly can't see why you'd want two lots of stodgy carbs, rather than a large bag of healthy protein that will feed you many times..?!

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.

YABU

Why don’t you have packets - or tins - of pulses? I always have a stock of chick peas and butter beans in Tim’s. I don’t really like lentils or red kidney beans, so I just have the pulses I like. Chick peas with spinach and the right spices is a really delicious meal. Butter beans in a tomato sauce with (cheap) white fish is also delicious.

And I’m not a peasant (quite the reverse). These are ingredients which have very respectable places in many national cuisines: French, Italian, German etc as well as the Indian sun-continent and the Middle East.

Get yourself an interesting recipe book and some proper store cupboard provisions!

For those worrying about cooking costs: batch cook. I never cook only one portion at a time. Always a couple of meals and some for the freezer. And, if I’m having to soak and pre-cook dried beans, I do a shit ton and fling half in the freezer thereby reducing my cooking time for the next meal using said chosen beans.

I think you underestimate the cooking skills and access to decent cooking equipment of some of the people who do eat cheap pizza and garlic bread all the time. It isn't something I would eat either, but I have the skills and the means to make a delicious lentil soup or daal.

I regularly donate to food banks and they always ask for something that can be heated easily and/or made by boiling a kettle. I know that tinned pulses would fit the bill, but unless you are buying kidney beans in chilli sauce a tin of green lentils or chickpeas for someone who doesn't have a clue how to make something delicious with them is a waste of money.

Haven't RTFT but this stood out for me - millions of people around the world who are in harsh food poverty do exist on pulses and beans, why are people in the UK somehow different?

If you look at all the arguments about poverty and food you will see that the only onlusion could be that they are the only ones who can't cook?

That is genuinely the most common argument on here.

@Applesandcarrots yes, I think it's an utterly patronising and dismissive trope. I was brought up in poverty eating standard cheap 70s fare, but as I got older I developed a taste for every variety of everything and now lentils are pretty much a staple in my cupboard. Bring back proper cookery lessons in schools and combine with health and lifestyle education - it seems many parents aren't doing it for a myriad of reasons so we've got to start somewhere.

I think it’s quite a lazy assumption that good banks ask for meals that can be made by a kettle of microwave purely because people can’t cook anything more complicated.

Its that so many people don’t have cooking facilities beyond a kettle or microwave.

If you are in homeless accommodation that means a room with a kettle and if you are lucky a microwave and small fridge. There is no kitchen and cooker and freezer to make vegetable curry and freeze portions.

What about those of us who have experienced real poverty, k beans and pulses are great?

My assumption was based on lack of facilities and lack of the means to pay for a lot of gas/electricity.

tbh arent plenty of food bank users not all on their knees,
plenty do have cooking facilities, not all are in bedsits with just a kettle