"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.

They are very cheap, very filling and healthy, and they’re not part of a staple diet for many people, so awareness is not a bad thing.

I have been pleasantly shocked surprised that my DC have made no fuss over switching to lentil bolognese a few times, as well as them eating beans in chillis and stews etc. It’s worked for us, and has also reduced our red meat consumption.

I mean, they're cheap and help a meal stretch. You can also buy them readymade rather than dried. YABU. This might not work for you but it works for many.

If you buy them in tins then they hardly require any cooking - you can eat cold as a salad if you wanted to. Not as cheap as dried beans, lentils, no, but still cheaper than meat . Cheapest tinned beans tend to be the ones in the world foods aisle although most supermarkets do an essentials version of kidney beans. Or you can rinse off cheap baked beans.

YANBU (partially)

I wouldn't know how to add beans and pulses to my current stock of recipes (without looking new recipes only) so YANBU on that front.

However, I have grown up on things like dhal, rice, chickpea curry, (and potato curry) etc, so I see them as a complete meal in themselves,

In addition. As there appears to be a huge amount of involuntary shitting going on, which is really not normal! Not eating meat /cutting back on it will decrease your risk of bowel cancer. Win win!

Odd thread. It’s excellent advice. Many of my favourite recipes use beans, lentils or a grain like spelt or pearl barley and cost pennies. Italian and Indian cuisine is all about cheap and nutritious food. If someone can’t be bothered to cook then that’s on them.

One of our best meals is shepherds pie made with 50/50 meat and Puy lentils. Delicious.

I can also knock together a chick pea curry with butternut squash or sweet potato, red pepper, coconut milk and a handful of spinach for next to nothing.

Also, vegetable soups, like carrot with red lentils, whizzed in the blender. Very cheap, filling, and good for you!

It's also no use to me at all, since I am allergic to the protein in pulses; if I eat beans, lentils or peas I get a sort of purple nettle-rash all over, and then I'm sick.

The doctor who was worried about my friend's bone-health told her she needed more calcium and should drink more milk. She carefully explained to him that she had a very bad reaction to milk, and within about half an hour of her ingesting it lactose gave her a form of arthritis lasting for several days. "In that case you'll need to eat more cheese," he said cheerfully.

"Add pulses" is as much use to me as "eat more cheese" was to her.

I wish I could; lentils are cheaper than meat or dairy products. But I can't.

Rice pudding (made in slow cooker) is another that people ask loads of questions about. I’m always asked where you buy pudding rice (baking aisle or world foods aisle)

A pack of red lentils is cheap, they keep for ages in the cupboard, cook quickly and TBH anyone who thinks they don’t like them will be unlikely to notice them in e.g. a soup or mince based dish.

I'd love to eat pulses and used to cook with them, but if I ate them now, my rear end would be more active than the exhaust on a cartoon racing car! Flipping IBS🙄

I’ve managed to get my 14 year old DS to eat soups made with red lentils, whatever veg I have and a tin of tomatoes with stock, herbs etc. because the taste is deeply savoury with sweet notes from the veg. if you have the oven on anyway chuck in some veg, my outright winner was a roast butternut squash and red lentil soup. Blended so no mushy bits. And cheap as chips but much healthier. Drinking that soup made me feel like I was being hugged! And I’ve just now finished a version with carrots (40p) and made enough for four servings for about a quid in total plus electric. Could just as easily be done in a slow cooker even cheaper. Or a microwave .

Foodbanks often offer free tins of cooked beans, lentils and chickpeas. Can you work a tin-opener?

Protein is essential for proper brain development and function. Lack of dietary protein causes mental impairment. Mental impairment often results in social problems.

It’s not bad advice is it? And I always have those things in my cupboard because we’ve been cutting back on meat for a couple of years now, it definitely gets your food bill down! Tonight’s dinner is homemade tomato soup with Orzo, chickpeas and cannellini beans in. Aldi sell tinned pulses relatively cheaply, or you could bulk buy big bags.
Oh and that meal tonight will take about 20 minutes max to cook.

But people in real food poverty are not cooking mince-based dishes. And you would notice lentils in the inevitable tins of tomato soup foodbanks give out.

"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."

And do you have endless supply of bread, butter and meat that is free? What's the big deal with buying bag of lentils or tin of kidney beans on your next grocery shopping.

Chicken carcass, made into stock, add chopped leek or onion, carrot, swede or parsnip, frozen peas, any other roots around, and a handful of red lentils. Dinner is served.

If you can get a very cheap or free pressure cooker from a selling site, you can do it very cheaply. I soak pulses overnight then cook for 10-15 minutes in my pressure cooker.

I really like pulses but as others have said, you need other stuff to make them tasty. They are brilliant for making meals go further.

I always donate tinned or packet pulses to the foodbank rather than dried as I appreciate that that is better if people don't have money for cooking.

I put a tin of butter beans in a chicken casserole last week. Would never have tried it before, but the children really enjoyed it.

Tomato & red lentil is my favourite or tomato, red lentil and jarred red peppers (they are cheap in b & m)

There are only so many things you can add them to.

Unless you have a magic cupboard that grows a free supply of meat then you're not really thinking this through

"I would have to go out and buy them, I assume they are not given away for free."

Eh? 🥴

@antelopevalley How do you know that? Mince is cheapish if it's padded out with pulses. I get 2 large dishes of shepherds pie out of a small pkt mince, 4 servings each. Padded out with peas and carrots and lentils.
And if it's not affordable, lentils like brown ones, or Puy lentils make a good sub for mince.

If you don't have them then you need to buy them obviously ... but that's how all food works. They're still cheap, last for ages, are healthy and filling, and very versatile. So if you're spending money on food, they're good staples to buy.