"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.

Presumably they put lentils or something in the food boxes?

But people in real food poverty are not buying mince to make cottage pie.

@sandytooth there would be very few recipients in our local food bank that would take a bag of lentils.

If your already in food poverty trying to work out how to make what you have last telling you to go out and buy more with money you don't actually have is a bit counterproductive isn't it

Anyway they are free in my area I buy them forget about them then frantically say to my veggie friends these are going out of date do you want them? Because my kids won't eat them they eat there own toenails not not lentils

Some people who are struggling to make ends meet do cook from scratch and can add lentils or whatever. Others don't. It's not a one size fits all

Ask for lentils from the foodbank?

YABU.

Obviously it's not going to help if you're so poor you can't even afford 60p for a tin of beans.

But if you aren't literally penniless, just struggling a lot, then it is very good advice (and I say this as someone who has been on a very low income and relied on tips such as this to make my tiny income stretch to the end of the month).

Tin of chickpeas from Tesco's (240g): 60p. The same weight in beef: over £2. Those sorts of savings add up massively over a weekly shop.

You can also add a tin of baked beans in their sauce to lots of dishes, eg. chilli con carne, sausage casserole, shepherd's pie, and the sauce enriches the flavour rather than overpowering or clashing with it, and they can be even cheaper than plain pulses if you get the own brand varieties.

It's also healthier.

So yeah, unless you are literally too poor to buy any food at all or use a microwave, I don't really know what the issue is... If you haven't got beans in your cupboard, and you've got money to buy your normal groceries, then just add a few tins of pulses to your next shop (and tbh it doesn't really matter that much which type you use: you can put baked beans or black beans or butter beans into a chilli instead of kidney beans and the effect on taste, texture and your pocket will be broadly the same).

I didn't say it was especially cheap, just nice. As I said upthread, I actually somewhat agree with the OP that it's not amazing advice in terms of saving money. I just wanted to provide a tasty recipe for anybody wanting to give a lentil dinner a try. I'm more about minimising meat consumption for ethical and environmental reasons.

That said, with the changes I make to the recipe - standard brown lentils rather than puy (about 20p for the amount in the recipe), regular white mushrooms or chestnut mushrooms rather than portobello, dried thyme rather than fresh, standard tinned chopped tomatoes, it's a heck of a lot cheaper than a standard beef bolognese.

Life is about to get harder for a great many people. I suspect many will need to stretch meagre resources a lot further.

I’d prefer to embrace the challenge of it personally. We have lived in a world of untrammelled choice and convenience. This is about to change.

However I can see the benefit of learning the skills to make decent food with what is available rather than what I might want. I’m not a half bad cook, I’m also creative. I think I can make this work.

*Realistically how are people in food poverty supposed to 'add lentils'? Add them to what? A lot of people survive on random items like bread, cereal, yoghurt etc

A homemade lentil and potato soup will be healthier and cheaper than shop bought cereal.*

But you don't need to pay to heat up shop bought cereal....

Then they don't get them. No one is forcing lentils on people. But if someone does cook from scratch then adding some lentils (free from the food bank) is a free way of bulking up the meals a bit to make it go further. Thats all. No one is saying they HAVE to or that it will solve the problem.

The foodbank near me caters for a lot of people homeless. A lot of people sofa surfing, some street homeless and some bouncing between the two. I have donated food to it. Those who use it are not cooking up cottage pie or home made soup. They are at best putting something in the microwave for a few minutes, or often eating food out of a can.

I cannot stomach Lentils, pulses or any type of beans. Shame as they do make meals go further.

I flippin hate lentils, beans and other pulses (ok, baked beans are fine), don’t get me started on porridge and dahl either (yuk).
I’d rather have 4 slices of toast and cheap (yep) eggs/beans.

Exactly. Food poverty looks like lots of different things. There are absolutely people in food poverty who cook, and there are people in food poverty who have no access to cooking facilities. It's a diverse picture.

It's good advice, You should start buying some.

I'm about to cook spaghetti bolognese with lentils in and a Dahl with green and red lentils for tomorrow. The lentils dish is a firm favourite in this house

People who are really poor can not afford the kind of dishes suggested on this thread. With the exception of dahl.

I think the advice is given because lentils and pulses are massively underused and underrated in this country - I love using them and in the country where my mum comes from they’re in everything and yeah they are literally cheaper than chips and go a really long way and last for ages in the cupboard. High in energy, extremely nutritious - and tasty (subject to opinion of course). Everyone should eat more lentils (pp posters who have an intolerance not included obviously) not just people who are struggling. But if you are struggling it does seem like an obvious go to that seems underused and underrated. I don’t see the issue with pointing that out or why anyone would get uppity about it.

@Hagrod
Like many other people, I do not have packets of beans, pulses and lentils nestled at the back of my cupboards

Why not? We do. Make hummus, mix a can of mixed beans to bulk out a salad, put lentils or pearl barley into a stew, make a bean mash to go with lamb etc; it really adds variety to your meals and is filling.

@sandytooth people who have never experienced real poverty have to keep insisting they are right.

I saved it as it looked nice so thank you for sharing. It would be much cheaper than equivalent meat mince based bolognese.

Yes it’s not a recipe if you are totally reliant on food bank but a good recipe if you are on a limited budget looking for healthy filling meals.

Mushrooms are always reduced to pennies in my local supermarkets. Frozen veg base mix (chopped carrots, celery, onions) is £1 in Asda. Cook in slow cooker and it would make lots.

Most people just do this anyway don't they? You add barley mix to vegetable soup, lentils to lentil soup or curry? These are fairly everyday recipes for most.

What are you defining as real poverty? Its a sliding scale surely. Yes it might not be for those right at one end who can't afford to cook their food but a little bit further up you have people struggling who would find the advice useful.

Totally missing the point, but for anyone who says they can't eat beans or lentils because they can't digest them, if you introduce them gradually your gut will get used to them. It's your gut microbes adapting.