Legumes - Dried chickpeas, dried lentils, dried beans

[Toomessy]

When I say dried I mean not the canned ones that are precooked.

I have noticed that British people don't know what to do and how to cook dried legumes in casserole dishes rather than boil them.

Whoever ask if and how they cook them the either respond that they don't cook them or they just boil them. Their legume diet go as far as canned beans which full of sugar and preservatives or hummus.

I come from a country where legumes are a big part of our diet and as a kid I used to have legumes casserole once a week either in the pot or in the oven.

Am I right or have I just spoken to a small percentage of people and British enjoy casserole legumes?

I can't speak for anyone else but my diet is full of legumes but for convenience I tend to buy beans and chickpeas in cans (no sugar in there).Lentils (red, green, puy etc) I buy dried.
I use pulses in casseroles, soups, curries, pasta dishes, vegan roasts and 'burgers' etc.

Some do, some don’t. We use a lot of legumes, dried and canned, in a lot of different ways. We’re vegan and I suspect they perhaps form a greater part of veggie/vegan diets than others.

Bit of a generalisation to suggest ALL British people struggle with legumes…..I deal with them just fine thank you

I have IBS and stay well away from them!

Yes same here. I have a variety in the cupboard. Dried (as they are cheaper!) but also tend to have canned kidney beans , chickpeas, green lentils etc for days when I don’t have th time to spend boiling and cooking for ages.

I think it's knowledge that has largely dropped out of our society (with obvious exceptions).

My grandmothers would have known how to and regularly cooked with dried legumes.

My mother knew how but only used them in soup.

I do know how, and sometimes do cooked with dried beans/pulses (although, yes mostly just soaked/boiled and then added), but I always have half a dozen cans in the cupboard for easy adding to stew/soup etc - laaaazy I know. The ingredients in the ones I buy don't include sugar though - just beans and water.

Well I'll admit that I don't routinely make 'dried legume casserole' but I do regularly make dhal from dried lentils, and use lots of canned beans in chillis etc. I must write to the manufacturers who are lying about them just being canned in water though, if that's not the case.

Could you give us some recipes or links seeing as you're so keen to educate us?

I use both canned and dried. It's time and preference. If I've been organised, I used dried legumes and pulses. If not a can for quickness.

I'm not sure what you mean by casserole legumes?
As PP I use loads of tinned pulses (chickpeas, kidney beans etc) and also dried lentils. Tinned ones are more convenient. If I was going to use dried beans I would cook them first as otherwise the rest of the casserole ingredients will be overcooked, surely.
Before tinned pulses were so easy and cheap to get I would pre cook beans in a pressure cooker.

I’d say you’re largely correct, yes. (You need only look at the grocery lists posted on MN.)

I grew up in a dried bean soaking household so it’s always been familiar to me. (Alongside Heinz, of course!) But my repertoire was still quite limited until I stopped eating meat (a long time ago) and realised I had no interest in the freezer aisle nut roast.

Now I buy beans, pulses and all manner of wholefoods more or less in bulk, and they’re an absolute staple of my diet.

Their legume diet go as far as canned beans which full of sugar and preservatives or hummus.

Literally never seen any actual tinned beans that were full of sugar. Baked beans in tomato sauce sure but you can get tinned versions of other beans that have no sugar and are just quicker and easier to cook with.

Personally I just don’t have time in my day to be soaking beans before being able to cook them.

Before tinned pulses were so easy and cheap to get I would pre cook beans in a pressure cooker. That takes me back to my student days in the 80s @StillWeRise😄My pressure cooker was invaluable for cheap dried bean dishes

By definition canned legumes don’t need preservatives. I buy tinned chickpeas and other legumes and have never seen them for sale with sugar. It has been a long time since I saw any with salt either.

I can perfectly well cook with dried legumes and often do, but tinned are really convenient and perfectly healthy so why not?

No idea what tins of legumes you are buying if they are full of sugar and preservatives? Mine are just water and occasionally firming agent and I have lots of recipes, not just hummus.

I add dried lentils to dishes, but generally can't be bothered with anything that needs soaking, plus there is the worry of not cooking kidney beans properly. Also, and I'm probably wrong, but I see dried food as not being as nutritious as tinned.

Another one who goes nowhere near them due to IBS, so yes you can probably count me in with Brits who don't cook them!

Use tinned and dry. Pressure cooker is brilliant for cooking legumes. Never noticed sugar on ingredient list?

I used dried lentils, split peas and pearl barley. But I also use tinned chickpeas and different types of bean from a tin. Partly for convenience but also because I know that if you don’t cook red kidney beans correctly they can make you very unwell! Suppose that is a confidence thing.

I have just purchased a pressure cooker which means chickpeas ,kidney,butter beans cook in 30 minutes..
This week I've had a chickpea curry thickened with red lentils,humus and puey lentil chilli with kidney beans.
I love legumes.

Use tinned because no way am I faffing around with the soaking and cooking. Like pp have said, I've not seen any tinned beans that are full of sugar and preservative bar some baked beans.

And legumes is a word that gets sillier the more you read it.

Throw em all in a slow cooker dried or canned with a good veg stew or anything else, love em

Plenty of legumes here. Mostly canned (except lentils) as I don’t plan ahead enough to use dried.

Admittedly I could do with using more variety of legumes. Could do with more variety of recipes generally though so that’s not legume specific.

I use them regularly, though will often opt for tinned over dry as I can't always get everything I want dry and I don't have time to shop around. But I was a vegetarian for 20 years and have lived places where, like you said, using dried legumes was pretty standard. I use them in soups, dal/curries, make a really nice cuban black bean soup.

I do think it's a convenience thing. If you need to soak them, you have to do it for an extended period of time and people don't plan ahead that well. Or they tend to throw in some beans to a recipe to bulk it out when they realise they need to, again, easier to reach for a tin.

I buy tinned cannellini beans (cannellini beans, water), tinned chickpeas (chickpeas, water), tinned black beans (black beans, water, salt), tinned kidney beans (kidney beans, water, salt), and tinned butter beans (butter beans, water). What do you think they put in tinned beans???

Couldn't give a shit to be honest. If you're constipated @JackieDaws you might want to add some legumes to your diet