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 am British and I cook with dried beans, chickpeas and pulses a lot. Like a LOT. Loads of British people I know do. Very popular food in my circle of friends, but we are quite health conscious I suppose? Maybe that’s to do with it? You’re wrong about tinned beans being full of sugar though, that’s odd. I have never seen a can of beans or chickpeas which contains sugar. Except obviously baked beans which are a different thing altogether.

I use dried and canned, just depends what I have in, what I’m making, time etc. I know lots of people who use dried, but I’m vegan with lots of vegan friends. Canned are fine, they’re convenient and healthy. Does it really matter?

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

You're wrong, and you've only spoken to a small percentage of British cooks.
You've surely noticed hummus, daal, chili con carne , baked beans, falafel on sale in every supermarket , all common on cafe menus.

YABU for referring to the British as a whole when it's just some you've met.

Which beans do you grow? And do you find allowing the early harvest to fully ripen on the plant you decrease the overall harvest? Or do you sow 3 separate plantings and harvest each separately?

I'd use a lot more dried beans if DH could stomach the texture. On of my favourite dishes at DMs is her 3 bean casserole, and they're great in casseroles, and stews. Especially if the meat has cooked on top of them in the dutch oven so they pick up all the flavours.
I grow and eat a lot of fresh beans and peas. They're amazing fresh off the plant.
Lentils can be sneaked in anything with a sauce, especially if you're worried its not going to go far enough, plus I also grind them and use them to thicken up a lovely red pepper soup.
Remembering to soak your beans before you go to bed is worth doing just for that smug self-satisfied feeling you'll get the next morning because they're ready to cook 😆

The advantage of dried over canned I'd variety.There are so many different lentils and pulses out there. for example,black turtle bean,Lima beans ,black eye beans etc and you won't easily if at all find those canned.You can grow fava beans.
My daughter vegetarian and makes sandwich fillings with beans as a base,it's not just Currys,mexican,casseroles.
Tommorrow were having burritos used Ng cooked,frozen black beans.

@CuriousEats borlotti have proved to be the most reliable, we sow in the garden, at the allotment and on the farm. When pods start to dry they get picked and hung in nets. Personally I prefer giganties but the crop is really erratic - boom and bust years. Then there are random experiments...

I've been vegetarian for nearly 40 years so I've always eaten a lot of beans in chilli's and casserole. I was quite young when I became veggie so my mum did a lot of research and I've carried it on. I think a lot of people are quite meat focused but with the increase in food prices, that may change.

@PestorPeston oh snap! I've got mine drying in the conservatory now. Should have put them away weeks ago haha! Do you pick the fresh ones dead small? I found if I picked runner bean sized pods they were already pretty stringy and not that good to eat. I prefer the yellow french bean Neckargold for eating fresh. Output is great and the taste is amazing. I've not tried Gigantes yet... one for next year!

I grow and eat a lot of fresh beans and peas. They're amazing fresh off the plant.

Oh yes, fresh peas! I mean frozen peas are good but freshly shelled are wonderful.

@BlackForestCake I never thought I'd grow them because they're so cheap to buy frozen, but after 1 try, I'm now growing 5 varieties and trialling a new one next year 😂they are addictive.

I used Tinned kidney beans and Tinned chick peas. I used dried red lentils, very occasionally dried split peas for ham soup.

I used barley once, it really multiplied in the pan

Dh uses lots as he likes to cook and he's vegetarian. There's always a bowl of soaked beans sitting around the kitchen (drives me mad). Personally I can't stand them, the closest I come to eating beans and pulses of any sort is a can of chick peas with my cous cous.

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

I am guessing you mean Baked Beans? None of the canned beans I use have sugar or preservatives in them. I prefer the easy access of precooked beans, which I eat in a variety of ways. I also enjoy making my own hummus. Sometimes I do make dahl from dried lentils, etc. Nothing wrong with adding a tin of lentils to a dish, though.

From an environmental point of view, the tins are easily recycled and the large-scale cooking is more efficient so nobody should worry about using tinned beans.

I think you are correct - soaking legumes is not something that most british people do on a regular basis. I tend towards using the canned ones. I am keen to know what you do with them and how you use them?

I'm not British but I buy canned in water (no salt, sugar) rather than muck around with soaking which I tend to forgot. It also takes longer to cook the bloody dry things whilst the cans just meed reheating. Saves on cooking cost as well.

Lentil soup is the most popular soup in Scotland, in cafes soup of the day is almost always Lentil, just saying.

We call them pulses. We eat some sort at least once or twice a week and I make work lunches with 2 or 3 different kinds.
Dried lentils but tinned chick peas, Channa Dahl, canellini beans, etc for ease.
I make soup, sausage casserole, lemon chicken with chick peas, chilli, etc.

Was that before the fuel price rises though? Electricity has gone up a lot since last year.

I've got a Casserole recipe that I cook dried pulses in. I made it up myself, based on goulash, because i couldn't be arsed soaking and cooking the pulses separately. It's lush, even if I do say so myself. I do it in a multi-cooker, but an instant pot or similar will do the same job, or even on the hob I guess.

Disclaimer - it's never made me ill ...

2 onions chopped
1 stalk of celery roughly chopped
2 carrots finely diced
5 cloves of garlic chopped
3 heaped tbsp smoked paprika
Dried pulses/firm lentils - e.g. chickpeas, split yellow peas, aduki beans, puy lentils etc. - whatever you like
Various root vegetables chopped into large chunks - potatoes work really well
3 red peppers large chunks
2 tins chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
Vegetable stock
4 sprigs of fresh thyme, chopped or 2 tsp dried mixed herbs
Handful of fresh parsley
1 dried bay leaf
salt & pepper

On saute mode, heat some olive oil and a tbsp of butter, fry onions gently until soft. Add celery & carrots and fry.
Add garlic.
Add paprika and lots of black pepper and some salt.
Add tomato puree and tinned tomatoes.
Turn off saute mode.
Add the pulses/lentils & vegetable stock. For every cup of pulses, add 2 cups of vegetable stock. Or just make sure that when you've added the pulses to the pot, there is 2 inches of stock covering the pulses.
Give it all a stir, then put on pressure cooker mode for 20 mins.
After pressure cooking, check the liquid content - you may need to add more tomatoes or water. Or if you've too much liquid you may need to bubble it down to reduce it on saute mode.
Add the root vegetables. You could also add dried red lentils at this stage if you like.
Baack onto saute mode for 15 mins, then add peppers, herbs, and season to taste. Cook until peppers and vegetables soft.

Have also lived in multiple countries, now in the West of Scotland, which is know for being damp.
But have a kitchen full of dried legumes, none of which have ever gone mouldy.
We tend to eat them every 1-2 days. And are more likely to soak and cook than open the canned version (which we also have in the cupboard as a back-up).

For those saying that storage space is an issue, dried pulses take up less space than cooked ones in cans!

For those concerned about the 'faff' and inconvenience of pre-soaking/ cooking things like kidney beans/ chickpeas, there's always the option of doing a bigger batch and freezing some for another meal.

If you use hot water to start the soaking, it takes a bit less time. The more soaked (and for some, the fresher the beans) the less cooking time they'll need.

Another useful tip is to put a piece of kombu (a type of kelp seaweed) in with the beans - it releases an enzyme which breaks down the oligosaccharides so can help to make the beans more digestible (for anyone who's concerned abouut them causing flatulence). Discarding the water the beans were soaking or cooking in, and rinsing them in fresh water. will get rid of as many of those sugars as possible.

There are loads of peas and beans which were traditionally grown across Northern Europe, and can be found in old recipes and dishes dating back to the middle ages, when they were a field crop. Sweeter garden peas were popular by the 16th century. The Roman Army used a lot of dried peas to feed the soldiers and would have carried them here too. Check out heritage varieties like the carlin (brown) pea!

I’m still puzzling over the person who felt relating my experience of growing up with immigrant parents who used a lot of dried beans was ‘one-upmanship’. Whatever …

Anyway - I get the ‘planning ahead’ objection to dried beans, but the soaking takes none of your time at all if you think you’ll want to use them tomorrow. You just throw them in a bowl of water before you go to bed.

I don’t currently own a pressure cooker - but I usually enjoy the ritual of long, slow cooking. (Which is rarely any longer than carnivores spend on a roast!) Not sure how fuel price rises might change that. I tend to feel I’ve economised on the food, so can relax on the cooking of it - but who knows?

Feel a bit embarrassed at not being able to offer a concrete recipe - I just use what comes to hand, as the mood take me.

@CuriousEats yes it becomes addictive, before you know it you will be contemplating how to weave a lentil shirt. At one point we worked towards almost self sufficiency, blinking heck it takes time and effort. Now we grow some stuff for fun and to ensure the skills are passed on.