Cheapest lentils/dried beans?

[OtherPlans]

Most meals I make are based around dried lentils, chickpeas and butterbeans for budget reasons (became disabled, lost job etc). Does anyone know where is cheapest to buy these (in bulk if that's the cheapest option). I am housebound so it would have to be online or one of the supermarkets that deliver.
It's great to have a big pot of lentils cooked in stock or butterbeans in tomato sauce to dip into.

www.buywholefoodsonline.co.uk/lentils-beans-pulses

Buywholefoodsonline are good.

I agree, I love having beans ready to eat in the house.

I eat lentils every day (in the form of dal) - and the cheapest I've found are from Tesco - 500g for 89c (I'm in Ireland). That's a whole week's worth of brunches for me for €1.78 (plus tomatoes, chilies, onions, garlic and spices of course!). I get toor dal and chana dal from Amazon for around €5 a kg. They're not the organic versions, of course, but perfectly good. I love lentils!

Thanks LunaDeet I'll do some calculations.
Inextremis you're speaking my language 😉 I'll check the UK Tesco prices.

Taking green lentils as a test the cheapest I've found works out as £2.30 a kilo. That's the same in Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Tesco. Asda is slightly higher.

Honestly, I've been searching online for cheaper pulses for about ten years and have come to the same conclusion time and time again that the major supermarkets are the cheapest, even though by world standards they are still eye-wateringly expensive.

For most dried beans Asda and Tesco both want £1.15 for a 500g bag so £2.30 a kilo. They want £1.80 for 500g of black beans. I cannot find anywhere online which beats them, even specialist Brazilian shops (Brazilians live on beans).

Many online retailers seem to only sell premium orgasmic beans with prices to match. Even if I buy 25kg of broad beans from Hodmedod's it still works out at £2.39 per kg.

I am constantly told to try Asian stores too. I've got easy access to Burnley, Blackburn, Bolton and Manchester, none of which have small Asian communities, but have never yet found anywhere that beats Asda or Tesco.

Both Lidl and Aldi sell lentils at 89p or 99p per 500g but availability seems to vary week to week and from store to store, but they don't deliver anyway. A few weeks ago Lidl had 900g packs of both pinto beans and black beans as part of Caribbean week, but that was a one off.

It's annoying, as the last dried beans I bought in Europe from Lidl were €0.99 per kilo!

Sorry, should have said Lidl wanted £1.99 for those 900g bags of beans, so marginally cheaper than Tesco for the pinto ones, considerably so for the black beans. But, it's the only time in twenty five years I've ever seen dried beans in Lidl in the UK and my local branch sold out within a fortnight.

@Otherpeoplesteens seems like we're on the same mission! Such a pity.
I agree used to be able to afford organic beans, not any more and that seems to be most of the bulk supplies.

Brown lentils - 25kg for £40, have to spend fifty for free delivery superfood-market.com/products/pu010-suma-commodities-lentils-brown-25-kg? or 25kg for £32 here superfood-market.com/products/r1212-lentils-brown-whole-uk-recleaned-1-x-25kg

I live in an area with a large south Asian population and the independent supermarkets owned by that community are cheap as chips for beans/pulses/rice

@givemushypeasachance what a good find. I'll probably get those.
@lastqueenofscotland wish I had access to those supermarkets! I miss coming across new ingredients in them too.

"Many online retailers seem to only sell premium orgasmic beans with prices to match."

I want some !!!!

(Best typo I've seen .)

Here Amazon sells beans, pulses, and other bulk items packaged by a company called Yupic. The quality is good and price excellent.

I don't know if you have anything similar in the UK.

Costco is also a good source if you are a member or can go with someone who is. The packages are quite big so you need space to store away from pests.

My Tesco do 1kg of lentils for £1.80 or 500g for £1.15.

Have a look at Asian stores, all sorts of beans and pulses so cheap!

www.buywholefoodsonline.co.uk/red-lentils-3kg.html something like this okay?

Are red and green lentils pretty much interchange out of interest?

And sorry to derail
But how thoroughly do you wash them
I wash them over and over but still don’t run clear

Lots of great suggestions. I'll do some calculations per kg with delivery etc.
@Marmitemarinaded I do a lot of Greek recipes which often call for brown/green lentils. I find they have a firmer texture than red but that might be me overcooking the red lentils (which I tend to use for dal). I give lentils a cursory rinse and pick out any suspect bits (but I grew up very rurally and I suspect ate rather a lot of non washed out grit from various veg 😉).

I usually get mine from Suma, they are similar priced to Supermarkets but better quality.

www.suma.coop/

If you can get hold of yellow mung Dal, that cooks almost as quickly as red lentils (so less fuel needed than beans, for example) and makes a very satisfying, tasty Dal thst thickens well.

@Marmitemarinaded I don't wash the Tesco lentils at all - nor the East End or Natco dal. I probably should, but life is short, and I've yet to find any foreign objects in there. I do wash rice though, to get rid of the excess starch - the grains cook much better after a thorough wash,

I need to try washing rice!
Need to find v cheap tinned tomatoes now

@PickAChew What a good idea!

@Marmitemarinaded Red lentils are always sold 'split' so they tend to break down and go gloopy/mushy quite quickly. They can also be added straight into soups etc without much preparation such as pre-soaking.

Green lentils stay in one piece much better and offer a firmer texture, but they can take a while to soften if not pre-soaked.

I usually mix the two together to create my own mince substitute. I tend to pour boiling water on them in a pan, leave for three or four hours, then heat up to the boil before simmering for 5/10 minutes. I then tip them into a sieve and rinse them at that point, then add them to whatever dish I'm cooking.

@Georgyporky It wasn't a typo :-) It was my way of expressing my contempt at the situation where we only seem to be able to buy incredibly - and unnecessarily - expensive versions of what are basic, ultra-cheap staples in virtually the rest of the world.

I think one of the problems is that in many parts of the world dried beans are a staple eaten by all income levels. Gross generalisation here, but in the UK poor people eat processed horsemeat and saturated fat ready meals, a smallish portion of the middle class eats beans from tins, and dried beans are the preserve of foreigners, militant lesbian vegan eco-warriors, and the rest of the lunatic fringe. Dried beans are positioned in the market (and priced) accordingly.

Just out of interest, does it cost more in fuel to cook dried beans that the money you save buying them compared to tinned pulses is negated? I always think the process sounds like hassle. I also use lots of kidney beans and have heard they can be toxic if not cooked properly.

As an aside, one of my favourite bean recipes is a kidney bean veggie chilli served on oven chips baked with cheese and Jalapeños. Loaded fries!

The KTC brand are on offer at Morrison's - lots of different types of beans and lentils, two 1kg bags for £3.

[quote Otherpeoplesteens]@Marmitemarinaded Red lentils are always sold 'split' so they tend to break down and go gloopy/mushy quite quickly. They can also be added straight into soups etc without much preparation such as pre-soaking.

Green lentils stay in one piece much better and offer a firmer texture, but they can take a while to soften if not pre-soaked.

I usually mix the two together to create my own mince substitute. I tend to pour boiling water on them in a pan, leave for three or four hours, then heat up to the boil before simmering for 5/10 minutes. I then tip them into a sieve and rinse them at that point, then add them to whatever dish I'm cooking.

@Georgyporky It wasn't a typo :-) It was my way of expressing my contempt at the situation where we only seem to be able to buy incredibly - and unnecessarily - expensive versions of what are basic, ultra-cheap staples in virtually the rest of the world.

I think one of the problems is that in many parts of the world dried beans are a staple eaten by all income levels. Gross generalisation here, but in the UK poor people eat processed horsemeat and saturated fat ready meals, a smallish portion of the middle class eats beans from tins, and dried beans are the preserve of foreigners, militant lesbian vegan eco-warriors, and the rest of the lunatic fringe. Dried beans are positioned in the market (and priced) accordingly.[/quote]
What on earth are you on about?

Waitrose and Sainsbury’s - my two ships have a HUGE selection of dried beans etc

And you can’t open a weekend newspaper supplement without a recipe for lentils or waxing lyrical from benefits of veggie bean based diet