Dried beans

[jansman]

We have found,as no doubt most of you do,that our diet seems to change from time to time.We are eating quite a few meals that contain beans.That's red beans,chickpeas,butterbeans etc. Now,we use the tinned variety,but I have the capacity to grow some,and may look at buying some dried beans in,particularly for longer term storage.

My question is this: Those of you who use dried beans on a regular basis,can you tell me how much volume or weight do you use per person?

I have looked on the web,and it's all American,and they use 'cups'.( Their measurement system does seem so cumbersome).I *think* reading what Idid,that a standard tin of cooked beans would be the equivalent of about 125 gram of dried beans.

Can anyone make it a bit clearer,please.

[Arzosah]

hi jansman - I use shop-bought dried beans all the time, plus lentils, peas and whatnot. The labels often say 35g-40g dried, but I use 40g-50g, I need bigger portions than that. In calculating food stored up for the future, I tell myself that a 500g bag of dried beans contains 10 servings - its probably 11 or something, but I'd rather play it safe. I store my beans in old glass containers, and I use the lid as a measure - like anything, its a question of getting used to it.

HTH

[hobo]

Thanks for bringing this up J and your experience A. I'm leaning towards dried pulses and beans for the long haul. Have plenty of tins but really should start mylaring up dried. The only dried I use at the moment is red lentils. I use a cup per meal in soup and bolognaise.

[jansman]

hi jansman - I use shop-bought dried beans all the time, plus lentils, peas and whatnot. The labels often say 35g-40g dried, but I use 40g-50g, I need bigger portions than that. In calculating food stored up for the future, I tell myself that a 500g bag of dried beans contains 10 servings - its probably 11 or something, but I'd rather play it safe. I store my beans in old glass containers, and I use the lid as a measure - like anything, its a question of getting used to it.

HTH

That’s brilliant Arzosah. Many thanks.

[jansman]

Thanks for bringing this up J and your experience A. I'm leaning towards dried pulses and beans for the long haul. Have plenty of tins but really should start mylaring up dried. The only dried I use at the moment is red lentils. I use a cup per meal in soup and bolognaise.

Looking at long term storage too. We use a fair bit of tinned food, well a lot actually , but as pointed out on other threads, it doesn’t last forever. We are going to lean towards dried foods for long term, rice , pasta, potatoes and other vegetables. When everyone seemed to go bats#it crazy in the shops a month or so ago we found ourselves unable to buy tinned chickpeas for a favourite meal of ours. That’s not going to happen again!

[daylen]

We use dried beans all the time. Portion size varies on how hungry you are but our beans double in weight when soaked.

We mostly buy in bulk but Waitrose do a great "10 bean mix" in 500g packs. We love it for chilli and homemade baked beans.

[cbp125]

I use dried beans quite a bit, as per portion sizes I would not worry overly as what I suggest would be to cook up in batches. I feed 7 in my house but I use a instant pot electric pressure cooker to cook up my beans. I put a mugs worth of beans into a small mixing bowl then fill it to the top with water and leave overnight. Then in the morning I put them into the pressure cooker with another bowl of water. I pressure cook for 20 minutes then leave them to sit for 20 mins in the cooker under pressure. Then I drain and leave to cool. This would last me 2 days for my family but for smaller amounts, you can leave for 2-3 days in the fridge or I used to put them into freezer bags in can sized amounts, then I could just thow them into meals when I wanted.
I would recommend reading some cook books by Rose Elliot as she offers lots of advice on very cheap and easy meals with beans.

After using dried beans it is very hard to go back to canned as they taste all mushy. I prefer crunchy and textured beans like soy anyway. We buy ours from the asian or gurka shops in 10kg bags

One meal I love it just chickpeas lightly fried in butter and garlic, so simple quick and easy but very filling especially with fried sliced potatoes

I am growing chickpeas this year, they are very easy to grow, just like runner beans. I store my beans in mylar bags and scoop out what I need

[jansman]

More excellent advice! Thanks.

[Arzosah]

I am growing chickpeas this year, they are very easy to grow, just like runner beans. I store my beans in mylar bags and scoop out what I need

I never knew that chickpeas would grow in the UK! Excellent news.

[daylen]

Chickpeas grow well but the yield per plant is tiny. Really tasty but unless you have a good amount of space, it's a lot of effort of a small amount of (very tasty) hummus!