Easy ways to eat more beans/fiber? (Vegan)?!

"What are some quick, easy ways to eat beans?" Either add more of them to the recipes that call for them, or eat them by themselves! I'll eat beans cold, warmed up plain, warmed up with spices, warmed in soups, cooked into other dishes. It's all about experimentation.

"Can I just warm them up and season them to my preference?" Sure you can! An easy way how to find a good spice for beans is to put abouuut a cup's worth on a plate. Imagine the plate of beans as a clock: Sprinkle one seasoning on a bunch at 2 o'clock, another spice at 4 o'clock, and so on.

"And recipes that use beans as the main ingredient?" In addition to bean burritos, you could make bean dip, or fry (sautee) mashed beans with onions. You could even make bean burgers!: http://vegetarian.about.com/od/maindishe…

"Also, any difference in taste between the canned and the dry versions?" I found there is a taste difference, but I can taste subtle things that most normal people won't taste. So, to most people, no, there isn't a difference in taste. However, go with the dry version--Bit more work to cook them, but you can freeze 'em and eat for a long time for a buck or two.

Also, as far as "the hassle of soaking them," I don't soak them. Sure, it increases the cook time to not soak them, but you're already cooking them for awhile, so why bother soaking them overnight if it'll only decrease an hour's cook time by fifteen minutes, you know? This guide should help ya: http://www.chezbettay.com/pages/basics1/…

Oh, also: The main reason people soak beans, in addition to it decreasing the cook time, is to lower the gas they get from beans (as noted in that guide I linked to). I don't get gas from beans since I eat them often enough, so I don't see a need to soak 'em.

I'm a vegetarian so I use beans for protein and fiber. The easiest thing to do is make your own bean burritos. Just buy a package of soft tortillas and Taco Bell brand refried beans (it's the only brand I've found that doesn't contain lard.) You can also add some vegan cheese to it and just heat it up in the microwave. They're really cheap and easy to make. Hope this helps :}

You might like to try this 3 bean dip. It is great as a snack or serve it over lettuce for a lunch or dinner
http://www.chili-everyway.com/easy-dip-r…

http://www.chili-everyway.com/easy-dip-r…

I am a vegitarian and I eat beans for protein you can eat bean salad,hummus,sandwiches. Put brand in pasta or soup

2 year vegitarian

lentils are great for vegans also.. here's a website with lots of recipes!

http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/bllentils.htm

Hey,

Price...a tin of Tesco value kidney beans cost something like 19p each, so they're not expensive at all :)

Make a bean casserole! We use kidney beans, butterbeans and harricot beans. Make a tomato / soupy sauce (add herbs, garlic, whatever), rinse the beans, then add them. Leave to simmer. Add cooked vegan Chorizo chunks (from Holland and Barrett) to make it taste even better! It's really good, and you can eat it on its own, in a baked potato or with bread / garlic bread too.

When cooking mince (for example for spag bol or a jacket potato) add a good healthy portion of beans to that too. Tastes nice and means you get your pulses!

Beans added into homemade vegan curries are nice too :)

Hope this helps.

vegan for 5 years

I make a shepherds pie with whatever beans are in the house also stews are fantastic just subsitute the meat for your favourite beans. You can freeze beans once they have been cooked so it is less hassle. I wouldn't recommed eating too many meals with just beans - they can be a little hard to digest and you'll end up a little stinky. I recommend. Downloading a vegetarian food pyramid cos they have the serving sizes and nutritional uses for each food group. There are lots of sources of fibre - I tend to only eat beans twice a week and I am very happy with my fibre. Orange juice, whole grain bread and most fruits ate great so start the day off with avacado on toast, oj, a banana and you will be getting protein, fibre, vitamins and omega fats.

Check out Indian cuisine. I have some form of "dhal" probably twice a week on average. Depending on the consistency you're after, and which legume and how much water you use, it can end up like a thin soup or like a casserole or somewhere in between. You can make them with almost any legume/pulse, but the easiest way to go is usually with the yellow split peas you can get cheaply and easily just about anywhere, or if you want really *fast* go with red lentils. Chickpeas are also good, but take a long time to cook.

The thing with most (dry) legumes is that you need to soak them, usually overnight, then rinse them before cooking. The cooking time varies greatly - red lentils are the quickest and lupini take forever (which is why they're not as popular these days - nobody wants to spend several hours cooking - we've all got better things to do with our time). A pressure cooker reduces the cooking time for most legumes by at least an hour or two. Or you may prefer to use a slow cooker - set it in the morning before work/school, then have it ready for you to eat when you get home. This would be a good method for something like a kidney bean casserole, or a dish of mixed rice and legumes (such as the Indian kedgeree or the Egyptian kushari).

If you've only tried 3 types of legumes/pulses (and I doubt that) - black beans, red kidney beans and chickpeas (garbanzos, channa dhal) - then check out some others:
Lima beans, butter beans (despite what some websites say, these first two are not the same thing as broad beans - not even the same genus of plant), borlotti beans, cannellini beans, pinto beans, great northern beans, navy beans (the ones they use in cans of baked beans - now *there's* a good way to add fibre!), adzuki/aduki/azuki beans, calypso beans, anasazi beans, black-eye beans, bolita beans (most of the ones mentioned up to this point are just slight variations of the same species), soybeans, red lentils, brown lentils, green lentils (the really dark-skinned French ones with the rather appetising name of "pui"), yellow split peas (mutter dhal), green split peas, mung beans (green gram), toor dhal (pigeon-peas - they look similar to yellow split peas, but are better quality), broad beans (fava beans - they go well with chianti and a friend lol - you can get these fresh in the pod, frozen, or dried), muth/moth dhal (tiny, smaller even than mung, but take surprisingly long to cook), urid dhal (black gram), lablab (hyacinth beans), cow-peas. There are more, but I don't have all day to list them all.

Things like asafoetida/asafetida (hing/heeng) powder and turmeric (haldi) powder are supposed to be good for reducing the amount of gas produced by overindulging in legumes. I suggest a trip to your nearest Indian grocer - you can get hold of the spices and dried legumes cheaper than a lot of other places. Don't be afraid to ask for advice on which ones to buy and how to use them.