Ode to Beans

If you've spent more than about one hour with me, you know that I am a proud member of the Rancho Gordo Bean Club, which is essentially an heirloom bean CSA.* It may also be the third closest thing to a cult that I participate in after my gym and Peloton. Hey, at least all three of my quasi-cults support my physical health?

Anyway, back to beans. I love beans. Over the past few years, my household has become vaguely vegetarian. That means most of our meals revolve around non-meat centerpieces, but we still eat meat sometimes (especially at restaurants), eat fish relatively frequently, and use a ton of chicken stock. Approaching vegetarian eating in this way feels more like adding different protein sources than it does omitting meat, which I think has been a lot more accessible for us than if we had approached it the other way.

Eating less meat led to eating waaaaaaaay more beans. Enter the Bean Club! With my Bean Club membership, I receive six bags of beans in each quarterly shipment as well as seasonings and other goodies from Rancho Gordo. Their beans are sustainably-produced and many of them are heirloom varieties that could go extinct if not for the support Rancho Gordo provides to the growers. While I love my Bean Club beans, I recognize that there's a waitlist - rest assured that all the praise I present here about beans also applies to beans you may acquire from any other source! (And this isn't sponsored. I just love Rancho Gordo.) You can buy canned and dry beans at any grocery store, and they are CHEAP.

Benefits of Beans

• Nutrient-dense: beans provide potassium, copper, folic acid, iron, magnesium, zinc, lysine, and vitamin B6

• High fiber content

• Low glycemic index

• Good source of protein without saturated fat

• Filling and satisfying

• Can help lower cholesterol, blood sugar, risk of cardiovascular disease, and risk of colon cancer

• Digestive benefits (see high fiber content)

• Inexpensive and long shelf life

Sources: UCLA Health, Mullins and Arjmandi, Messina

You may be saying, "But Clare, every time I eat beans I fart and get diarrhea!" SPOILER ALERT: That's because you're not getting enough fiber and your body is surprised. I promise if you start eating beans regularly, your poops will be spectacular and you'll feel magnificent.

How do I prepare beans?

If you're working with dry beans, first you have to cook them. Rancho Gordo obviously has an in-depth guide on cooking beans, "How to Cook Beans in the Rancho Gordo Manner," which you can find here. As I've experimented more and more with beans, I've modified their approach to suit my lifestyle better.

How to Cook Beans in the Fare by Clare Manner

(aka slightly lazier than Rancho Gordo)

1) Rinse dry beans and place them in a large bowl. Add water to the bowl until the water is two inches higher than the beans. Add one tablespoon per quart of water. Let the beans soak for 4-6 hours. (You can skip this if need be, but you'll have to cook the beans longer.)

2) Pour the beans and their soaking water into a large dutch oven. Add chicken stock to cover the beans by two inches of liquid. (You can use more water here, but chicken stock adds more flavor.) Add a generous pinch of salt. Rancho Gordo will tell you not to salt the soaking or cooking liquid, but Serious Eats did a side-by-side comparison and found that salting is the way to go.

At this point, add any non-acidic flavoring ingredients you wish:

• Onion, garlic, celery, carrot, and/or shallot (you can also sweat onions in oil in the dutch oven before you add the beans and water if you want)

• Bay leaf or other dried herbs

I don't add fat-soluble spices (e.g., cayenne or paprika) at this point, because there isn't fat in the mix yet. You can add these when preparing the cooked beans or toward the end of the cooking process after blooming them in oil. I tend to cook beans with neutral flavors so that I can add a wider variety of flavors later on - this means I can make a big pot of beans at the start of the week and use those beans in different dishes throughout the week.

3) Bring the beans and water to a hard boil and boil for 15 minutes.

4) After 15 minutes, choose your own adventure: Path A (my preference): pour the contents of the dutch oven into a crock pot an cook on low until the beans are tender, which usually takes about 3 hours. You can also do it faster on high obviously, but low and slow is the best option for beans. Don't start the beans in the crock pot because it is important that they truly boil for 15 minutes. As they cook, taste them periodically to check for tenderness and seasoning.

Path B: lower the heat on the dutch oven and cook the beans on a low simmer until tender, about 90 minutes.

5) To confirm the beans are done cooking, taste three from different areas in the cooking vessel. If all three are tender, the pot is done. When the beans are tender, add more salt to taste and additional seasonings. At this point, you can either drain them to use in another dish, cook off the broth, or store the beans in their cooking broth. Cooked beans freeze nicely in their broth. I suppose you could also can them, but I don't know how to do that.

What can I do with beans?

Replace meat - put beans in tacos, pasta, soups, hot dishes/casseroles, or any other dishes where you would usually use meat

• Smitten Kitchen's black bean and vegetable bake

• Roast sweet potatoes with black beans and your favorite taco seasoning blend for taco, burrito, or enchilada filling

• Add beans to literally any pasta dish, although I tend to prefer them with pasta rather than noodles, shape-wise

Make a dip - puree beans into a hummus-adjacent dip for chips or veggies (or just make hummus because chickpeas are indeed beans)

Make beans and rice - I love rice almost as much as I love beans. A bowl of rice and beans with various accoutrements (herbs, cheese, fun sauces like pesto or zhoug) is always a perfect easy meal.

Make a dense bean salad - mix beans with chopped veggies, herbs, and dressing for a salad that you can keep in the fridge and eat throughout the week. If you want added protein, add some chicken or tuna.

• Smitten Kitchen's Beach Bean Salad

• Cowboy caviar - black beans, corn, peppers, and whatever other Tex-Mex ingredients you wish

• Add beans to a bagged salad mix for protein

• Make tuna salad, but use beans instead of tuna

• Make potato salad, but use beans instead of potatoes

• Make egg salad, but use beans instead of eggs

• You get the point

Marinate beans - mix beans with any kind of salad dressing, herby sauce, or even just olive oil and salt for a simple side dish

Make bean burgers - mash beans and bind with egg and bread crumbs to form patties and then sear in a hot skillet (bean burgers are a little too delicate to grill easily)

Roast beans - roast cooked beans tossed in olive oil and seasonings in a hot oven (with convection if you have it) until they are crispy, then eat on their own or use as a garnish for salad

Greens and beans - cook greens like kale or swiss chard until tender and add cooked beans. Flavor it any way you like!

• Stanley Tucci's beans and greens

Classic bean dishes - bean burritos, chili, baked beans, and curries

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*CSA stands for community-supported agriculture. CSAs provide a mutually beneficial partnership between produce eaters and produce producers in which the consumer pre-pays for a produce (or meat, cheese, eggs, bread, flowers, etc.) ahead of the growing season and then receives boxes at regular intervals throughout the season. This gives producers an influx of cash at the start of the season so they don't need to wait to sell their products later on and connects producers directly to consumers. I've been getting a vegetable CSA from The Good Acre for many years and it is a fabulous way to support local small farms and get really amazing sustainably-produced vegetables all summer and into fall. You can find CSA programs across the country here.