Beans, Beans, Beans.

**Durgan** · 08-12-2008, 09:29 PM

Beans are a great food, over-looked by most people. I am referring to the dried beans available in bulk food stores. They are almost as cheap as dirt, and are n excellent food source, and with little effort they can be cooked with ease. Also they are a direct replacement for meat, particularly soy beans, but any bean is excellent.

Here is my quick and almost effortless method of cooking and serving beans. They can also be baked but it takes more time. Enjoy.

http://www.durgan.org/ShortURL/?LCBMN 12 August 2007 Pressure cooking dried beans.

http://www.durgan.org/ShortURL/?POHTS 12 August 2007 Meal based on beans.

**PrairieRose** · 08-12-2008, 10:53 PM

We *lurve* beans at our house. We prefer pinto beans with a little bit of meat cooked in with for flavoring. My personal fave. meal with beans at the center is red beans (pintos) with fried taters and onions and cornbread with sweet iced tea. Omg, my mouth waters just typing it out.

**cab54** · 08-12-2008, 11:11 PM

We're having beans sometime this week.

**cissylu** · 08-12-2008, 11:18 PM

we love beans here also.

**Darlene** · 08-13-2008, 08:23 AM

All hail the bean! Thanks for your tips Durgan.

**trying to be frugal** · 08-13-2008, 09:18 AM

Beans are awesome!!! The preassure cooker makes them a snap.

**The Muse** · 08-13-2008, 09:20 AM

I can't imagine life without chickpeas.

**Durgan** · 08-13-2008, 09:31 AM

The bulk food store has more nutritional food at a low cost than the supermarkets.

Most food products in a pretty package, with details of the ingredients in small print, are indicative of food that should be avoided. Any food that will keep indefinitely at room temperature is not fit for human or animal consumption.

The bulk stores have almost everything people should be eating, but prepared food tastes nicer-whatever that is, and takes less effort. And the results show on the general population at large.

Eat to live-not live to eat.

**dcompton** · 08-13-2008, 02:55 PM

I got a pressure cooker recently but haven't used it much yet, as I've been eating things I already had cooked. But very soon, I'm going to cook beans in it - this was one the things I had in mind when I bought it. I'm also in the crowd that loves beans. I always wants something to eat when I get in late at night from work, and nothing is quite as good (or cheap) as a bowl of beans.

**TexasPeanut** · 08-13-2008, 03:01 PM

We are huge bean eaters in my family. My main pantry staple is always having a large variety of dried beans on hand for those times I can't have fresh and canned won't do.

LOVE beans!

**tbs727** · 08-13-2008, 05:31 PM

Beans are something I don't utilize nearly enough in my home. I don't even know where to start.

**Palooka** · 08-14-2008, 01:50 AM

My pantry would cry if beans did not live in that space.

**Durgan** · 08-16-2008, 09:48 AM

Now for some variation in my diet, I will go to the bulk food store and get a variety of peas and make peas soup in the pressure cooker. The last batch of beans are almost all gone.

**Durgan** · 08-27-2008, 08:05 PM

Originally Posted by dcompton

I got a pressure cooker recently but haven't used it much yet, as I've been eating things I already had cooked. But very soon, I'm going to cook beans in it - this was one the things I had in mind when I bought it. I'm also in the crowd that loves beans. I always wants something to eat when I get in late at night from work, and nothing is quite as good (or cheap) as a bowl of beans.

I cannot over emphasize the use of an insert inside the pressure cooker. In India, pressure cooking is a fine art, and all pressure cookers are sold with an insert. Why this is not the case in North America is astonishing. I made my insert from a colander with two handles on the side, which I snapped off with a quick blow from a hammer, since they are only spot welded.

With the insert the food does not have contact with water, since the support at the bottom of the colander is about two inches in height. This means your food does not boil up and block the exhaust rocker, and cause the safety valve to blow, spreading food on the ceiling and all over the stove, plus scaring the daylights out of the operator.

Dried food, beans, peas, etc., are particularly susceptible to blocking the rocker if used without an insert.

Finally food inside a pressure cooker should not touch the water. The food should be cooked by steam. If a condiment mixture is needed, this should be added with water in another pot and boiled gently to mix with the pressure cooked food.

Never use the pressure cooker lid with the gasket to cover a pot, since the gasket will dry out and be destroyed. Only use the pressure cooker lid on the pressure cooker pot, when actually pressure cooking.

All this is from hard experience.

**mira** · 08-27-2008, 09:20 PM

My goodness that looks scrumptious! Any chance you'll share the proportions of the ingredients?

I could try to convert it to a crockpot recipe. I'm afraid of pressure cookers and don't have that much room in my kitchen any way. My new kitchen is so small that I am actually giving/mailing my toaster/roaster/baking oven (countertop version - it's awesome) to my Mom because I have no room in my new kitchen. DH points out that we need to start using less appliances and using the appliances we have more anyway. Makes sense.