Tag Archives: pulses

Food, pulses, Uncategorized

Bean burgers

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Back to my plan of cooking through my clipped recipe file! I have been cooking, just not updating. So anyway, I remembered about the idea when looking through the old posts, and although a bit late today, I will jump right in. With tonight’s dinner, bean burgers.

These were printed off the internet, with no quantities to the ingredients. And I just changed what I did see to round it out more. They smell great, and I can’t wait to cook them and eat them! Trying to serve with polenta and a green salad and some sauteed cauliflower (it’s in the fridge).

Polenta is in the Instant Pot. I have been making a lot of polenta lately because I accidentally bought an extra package of cornmeal and am trying to eat through it. The Instant Pot makes polenta simple and hands off, so now I am making polenta all the time. 🙂

Here’s the recipe for the polenta, barley, and salt potatoes. 🙂

And an IP is here. I recommend it, if you like beans. [amazon_link asins=’B00FLYWNYQ’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’002′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’227c125e-ad77-11e8-81ea-b56f006ec6a3′]

I chopped up some celery, cauliflower and tomato to cook fast in some butter. The lemon and scallion is to finish it off the heat.

So tasty! I made these a few hours ago, and put them in the fridge as is. They held together well and flipped nicely. There is an egg in them so it’s not vegan. I bet aquafaba would work, but I went with the egg.

Oil is ready to cook in when it thinks out and shimmers. You want to leave space for the burgers to cook and not steam.

Those will go for 5min and then be flipped. Five more and then dressed on the plate.

That’s the spiced mayonnaise, and pickled cukes that go on top. It was a hit, although DH suggested the cucumber be chopped like a relish to make it easier to eat with the burgers. Or croquettes— coquettes are breaded and have a crispy outside nad a creamy inside. That’s way more what these are like than a ‘burger’.

And the recipe:

3 cloves garlic

1 cup cilantro leaves whir in processor (or chop?)

I used 3 cups of leftover beans from the Make Your Own Beans I posted earlier.

1 T soy sauce

1 T rice vinegar

1T dark sesame oil

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp siracha

pinch salt

whir together until mixed but still chunky. add

1 egg (or 3 T bean juice) and whir until mixed. You do NOT want a paste.

put into a bowl and mix in ~ 3/4 cups of bread crumbs (until it holds together) Let sit while making the condiments. Then make into patties (I made 7), and bread with a mix of

1/3 cup breadcrumbs

3 T sesame seeds

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne powder

Refrigerate several hours. Heat oil in a pan on medium heat, add burgers, and fry on each side about 5 minutes, turning once until golden brown.

Serve topped with a dollop of mayo and spoonful of relish.

Relish:
1/2 diced cucumber (1/2 a medium sized one) with seeds removed

1 T rice vinegar

1/2 tsp brown sugar

a bit of lemon zest

pinch salt

let sit to cure

Mayonnaise

1/3 cup mayonaise

3 T cilantro, minced

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1/3 tsp siracha

mix well.

And for lunch today, a cold crumbled burger on green salad. Still good!

Food, health, pulses

WHO is saying to eat pulses?

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I’m so sorry. I will try to avoid that in the future. But yes, the WHO, the US and Canada are all pushing to eat more pulses. The UN actually made 2016 the ‘Year of the Pulse’ to try and get more people to eat them.

Yes, another post about how important it is to get more pulses into your diet. Because it simply can’t be emphasized enough that pulses are cheap, so affordable to everyone around the world, not just to trim a food budget; highly nutritious, so they can reduce malnutrition in poverty stricken countries, and add nutrition to the food rich but nutrition poor diets of many western countries; healthy, for digestive systems, hearts, blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels, and many other lifestyle issues; good for the environment, because pulses add to the biodiversity of the soil they are grown in, contributing to healthier soil a healthier environment, and reducing the need for fertilizer; and good for the environment because they mitigate climate change and put less waste into our environment.

There are simply no reasons to not add pulses to your diet, or replace some proteins in your diet with them and many many reasons to do it. Of course, this is assuming you do not have one of the rare problems where you simply cannot digest pulses.

So you are sold, and you want to add more pulses to your diet? You are in luck, because one thing I have is a wide range of pulse meals to share.

Food, health, pulses

Why do I love Pulses?

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It’s obvious that I do from my first post on the subject. But why do I love them? Because they are healthy, cheap, taste good and quite often easy.

They are cheap. You can still find them in supermarkets for under $1 a pound for dry beans, which can be up to 16 servings. Even canned beans are incredibly cheap per serving compared to any other form of protein. Both canned and dried beans will last in a pantry for ages, so they are a worthwhile investment. You really can’t beat the price, and adding a pulse based meal or two to your menu will reduce your shopping budget substantially. There’s a reason why financial experts say you need to eat beans and rice while getting debt under control.

The easiest way to make a pulse is to pop open a can, rinse, and top with your favorite vinaigrette. You can’t get much simpler than that.

They taste good. There are so many ways to cook them even if you or your family professes to hate them, you’ll find one or two recipes everyone will love. And there are so many varieties of pulses, you may find one or two types that make all the difference.

And they are healthy. You’ve heard that before, I am sure. They are one of the highest fiber foods easily available, and fiber is key to weight loss, digestive health, reducing certain cancers, controlling blood sugar, and more. And with most first world countries saying people need to eat 25-38 grams of fiber a day, beans (with 7-14 grams of fiber per serving) are a good way to get extra fiber in.

In addition to fiber, beans are full of complex carbohydrates, which provide long term energy and reduce strain on your insulin level (they have a low glycemic index). A breakfast or lunch with beans will keep you going through the day better than one full of sugars.

Beans are also a protein and nutrient dense food. Canadian researches have learned that Canadians who eat more pulses have more nutrient rich diets overall.

And while you may have heard that protein in beans ‘isn’t complete’, in our modern world it is both not necessary to have complete proteins at every meal, and it is quite simple to ‘complete’ a pulse’s protein. You just add nuts or grains. Most cultures already have a grain accompaniment to traditional bean dishes, and that’s an easy addition.