Wholesome Wednesdays: Legumes

If it were a normal December, I'd be saying things like "brrrr, it's soup weather!" But La Nina is messing with my plans. That's not keeping me from making yummy soup though. I had some good friends over for a simple yet delicious meal of bean soup last night and was inspired to write my praises for legumes, those sometimes gassy forms of near complete protein.

Bean soup with tomatoes, peppers, onions and herbs from the garden, homemade chicken stock, free range chicken sausage, adzuki and black beans, smoked paprika, chilly powder, salt and lots of time.

Dried beans are a wonderful source of protein and they store so well. They can be kept in attractive lines of mason jars on your counter, or be stowed in conveniently shaped plastic tubs in the cupboard. They store for years and take very little effort to rehydrate into delicious concoctions of hummus, falafel, chilly, soup, or just about any yummy side or main dish you can think of. When paired with rice the amino acids chains form near complete proteins, making the ole 'bean and rice' simple meal a vegetarian's go-to meal for healthy, vegetarian protein.

Legumes pack in so much punch, in fact they can be hard to digest. This difficulty is also caused by the stachyrose and raffinose present in legumes, which are not ingestible by the small intestine, and pass down to the colon instead. Flatulence is also caused by a sugar –- oligosaccharide which cannot be broken down. Soaking beans overnight and discarding the soaking water can help eliminate the presence of these pesky elements. Combining the nutrient-rich bean with some ruffage (leafy greens), epazote or just a mixture of other cooked/raw foods can also help to make them more digestible. Lentils cause the least amount of flatulence and have some of the best nutrients, so they may be a great option for folks not desiring to scare away their co-workers the next day. Legumes have quite a bit of iron in them, another reason they're a great red meat replacement that's easier on the body and environment. Beans also have a large amount of fiber in them which will help you to feel full if dieting, aid in 'regularity' and help stave off cancer and obesity by boosting overall health.  You can never have too much fiber, in my opinion.

I could go on and on about beans, but i'll leave it at this: it's easy to buy canned beans. They make a very quick meal. But they're also lacking a lot of the nutrition that's essential to good health. It takes a little extra time to soak beans overnight, but really - is that so much effort? The beans are really doing all the work for you and they only take 45 minutes to cook the next day. You can let them simmer all day long as i did for the soup above, but you don't HAVE to. Go out and buy some dried beans today. You'll be thrilled with their price point: cents a pound versus dollars a can, and your overall health will thank you. The fields used to graze inefficient cattle instead of complete human-feeding foods will thank you as well when they eventually get turned back over to more efficient food raising. Or at least i can hope....    Dried beans! The musical fruit! The more you eat! The more resistant to cancer, obesity, irregularity and general malaise you'll be! hahaha.

What's your favorite use for dried beans?

Wholesome Wednesdays: Potato

Not feeling overly inspired today: having ones nose totally clogged causes a serious decrease in interest in cooking or eating. That being said - potatoes are a great go to meal addition. Oven fries, baked, mashed, as a "crust" to a fresh fritatta, chopped into a curry or stir fry: potatoes add a bit of carby starchy satisfaction to otherwise light and healthy meals.

I grew up in the potato farming community of Merrill, OR - sorry, Idaho, but Merrill's got your spuds beat! No potato has tasted as delicious since supping of the 'just dug' potatoes of my mother's garden. I've tried to grow potatoes here - tried and failed. It can be done, but i don't have a ton of space or patience and prefer to grow fresh green type foods and purchase my storage foods at the market. I don't have the nice, dark, dry garage for storing foods that she does. One day... one day.

For now i just buy potatoes. I like the red ones. I like yams too - but that's a whole other story. I pretty much always get red potatoes and try to get them local or from the Klamath basin. They're good for mashers and oven fries - not as great for baked potatoes, but still tasty. I always have a few in my kitchen drawer waiting for the 'i do not feel like cooking tonight - how about some oven fries with tasty dip?' evenings. They're starchy and carb heavy, but a better alternative to a loaf of bread or pile of pasta. Let's see how they break down:



Definitely a lot of carbs - but no fat and a little protein. I say that's not so sinful! According to WHFoods, potatoes are a decent source of vitamin C and B6. Potatoes are also high in fiber, thus their filling attribute. WHFoods also highlights this important health benefit:

A new analytical method developed by Agricultural Research Service plant geneticist Roy Navarre has identified 60 different kinds of phytochemicals and vitamins in the skins and flesh of 100 wild and commercially grown potatoes. Analysis of Red and Norkotah potatoes revealed that these spuds' phenolic content rivals that of broccoli, spinach and Brussels sprouts, and includes flavonoids with protective activity against cardiovascular disease, respiratory problems and certain cancers. Navarre's team also identified potatoes with high levels of vitamin C, folic acid, quercetin and kukoamines. These last compounds, which have blood pressure lowering potential, have only been found in one other plant, Lycium chinense (a.k.a., wolfberry/gogi berry). How much kukoamine is needed for a blood pressure lowering effect in humans must be assessed before it can be determined whether an average portion of potatoes delivers enough to impact cardiovascular health. Still, potatoes' phytochemical profiles show it's time to shed their starch-only image; spuds-baked, steamed or healthy sautéed but not fried-deserve a place in your healthy way of eating."Phytochemical Profilers Investigate Potato Benefits,"Agricultural Research, September 2007

Potatoes may also help lower blood pressure, boost your cells and brain functions with B6 and protect the heart.

Potatoes have a rather fascinating history that i've gleaned from various programs on public television. Thought of as Irish food - potatoes actually came with Columbus (or somebody) from the Americas. You can still find ancient varieties of potatoes as stables in south american diets. Isn't it amazing how a little tuber transformed the world - can you imagine a world without 'French' fries?

As a bonus info: Potatoes are members of Solanaceae (nightshade family), along with eggplants, peppers and tomatoes these plants can cause some irritation to arthritis. If allowed to flower, potatoes will put on a fruit resembling a tomato! Fascinating. Generally the tubers are harvested before this happens.

New: Wholesome Wednesdays

 Things have been a little slow on the cooking/recipe writing front around here, so i thought i would implement a new feature. Every Wednesday I will highlight some ingredient that i either grow or cook with frequently. I will try and focus on wholesome things ranging for basics, such as wheat to more 'exotic' things like turmeric.

For my first WW post i thought i would do some research on Fava beans.

I first planted fava beans this fall to act as a cover crop for our gourd patch. My husband unfortunately (fortunately for me as i've reclaimed them in the front yard) decided not to use the planters he used last year in lieu of planting in the ground, so the cover crop aspect of these beans has been lost- for the gourds at least. I still have one beautiful plant growing in my front bed, which will be followed by winter squash happy to ingest the nitrogen the beans leave behind.

Fava beans (Vicia faba), like many other legumes, are nitrogen fixers: they take in the nitrogen from the atmosphere and place it into nodules at their roots. Most of this nitrogen goes directly back into the plants - not into the soil (feeding neighboring plants) as many people assume. However, this nitrogen will make its way into the soil, and your successive plantings when the vegetation (roots, leaves, fruits) of the plant are worked into the soil. This is best done by planting the nitrogen fixing legumes as a cover crop between plantings, cutting them and tilling them in a few weeks before your next planting to work the plant matter into the soil. You can also cut, till in the roots, and reserve the greens as a 'green mulch' around the base of your next planting. This is a pretty fascinating document that explains it all.

Anyhoo, back to the fava bean as an edible veggie. Some basic nutritional data can be seen here or here, on one of my favorite obsessive-compulsive-dieter-friendly websites. The raw beans contain about 75% carbohydrate and 25% protein with a whopping 35 grams of fiber per cup (that's 150% of your daily recommended amount).  Pretty good! Now, what if i wanted to eat them cooked?
Well, this is interesting: cooking the beans reduces the calories for a serving of one cup to 187 from 512, the carbs to 33 from 87 grams, fiber to 9 from 37 grams, and protein to 13 from 39. Cooked fava (also known as broad) beans have fewer calories and carbs, but also  much less fiber and protein. Which would you prefer?

Fava beans are gorgeous plants, tall and lush with striking black and white flowers. I will be planting them as a cover crop again, and look forward to eating this year's crop. But what to do with them?
I may end up lightly sauteing or steaming them and tossing them in a light bean and grain salad. But i'll probably keep some to add raw on top of green salads for a fiber boost.

Do you have a favorite recipe featuring fava beans?