•Add chickpeas to whole-grain dishes such as quinoa, barley and brown rice pilafs.
• Use a variety of legumes when making chili. Try chickpeas, black beans and soy beans in addition to kidney beans.
• Add cooked black beans to tacos and burritos. Use half the amount of lean ground meat you normally would and make up the difference with beans.
• Add cooked lentils to quesadillas along with other fillings you enjoy.
• Add cooked white kidney beans to a tomato-based pasta sauce for a Mediterranean inspired meal.
• Toss cooked lentils into sautéed leafy greens such as spinach or Swiss chard for a healthy side dish.
For more great tasting legumes ideas and recipes, visit saskpulse.com.
Soaking and cooking legumes
To rehydrate dried beans before cooking, use the quick soak method. (Lentils do not need to be soaked before cooking.) Place beans in a large pot with three times the volume of cool water. Bring to a boil for two minutes and then remove from the heat. Cover and let stand for one hour, then drain and rinse in a colander.
To cook, add three cups of unsalted water for very cup of soaked beans. The water should come up to two inches above the top of the beans. Add one to two tablespoons of vegetable oil to prevent boiling over. Bring the beans to a gentle boil and then reduce to a simmer, partly covering the pot. Gently stir beans occasionally during cooking. Skim off any foam that develops.
The cooking time will vary depending on the size of the legume. Small legumes (black beans, pinto beans, navy beans, lentils) may take 30 to 45 minutes to cook; medium-sized legumes (kidney beans, chickpeas, lima beans) can take one to two hours.
Once beans are tender, remove from the heat and allow them to sit in the water they have been cooked in while they cool. This prevents them from drying out. Once cooked, legumes are ready to be used in recipes.
Leslie Beck, a Toronto-based dietitian at the Medcan Clinic, is on CTV’s Canada AM every Wednesday. Her website is lesliebeck.com.
