Food for Soul and Body

Desperate for candle holders one day, I set tapers upright in small glasses filled with dried pinto beans. They were surprisingly beautiful, and caused me to pay closer attention to dried beans. An amazing variety exists!

I admit, beans have been a "should" food in my kitchen (they are rich in iron, protein, and fiber), sitting patiently on the cupboard shelf until I run out of more interesting menu ideas. And then there is the, well, explosive quality to beans that--they say--soaking solves. So what about this earthy food?

Favas, lentils, and chickpeas (garbanzos) were among the few legumes eaten in the Old World before Columbus and his sailors took home the beans that are now familiar to all of us--pintos, kidneys, limas, white, and black beans. Add to the list black-eyed peas, pigeon peas, split peas, cranberry beans, flageolets, and the evocatively named "heirloom" beans that have staged a comeback--Maine Yellow Eye, Indian Woman, European Soldier, Rattlesnake, Wren's Egg, Jacob's Cattle, Pueblo, Black Turtle, Appaloosa, Cargamento--and you have quite a selection. But please do more with these beautiful, gem-like beans than make candle holders out of them!

For starters, most dried beans need a four-hour soaking to tenderize the seed coat. Use plenty of cold water, at least three times as much volume as you have beans. Never salt the soaking or cooking water, because salt will toughen the skin and prevent the beans from softening, as will acid-containing ingredients such as tomatoes or lemon juice. Add such things only after beans are cooked as soft as you want them.

A quick-soak method is to cover dried beans with two inches of water, boil them in a saucepan for 10 minutes, and then soak for 30 minutes to one hour. Drain, rinse, and cook. Lentils, split peas, and black-eyed peas have thin skins and only need soaking if you wish them to be ultra-digestible.

Cook beans by simmering them covered for an hour or longer. (Again, exceptions include lentils and split peas, which take as little as 10 to 30 minutes.) Add hot water as necessary to keep the level two inches above the beans; more water just lengthens the cooking time. A few varieties such as garbanzo beans and soy beans take several hours to cook completely; the only shortcuts are to use a microwave, pressure cooker, or to buy canned beans--sometimes a necessary compromise. When you do cook beans, make twice as many as you need and freeze half for future use.

Beans cause gas because of the meeting of bean biology with human chemistry. Dried beans contain complex sugars called oligosaccharides. Normal digestive enzymes cannot break them down, so they pass into the lower intestine, where bacteria ferment them. Natural by-products of fermentation include methane and hydrogen, which are odorless gases. However, most of us eat beans spiced with onions, garlic, and other ingredients that do produce odors, particularly sulfur odors.

Fortunately, most oligosaccharides are water-soluble, so you can soak them away. Change the water once or twice during soaking, rinsing beans before adding fresh water. Even after cooking begins you can change the water once after boiling five minutes. If you eat beans regularly you will have fewer problems with gas because your system develops the capacity to digest beans efficiently (however, this process takes several months).

Considering the variety of beans and ways of fixing them, this frequency shouldn't be difficult to achieve. Sprinkle cooked cranberry beans on a salad. Puree seasoned white beans and use as a sauce for fish or vegetables. Cook kidney beans with an onion, cloves, a carrot, ham hock, garlic, parsley, bay leaf, and thyme; serve as a main or side dish.

Or make up your own version of the thick Italian soup pasta e fagioli, which has pasta cooked right into the soup along with white, cranberry, or pinto beans; sausage or bacon; celery; carrot; garlic; whole tomatoes; and spices, such as rosemary and sage. (Puree half the soup and return to the pot before adding pasta.)

Carey Burkett, former assistant to the editor at Sojourners, was an organic vegetable farmer in Hallettsville, Texas, when this article appeared.