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Easy Esselstyn Diet Recipes with Pictures: Cooking with Dry Staples

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In pursuit of

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Dry staples are natural foods of a daily diet that can be stored over a long time without losing nutritional values. Besides as emergency supplies the use of staples are parts of a healthy nutrition and provide cost-saving in daily food preparation. AND, staples are the answer to the struggle with avoidance of food additives like the unhealthy high salt content in American processed foods. Up to now I was reducing my salt intake by selecting expensive ORGANIC canned foods or using Asian imports of canned foods, both having almost always very low salt content. The BEST WAY however is to use natural staples, dried beans, peas, lentils and stay with their natural mineral content. (Great web resource at WholeFoods Market).

However, my first experiences in working with staples and changing from canned foods to natural dry foods concerned not the recipes but measurements. Beans require soaking overnight at room temperature (in warm environment placed in the fridge to prevent startup of fermentation). Lentils and split peas do not require soaking. A great cooking chart is given by Robin Robertson (in 366 Healthful Ways to Cook Tofu and Other Meat Alternatives – Penguin Group, New York, NY, 1996. ISBN 0452275970):

1 cup dry staples	Add Water in cups	Pre-Cooking Time for soaked stples	Wet yield (in cups)
after soaking in cold water overnight:
Black Beans	3	1 1/2 hrs	2 1/4
Great Northern Beans	3 1/2	1 hrs	~2 1/2
Kidney Beans	3	1 ½ hrs	2
Pinto Beans	3 1/2	2 ½ hrs	2 1/2
Garbanzo Beans (Chickpeas)	2	½ hr
with 2 min boiling and soaking for 1-2 hrs:
Garbanzo Beans (Chickpeas)	soak in 2	1-2 hrs, longer and they will fall apart when afterwards cooked	2
Split Peas are pre-soaked only	soak in 5	use directly without extra pre-cooking	2 1/2
use directly without soaking:
Lentils are used directly without soaking			(Cooked in 3 cups for 45 min yields 2 ½ cups)

(Table expanded and modified)

Some of the more common varieties are:

Pinto Beans, Small Red Beans, Small White Beans, Great Northern Beans, Large Kidney, Dark Kidney, Black-eye Peas, Black Turtle, Garbanzo Beans, Pink Beans, Large Lima Beans, Baby Lima, Lentils, Whole Green Peas, Green Split Peas Yellow Split Peas.

An essential recipe guide was found in a new cook book that made me curious also to consult another but very old vegetarian cook book.

More than 200 Recipes for Fresh Beans, Dried Beans, Cool Beans, Hot Beans, Savory Beans...Even Sweet Beans! (from Publisher)

Bean By Bean: A Cookbook. By Crescent Dragonwagon (Publisher: Workman Publishing Company, Paperback - Jan 15, 2012, ISBN-13: 978-0761132417, 400 pages). $ 10.85 +S&H

200 international, high-fiber, vegetarian recipes.

Bean banquets, from Boston to Bombay. By Patricia R. Gregory (Publisher:: Woodbridge Press, Santa Barbara, CA, Paperback 2^nd edition Oct 1984, ISBN-13: 978-0880071390, 238 pages). New: $ 12.75, used: ~ $ 4.

Legume seeds are natural products and their weight and volume (size) depends on species, variety and growth conditions. Cooking time may also increase with storage age. With that in mind, the following conversions from dry to wet provide only a rough general estimate.

Beans

Black Beans:

1 lb (453g) of dry beans (has a volume of 2 1/3 cups)

produces =>

4 cans (each 14 1/4 oz) of wet beans.

1 can (14 1/4 oz) of wet beans

results from soaking and cooking of

1 heaping half-cup measure of dry beans.

Proportion:

dry (cup) : wet (cup) = 1 : 2.16

Rule of Thumb: 1 cup of dry beans is first soaked in 3 cups of water and cooked in fresh water will produces 2 cups of rinsed wet beans.

Dry Beans Wet Beans

Cost:

1 lb dry beans = $1.19

1 can wet beans from dry beans = 1.19/4 = $0.30

1 can Black Beans = $1.69

Savings:

82% and having benefit of no additionally added salt or fat.

Preparation:

Overnight soaking and 1-1 ½ hour-long cooking.

Dry Staple

1. Sort and wash to remove foreign particles:

2. Soak overnight 1 cup of dry beans with 2-3 cups of water at room temperature (in warm weather use fridge):

3. After 12 hours soaking: Bubbles form when air in the beans is replaced by water and may form if the temperature is too high (causing mild but harmless fermentation):

4. After rinsing and cooking in fresh water for 1 hour beans are

ready

for further use in a recipe:

Quick soaking

1. Sort and wash to remove foreign particles

2. Boil for 2 min: 1 cup of dry beans with 2-3 cups of water

3. Let soak for 2 hr in hot water that is cooling down slowly.

4. After rinsing and cooking in fresh water for 1 1/2 hour beans are

ready

for further use in a recipe.

Great White Northern Beans:

1 can (14 1/4 oz) of cooked beans (1 ¾ cups)

results from soaking and cooking of

2 One-Third--Cup measures of dry White Great Northern beans (see picture to the right).

2 cans (14 1/4 oz) of cooked beans (3 ½ cups)

results from soaking and cooking of

1 + 1/3 cups of dry White Great Northern beans

3 cans (14 1/4 oz) of cooked beans (5 ¼ cups)

results from soaking and cooking of

2 cups of dry White Great Northern beans

Preparation:

Overnight soaking and 1 hour-long cooking.

Do not overcook. Fresh dry Great Northern will be very soft after soaking and 1 hr pre-cooking. So reduce the pre- cooking time by the recipe’s required cooking time.

Let pre-cooked beans cool down slowly otherwise their skin cracks and peals easily

Bean Recipes

Recipes that use black beans:

Dinner

004: Caribbean Black Beans with Mango Salsa

016: Butternut Black Bean Chili

063: Vegetarian Chili (added at bottom of page)

069: Mexican Chili Mole Supreme

Recipes that use Pinto beans:

Dinner

007: Burritos with Pinto Beans

Recipes that use kidney beans:

Dinner

063: Vegetarian Chili

Recipes that use Great Northern White beans:

Dinner

031 Escarole with White Bean Soup

106 Turnip Green Bean Stew

109 Braised Beans with Dandelion Green

Peas

Green Split Peas:

1 lb (453g) of dry split peas (has a volume of 2 cups)

produces => 4 cans (each 14 1/4 oz) of wet peas.

1 can (14 1/4 oz) of wet peas

results from soaking and cooking of

1 half-cup measure of dry peas.

Proportion:

dry (cup) : wet (cup) = 1 : 2.5

Pea Recipes

Recipes that use Green Split Peas

Dinner

064 Split Pea Soup

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