Tag Archives: beans

Picture of two glass trays with vegan lupin spread

Lupin seeds spread

nutrition, , , ,

Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy, and plant-based

The forgotten brother of the soya bean

Choosing to eat plant-based food simultaneously offers opportunities to break free from the unhealthy traditions of our traditional animal-based eating habits.

Lupin seeds, like soybeans and other beans, are part of the immense family of legumes.
Here is an interesting recipe for a preparation to garnish bread or toast that is both spreadable and sliceable thanks to the presence of coconut oil. In terms of flavour and texture, you can think of the result as a tasty alternative to cheese.
Personally, I believe the plant-based movement would benefit from stopping trying to imitate animal products. Because by doing so, it classifies itself as second-rate, as Ersatz, as if everything plant-based can only be an approximate copy of animal originals. While it is actually the other way around. When the first animals appeared on earth, it had long been covered by a lush, green carpet of plants. Plant-based cuisine has its own intrinsic value and immensely varied palette of flavours. It is time to rediscover and appreciate it.

What ingredients do you need?

  • 200 g dry or about 550 g ready-to-use cooked lupin seeds
  • 100 g extra virgin coconut oil
  • 6 teaspoons of nutritional yeast
  • 4 tablespoons of water or beans’ cooking liquid
  • 1 tablespoon tamari (soy sauce)
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric
  • also 1 tablespoon of white miso
  • and then 1 or half a teaspoon extra sea salt (optional)
  • extra black pepper (optional)

The pressure to imitate cheese at all costs has the side effect that often too much salt is used in recipes for so-called “cheese substitutes”. Lupin seeds from a jar are usually already pickled. Tamari and, to a lesser extent, miso also give extra salty flavour. That’s why the last extra whole or half teaspoon of sea salt is only included as an option, which I found in the original recipe for this spread. Moreover, I myself always use reduced-salt tamari.
It is in the interest of your health to keep your salt intake on the low side.

Preparation method

First method, with ready-to-use cooked lupin seeds

  • Drain the brine from the lupin seeds and rinse them under running water.
  • Melt the coconut oil au bain marie over hot water.
  • Add all the ingredients into a food processor with an S-shaped blade and grind to a smooth yet firm texture.
  • Taste and adjust salt and pepper levels if necessary.
  • Transfer to a container that you can close with a lid and store in the fridge.

Second method, starting from dry lupin seeds

This is my favourite. The white-coloured, dry lupin seeds are preferable to pickled, ready-to-use seeds in terms of price and packaging situation.

  • Soak the 200 g lupin seeds for 24 h in very ample water. Their volume at least doubles.
  • Cook the soaked lupin seeds (without salt!) with some seaweed and savory for about 40 minutes in a pressure cooker. This yields about 550 g of cooked lupin seeds.
  • Scoop the cooked lupin seeds from the cooking liquid and let them cool.
  • Have some cooking liquid aside as an alternative to the tablespoons of water.
  • Melt the coconut oil au bain marie over hot water.
  • Add all the ingredients into a food processor with an S-shaped blade
  • Grind until smooth yet firm.
  • Taste and adjust salt and pepper levels if necessary.
  • Tranfer into a container that you can close with a lid and store in the fridge.

Done!
Of course, you can also cook the lupin seeds in a classic saucepan with a lid until tender, but that takes much longer (up to an hour and a half!). A pressure cooker is much more economical to use. It is well worth the investment if you often eat beans. The lupin seeds change colour during the cooking process, turning a deep warm yellow.
This vegetable spread keeps for up to 3 weeks in the fridge.

Taste test and health verdict

This will appeal to true cheese addicts. The result has a salty, slightly oily taste and is very filling. So this could be of interest to those having a hard time kicking off fatty, animal-based cheese.
The spread is high in protein and fat, making you feel satiated very quickly. Yet a caveat: it is the coconut oil that provides the rich fat content. Coconut oil is, quite wrongly, often praised to the skies in terms of nutritional value. But coconut oil, is made of almost exclusively saturated fats, of which it is best not to consume too much. Yes, coconut oil has a slightly better fatty acid profile than animal saturated fat. But beware, it is still better to use in moderation.
Thus, I would be more inclined to incorporate the lupine seeds into a spread with no or less added fats, along the lines of this tomato hummus.
Indeed, opting for plant-based eating offers opportunities to simultaneously break free from the unhealthy habits of our traditional animal-based eating traditions.
Picture of lupin seeds in brine and lupin flowers

Lupin and lupin seeds

Lupin flowers are sometimes known because of the brightly coloured red to purple over yellow to white torch-shaped flowers planted in gardens as ornamental flowers. In agriculture, lupin is grown as a so-called green manure crop. Because the plant absorbs nitrogen from the air and stores it in its roots. Thus, it enriches the soil. Lupin flour is made from the seeds, which is then often wasted as animal feed. For human consumption, you usually find pre-cooked lupin seeds in brine in jars in the trade. The dry seeds are harder to find. Nevertheless, there is a hopeful renewed interest in growing this valuable plant species.
As already mentioned at the bottom of this recipe for tomato hummus, legumes are good meat substitutes. With the caveat that their amino acid profile is not the same as that of animal products. Their lower levels of the amino acid methionine you can compensate for by simply eating cereal products. Legumes and cereals complement each other perfectly. And you don’t have to eat them together in the same meal.
Lupin seeds and soybeans, however, are an exception to the above rule. They are very well balanced in terms of amino acid profile on their own.
Lupin seeds are very rich in protein: some 35 g per 100 g of dry seeds. But of course you don’t eat these seeds dry. Cooked lupin still contains 15 g of protein per 100 g of ready-to-use product.

Lupin seed spread, per 100 g of product

Values are approximate and without the extra teaspoon of salt, which is optional.

Energy Carboh. Sugars Fat Sat. Fat Protein Fibre Salt
949 kJ/227 kcal 9,8 g 1,1 g 15,5 g 11,2 g 13,7 g 3,0 g 0,13 g

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Picture of a chocolate spread with azuki beans

Azuki beans chocospread

nutrition, , ,

Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy, and plant-based

Beans are super versatile

How do you get kids to eat beans? Preferably as early and as regularly as possible. In the recipe below, azuki beans are processed in an unusual way to make a delicious chocolate-flavoured spread. This is much better than the commercial, usually excessively sweet chocolate spreads that are high in sugar, fat and also often contain cow’s milk.
Azuki beans can be found in the organic section of regular supermarkets or at organic shops and organic supermarkets. They are small, red-brown beans with a white spot in the middle. They are native to China or Japan.
Azuki beans are very healthy and have a slightly sweet flavour when cooked.

This is what you need

To fill two glass jars of about 225ml capacity, take:

  • 100g dry azuki beans
  • 7 soft dates (mazafati or medjoul)
  • 30g unsweetened cocoa powder
  • savory
  • some dried seaweed, such as sea lettuce for example
  • a tiny pinch of sea salt

This is how to prepare them

  • Soak the azuki beans in plenty of water for 24 hours.
  • Then pour off the soaking water and rinse them well.
  • Cook the azuki beans until tender in unsalted water with some seaweed and savory.
  • Let cool.
  • Scoop the cooked beans, cocoa, pinch of salt and pitted dates into a food processor with an S-shaped blade.
  • Mash to a smooth paste. If necessary, scrape the sides of the cup occasionally.
  • Spoon the chocolate paste into jars and store in the fridge.

All done!

How to cook azuki beans?

We’ve started off with 100 grams of dry azuki beans in this recipe. Dry beans that you can buy in bulk store easily and are low in packaging. After soaking, the weight of the beans has doubled to almost 200 grams. After cooking, the wet bean mass weighs about 350 grams, including the seaweed and bean sprouts. So you could also work with pre-cooked canned azuki beans for this recipe. In that case, take about 350 grams of canned azuki beans.
Important: always cook dry beans without adding salt. Otherwise, the skin will harden and it will be very difficult to cook the beans until tender.
Take as the volume for the water about 3 to 4 times the volume of the (dry) beans.
Cook the azuki beans for about 1 hour on a gentle heat until tender in a classic pan with a lid. Scoop away any foam that floats to the top with a skimmer until the water remains almost clear. Then add some savory and some seaweed such as sea lettuce. This provides extra minerals and you hardly taste it in the end result.
I always cook the beans in a high pressure cooker for the sake of saving time and energy. Bring the beans to the boil and leave the lid loose on the pan for the first few minutes to then easily scoop away the foam here too. When the water remains reasonably clear, close the cooker and bring under pressure.
30-35 minutes of pressure cooking is enough to cook the azukis.

The taste test and health verdict

This naturally sweetened chocolate spread is rich in fibre yet contains a lot of valuable protein thanks to the azuki beans and cocoa. Low in fat, this spread is an ideal way to get children to eat legumes. And as an adult, you can continue to enjoy that heavenly experience on a slice of toasted wholemeal bread, completely plant-based and without the harmful side effects of the overly sugary and nutritionally inferior chocolate spreads on the market.
Moreover, you can also use this chocolate spread as a top or interlayer for pastries.

Choose ethical cocoa

Cocoa, like chocolate and also coffee, can be considered a luxury product or even an occasional pleasure food originating from tropical regions. Therefore, choose cocoa of ethical origin preferably. Look for brands, labels and certification that offer real guarantees that no child labour was involved. Because some of those labels look promising, but in practice mean little or nothing.
The much-used UTZ label is a telling example.

Choco paste made from azuki beans and dates, per 100 grams of product:

Energy Carboh. Sugars Fat Sat. Fat Protein Fibre Salt
752 kJ/180 kcal 42,8 g 20,7 g 1,0 g 0,4 g 6,1 g 6,2 0,06 g

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Marinated edamame beans

Two hearty snacks with edamame

nutrition, , ,

Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy, and plant-based

Nutritional value hinges on preparation

Edamame are green soybeans. Young green soybeans are also called mukimame.
Edamame beans are not readily available everywhere, but you can find them more and more. In organic shops and Oriental supermarkets most easily. Usually deep frozen, and stripped of their pods. And if you have a choice between with or without pods, do without. Because the fibrous, rough pods are not so tasty.
Edamame beans are not only very healthy, but also super tasty. Of all the beans, they are also the quickest to prepare.
Below are two ideas for an edamame bean-based snack. These immediately give food for thought. About how best to handle preparing legumes and food in general.

Recipe 1: Edamame with cheese and onion flavour

This 100% plant-based recipe uses no cheese at all, of course. However, by cleverly combining some purely plant-based ingredients, you do get something reminiscent of the taste of cheese and onions.

What ingredients do you need?

  • 250g frozen edamame beans, shelled
  • one tablespoon of nutritional yeast flakes
  • half a teaspoon of onion powder or onion grits
  • some black pepper
  • a quarter teaspoon of sea salt
  • half a teaspoon of (apple cider) vinegar
  • and finally half a teaspoon of olive oil

This is how to prepare them

  • Cook the edamame beans in lightly salted water for 5-6 minutes
  • Drain them and rinse briefly
  • Combine all the other ingredients for the marinade
  • Mix the beans into the marinade

Done!

Recipe 2: Grilled spicy Edamame beans

The big difference here is that the marinated beans are grilled in the oven or in an airfryer at 180 to 190 °C.

What ingredients do you need?

  • 250g frozen edamame beans, shelled
  • a teaspoon of red paprika
  • a pinch of cayenne pepper
  • one teaspoon of onion powder or onion grits
  • another teaspoon of garlic powder
  • a tablespoon of melted coconut oil
  • and finally a teaspoon of sea salt

This is how to prepare these appetisers with edamame

  • Heat the oven to 190 °C
  • Mix the edamame beans and all the ingredients well
  • Spread them out on a baking tray lined with baking paper for the oven or on the grid of an airfryer
  • Bake for about 30 minutes until brown and crispy

The grilled beans are ready.
Grilled edamame beans

The taste test

I personally fall like a log for the edamame beans in the first recipe. A heavenly flavour with notes of salt, acid and umami with the creaminess of the olive oil. The beans have a firm bite and are juicy. They also look like fresh, firm beans.

Recipe number two sums up very well what flavour and bite is popular in our Western snacking and fast-food culture. It is the sought-after combination of salty, spicy, dry and crunchy. The beans crack just like classic brittle roasted peanuts. Many people will love this and won’t be able to stay away from it. Easily available fast-food peanut snacks are often fried in a crust of oil, salt, sugar and flour. In contrast, these roasted edamame snacks have the advantage of being exempt of sugar, flavour enhancers or food preservatives.
But they look nothing like the fresh, moist beans they were at the beginning of the run. They are now dried out and brown …

The health verdict

Put yourself in the place of your stomach and digestive system for a moment. Which is easiest to digest: the short-cooked beans that have retained their natural moisture content? Or the hard, dry and now browned beans? After all, for these latter, our intestines need extra moisture to digest them.
And which is healthiest: the unheated olive oil or the coconut oil heated to 190 °C?
Recipe number one wins with flying colours!

Eat your food as little processed as possible

Many cookbooks are full of recipes that seem to only give importance to taste, feel and appearance of our food. Rarely is there any mention of health, digestibility or the ease with which the dish can be absorbed by our metabolism.
The same goes for most products displayed in our food shops and supermarkets.
Not infrequently, good ingredients lose much, if not all, of their nutritional value and energetic potential just by the method of preparation chosen. Either by the way they are processed or altered.

What are the healthiest cooking techniques?

In the world of health philosophies, people pretty much agree on one thing. Namely that processed, especially extremely processed foods can be downright harmful in the long run.
Not all foods can be eaten raw. Legumes or certain starchy root vegetables, for example, have to be cooked. On the other hand, some foods are sometimes even nutritionally enhanced after heating. This is the case for steamed or boiled carrots compared to raw carrots, for instance. Fermentation techniques can also change the taste and nutritional value of vegetables for the better.
And in our own kitchen, too, we can very consciously choose those recipes that use short, gentle cooking techniques. Because these involve the fewest losses.
Below are some cooking techniques classified from softer to harder:

  • steaming (over boiling water)
  • blanching
  • boiling
  • steaming (in a small amount of water and fat)
  • baking
  • braising
  • broiling
  • stir frying (wok)
  • grilling
  • deep frying
  • popping
  • blackening

The shorter the food item is heated and the softer the cooking technique, the greater the remaining nutritional value.

Edamame beans, frozen, unprepared, per 100 g product

Energy Carboh. Sugars Fat Sat. Fat Protein Fibre Salt
507 kJ/121 kcal 8,9 g 2,2 g 5,2 g 0,6 g 11,9 g 5,2 g 0,03 g

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Beans spread

nutrition, , ,

Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy and plant-based

When beans become spreadable

As a child, I had an aversion to beans. They were white beans, often in an uninspiring tomato sauce, from cans. Fortunately, we didn’t eat them very often.
Things are different now! I eat beans pretty much every day in one or other form.
Beans are an essential ingredient in healthy plant-based cooking.
They contain relatively high amounts of vegetable protein as well as a lot of fibre and useful minerals.

There are countless different varieties, many of them local. In recent years, I have been quite a fan of the multiform and multicoloured Greek beans.
For the recipe below, you can actually use any kind of bean.
I like to start from dry beans. These are very inexpensive in terms of price and you can buy them in bulk.
That’s immediately a lot less packaging waste.

For almost a kilo of bean paste you will need:

  • 200 g dried beans
  • One large carrot
  • A medium-sized onion
  • 40 g dried tomatoes
  • One clove of garlic (optional)
  • Savory, two teaspoons to one tablespoon
  • Some seaweed, e.g. a tablespoon of dried sea lettuce
  • One teaspoon of the following herbs or spices:
    • Thyme
    • Origano
    • fennel seed
    • paprika powder
    • turmeric (optional)

Picture of ingredients for a vegan bean spread
Turmeric gives your bean spread a warmer colour. Turmeric is a spice with a very respectable health reputation; among other things, it has anti-inflammatory properties. Savory is a herb that will improve the digestibility of the cooked beans.
You can of course adapt the suggested spice and herbs mix. Give your creativity full rein.

Preparation

  • Soak the dry beans in water for 24 hrs. They will swell and come to life.
  • Chop up the dried tomatoes and soak them in a little water too

This is how to cook the beans

  • Pour away the soaking water from the beans and briefly rinse them under the tap. Drain briefly.
  • Cook the beans until tender. This is best done in a pressure cooker:
    • Fully submerge the beans in water (+ 2 to 3 cm) and put the pan under fire. Do not add any salt!
    • Bring the water to the boil. Depending on the type of bean, white foam will rise to the surface.
    • Remove the foam with a skimmer until almost no foam rises to the top anymore.
    • Add 1 teaspoon of savory and 1 teaspoon of dried seaweed (sea lettuce or some other seaweed).
    • Now close the pressure cooker, bring under pressure and boil for about 45 minutes.
    • Turn off the heat after the cooking time and slowly let the pressure release.

This is how to prepare the vegetables

  • Bring a little water to the boil in a pan, sprinkle in the herbs of your choice (e.g. cumin seeds, thyme, oregano, fennel seeds …).
  • Add the finely chopped onion and garlic and allow to glaze a little.
  • Next, add the finely chopped peeled carrot and the soaked tomatoes, the latter along with their soaking water.
  • Let everything continue to simmer together with the lid on for about 3 to 4 minutes.
  • Turn off the heat and leave to cool down a little.

This is how to mix everything into bean puree

  • Bring the stewed vegetables into a food processor.
  • Add the cooked and cooled beans. Keep some of the cooking liquid aside.
  • Add two generous tablespoons of sesame paste (tahini).
  • Mix, first on low, then on high speed until you get a spreadable, puree-like texture.
  • Taste and add extra black pepper, paprika powder and a generous amount of turmeric if necessary or desired.
  • Divide the bean spread between two jars of approx 500ml capacity, close them hermetically.
  • The bean puree will keep for a week in the fridge.

If the mixture turns out too dry, add a few tablespoons of the beans’ cooking liquid until the consistency feels right to you..
It’s important to cook the beans without salt.
When you cook beans in salted water, their skin hardens, so they tend to take up to twice as long to cook until soft.
In the above recipe, you basically don’t need to add extra salt. After all, most dried tomatoes are salty on their own. That is why we also include the soaking water of the tomatoes in the recipe.
If you doubt whether your dried tomatoes are already salty or not, taste the soaking water before adding them.

The endless variety of legumes

If you do some browsing in organic shops and Asian food supermarkets, you almost fall over backwards with the sheer variety of shapes and colours of beans and lentils. What a far cry from the monotonous “white beans in tomato sauce”. The Greek and Italian regional varieties are particularly striking.
When you eat a combination of a grain and legumes (beans or pulses) every day, that in itself is a solid daily base to meet your protein needs.
If you are an intense athlete, do heavy physical work or dislike legumes, then the more concentrated plant-based protein sources such as tofu, tempeh and seitan are recommended to secure your protein intake.

Are legumes easily digestible?

As with any new type of food food you add to your menu for the first time, it may take a few weeks for your gut flora to adjust. Some flatulence may occur at first.
It is true that legumes, and beans in particular, are coated with certain substances that inhibit premature germination of the bean. These are the famous lectins. These indeed inhibit the digestibility of legumes.
Therefore, use a few simple techniques to virtually eliminate those substances:

  • Soak the legumes for at least one night and pour away the soaking water.
  • Scoop away the foam that rises to the top at the start of cooking.
  • Cook the beans and lentils long enough until they are really well cooked.
  • Chew! Chew the beans and lentils long enough before swallowing

For beans, the cooking time will be easily an hour and 15 minutes to as much as an hour and a half in a regular pan. With a pressure cooker, you reduce cooking time to 35 to 45 minutes. A little experimentation pays off!

Can you eat legumes raw?

You can sprout both lentils and beans for a few days in a sprouting jar or sprouting machine. First leave them under water for 24 h, then rinse and keep them moist. Change the water once or twice a day and rinse the sprouts under running water each time.
Sprouted beans and lentils are delicious in salads.