How do you cook your legumes?

[godlovesatrier]

So I'm eating legumes to improve my ME and it works I've proven that over and over again. But cooking organic beans is proving to be very difficult.

I currently try to eat kidney chickpea and mung beans. But when I soak them overnight they are still hard. My water here is ph 5.5. So I've tried baking soda with them and that doesn't help.

I don't know what to do now really.

Anyone got any advise? I live in an area with hard water and I believe that makes it more acidic.

But I can't get the beans soft! So I'd appreciate some advise. Thanks!

 

[Rufous McKinney]

I"m now living in a country that really likes Black Beans. The water is pretty hard here, also.

Beans must be very thoroughly soaked and cooked. So I push for much longer soaks, and longer cooking.

(wanna get a solar oven happening, as maybe some of this cooking could happen outside with zero carbon)

I mostly prefer them mashed up/ refried you might say. I think my cook is not putting any fat in them, but often uses a mysterious local herb: HEIRBA DE CONEJO (rabbit herb)

My digestion has improved quite a bit, and I continue to operate on the theory that these beans have helped my digestion. (I also eat meat and other things)

The ellagic acid pill I am taking more frequently, and eating these beans.


That the mung beans are not getting very soft: seems likely. The macrobiotic brigade love mung beans.

Sometimes, in the past, I'd notice getting dry beans, and them never really ever getting soft, or cooking properly (failed split pea soup, included). I heard dry beans can get old and then they don't cook up as well.....

 

[Rufous McKinney]

I don't know what to do now really.

if you get no further helpful suggestion, maybe get yourself a fresh batch of beans. Use the baking soda, it can't hurt.

My cook has beans going for a long time....(I'd ask her, but that requires google translate and she likely never thought about it: they just know how)

Online they suggest mung beans cook in 25 minutes.

I'd probably give up on mung beans and go with: Great Northerns.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Hey!

Wow lots of info and a cool story 😃

Yeah the beans are great. I'm really restricted becuase of my kidney stones but black eyed peas, kidney beans, mung beans and chickpeas are the lowest oxalate beans you can get really.

As for age you may have a good point. Maybe that's it. I forgot to say that my beans are soaked in the fridge. I wonder if that's a bad idea.

Will see if anyone else has any ideas. My next plan is to cook them in a pressure cooker. It says no soak needed just cook for 30 mins.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

I forgot to say that my beans are soaked in the fridge.

Mine would be out on the counter. Since they get cooked alot.

Refrigerating might just slow down the process, if chemistry is involved.

Wow: I looked up oxalates and black beans are quite high......

(we have a cure, that includes oxalates...)

(but you have kidney stones...understand)

you know about cranberry juice...(probably some others do that)...my husband over did that, and then had a major kind stone passing event....

 

[Rufous McKinney]

chickpeas

I"ve removed the outer layer of chickpeas...making humus. I think I can digest them better without that.....part.

 

[hapl808]

Will see if anyone else has any ideas. My next plan is to cook them in a pressure cooker. It says no soak needed just cook for 30 mins.

Sometimes a soak and pressure cooker is a good combo - depends on the texture you want. But I highly recommend the Instant Pot. Great for so many low effort things.

What benefits have you seen from legumes?

 

[Judee]

Taste of Home adds salt to the soak water on their baked bean recipe because they actually said it makes skins stay firm so I wonder if baking soda would do that too (having the opposite effect than you want).

I soak mine at least overnight and then pressure cook them the next day in an Instant Pot for about 30 minutes. They're soft but still intact when done.

You could also try soaking them and then cooking them for a long time in a slow cooker like a Crockpot (if you have those there). I make bean soup that way and leave it cooking until the beans are mooshy because they break down a bit and make the soup thicken up and look creamy-ish.

 

[Violeta]

Soak over night, replace water, add a strip of kombu, and cook until soft. For chic peas I found a pressure cooker very helpful.

 

[Judee]

replace water

Oops, I forgot to mention that. I do that too.

 

[wabi-sabi]

I just open the can and heat. I gave up on trying to cook beans years ago.

 

[Violeta]

I just open the can and heat. I gave up on trying to cook beans years ago.

It's a lot of work, and sometimes no matter what you do the beans don't get soft. That used to happen frequently with split peas.

 

[Viala]

Some cultivars are hard. There was a time when I regularly ate white beans and once I mixed new package of beans with the old one which was always soft, it was the same brand and same type. The new batch was different and even though I soaked and cooked those beans together, half of them was still hard. I usually soak legumes for 24 hours and then rinse them thoroughly a couple of times.

I'd buy a regular non organic chickpeas or mung beans and see if they also can't get soft, you'll know if the problem is the brand or your water. You could also use water softening filter and see if it helps.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Yeah so I am doing this because it's cheaper but it's mainly to do with the fact that I can't get black eyed beans and mung beans canned with BPA free lining and organic. Super difficult. All our food and water is already highly contaminated so trying to keep it down where possible.

THansk for all the replies! I am going to try pressure cooking tonight for 35 mins, with plenty of water....maybe that will be enough.

@Judee yes wondering the same about baking soda! Maybe it is.

If pressure cooking from dry doesn't work will try soaking then pressure cooking....maybe that will work...

@Viala hey I did try non organic too and same issue, butter beans were particularly bad and just would not soften up so I gave up on those. I am hoping my pressure cooker will save me

 

[godlovesatrier]

@hapl808 Most beans increase butyrate producers, some beans increase f prausnitzii which is a primary butyrate producer, normally chronically low in pwme:

When I ate legumes first time prausnitzii went up to 22% from an average of 2%. When I repeated the experiment with only black eyed beans it went up to 15% from 4%. My fatigue scores massively reduce when I do this and I feel better within a week, sometimes days of legume intake. But if I am withotu the legumes for awhile the fatigue and PEM fatigue comes back.

If my levels are very high my PEM and fatigue almost completely disappear. I am still experimenting with this.

Ken has an anti inflammatory score on his website, I reached 92% in Feb and had 90% function with no hpa axis dysfunction whatsoever for about 3 months. NO HPA AXIS DYSFN!! I mean that in itself is just amazing. I am still in shock!

So I am battling kidney stones constantly, but if I can get enough legumes in me, pref softer ones Then I hope to achieve 91% anti inflammatory score again:

26th Jue was when I started to feel particularly off, but crashed bet 4th and 25th May. I should point out this is just one biomarker, I had 4 markers in a specific state, so even though the marker dropped 28th March for prausnitzii the other markers remained high, hence I did not crash at that point and was still at 90%.

So I am super excited by this experiment as I've never felt that good!

 

[Viala]

@Viala hey I did try non organic too and same issue, butter beans were particularly bad and just would not soften up so I gave up on those. I am hoping my pressure cooker will save me

Ok now I am curious why this is happening, I hope you'll find a solution The last resort would probably be cooking them in a store-bought bottled water I guess.

Legumes are awesome by the way, they've been on my menu for the last couple of years. I just realized now that sometimes my red lentils were also hard after cooking and that was always when I was soaking them in not enough water. Lentils should always be soft. They tasted differently as well.

 

[Mary]

Ken has an anti inflammatory score on his website, I reached 92% in Feb and had 90% function with no hpa axis dysfunction whatsoever for about 3 months. NO HPA AXIS DYSFN!! I mean that in itself is just amazing. I am still in shock!

Who is Ken? I'm sure you've written about him but I missed it.

How you can you tell when you have no HPA Axis dysfunction?

When I ate legumes first time prausnitzii went up to 22% from an average of 2%. When I repeated the experiment with only black eyed beans it went up to 15% from 4%. My fatigue scores massively reduce when I do this and I feel better within a week, sometimes days of legume intake. But if I am withotu the legumes for awhile the fatigue and PEM fatigue comes back.

That's beyond amazing. Legumes don't do that for me. How often do you have to eat them to get this result - where your fatigue and PEM fatigue go away?

I make a chili pretty often with canned pinto beans (has great flavor btw, lots of spices) so I'll eat that a few times a week, and I also make a split pea soup from scratch which is pretty good (in my instapot) but they don't improve my energy or decrease PEM incidence.

And one last question - your prausnitzii scores - how do you get these scores? It seems like you must have fairly frequent testing. I'm assuming you have a good practitioner you're working with.

Anyways, I'm really glad to hear that something (legumes) help you so much! Yes, if you can only figure out how to get them soft, but there is canned, in a pinch . . .

 

[Mary]

My digestion has improved quite a bit, and I continue to operate on the theory that these beans have helped my digestion. (I also eat meat and other things)

That's amazing @Rufous McKinney , very glad to hear that! Who knew that beans could be so beneficial? I certainly didn't!

 

[Rufous McKinney]

I gave up on trying to cook beans years ago.

Four doorways down from my doorway: this small shop carries imported items. and they have the really large and totally wonderful cannellini beans, in a glass jar.

I dream of returning to obtain another 2 jars of them...(which I'll hide so nobody else eats them.)

 

[Rufous McKinney]

Who knew that beans could be so beneficial?

Also an experimental supplement is complementing my bean improvements.

This supplement has about 40% ellagic acid.

And also: a probiotic I got (I take them infrequently) ...recommended by @katabasis has been helpful.

How you can you tell when you have no HPA Axis dysfunction?

this probiotic contains two strains, with some research studies indicating it can help teh HPA axis and something related to the cortisol cycle.

Last winter, I was taking the probiotic and resting alot; my husband noticed I was needing far less sleep.

I'm not sure what I was to notice with my HPA axis. But I'll take needing less hours of sleep.