Pot O’Beans

Kidney beans, black beans, chili powder, cumin seeds, and cilantro.

How to make a decent pot o’ beans that are digestible and ingestible! First, prep the beans and then decide on herbs and spices (dried & ground) depending on the bean type selected. Here are some ideas for spicing up your beans…

Pinto: lemon rind, parsley or oregano, cumin, & mild chili powder. Black: ginger & fennel seeds or sage & thyme. Lentils & Garbanzos: lemon rind & garlic with dill, basil, or mint.

1. Soak dried beans for at least 12 hrs* and change water once or twice.
2. When ready to cook, add a strip of Kombu to bottom of crock pot (aids digestibility, adds nutrients, and shortens cook times). Add beans and fill with water so the beans are just covered.
3. On high, bring beans to a boil, scoop off foam, and continue to boil (w/o lid) for 20 mins.
4. Add spices. Consider whole garlic cloves – they turn to a garlickly mush – yum! Adding fennel seeds or cumin seeds helps with digestion. Any other spice or herb helps with ingestion – also important.
5. Cover crock pot, reduce to low, and let beans cook all day long (~6-8 hrs depending on soak time)
6. Season with salt at the end. Adding sea salt, miso, or tamari too early hinders full cooking.
7. ENJOY for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

*Food Safety Alert! Soak in a cool place away from direct light. If soaking longer than 12hrs or its a hot, humid day, please soak in refrigerator.

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Plant-Strong Diets = Bean-Strong Meals

Do you feel vulnerable when you eat beans? Plant-strong diets include plenty of beans but please don’t avoid them for fear of digestive consequences! It’s possible to prepare and consume beans in such a way that you can eliminate digestive protestation. Beans are nutrient-dense, low-calorie, high-fiber powerhouses providing protein, carbs, iron, folic acid, phosphorous, potassium, and magnesium to your diet. A diet staple since long before biblical times in India, China, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas…millions of ancestors can’t be wrong!

Canned beans are a easy way to get beans into your diet and I definitely use them from time to time. But dried beans are a staple in my house. Dried beans are healthier (lower in salt) and more affordable than canned beans and they turn out delicious after simmering in a crock pot all day. Yes, it’s springtime, and I’m definitely incorporating more raw plant foods into my diet as they become available, but there’s still a cold, damp, wind off the ocean that makes me want to warm myself from the inside out with cooked foods.

 If you struggle with digesting beans, eat lentils, adzuki, peas, and mung beans more often and pinto, kidney, garbanzo, and black beans less often. Soybeans are the most difficult to digest; however, soy products (tofu, tempeh) are a bit easier. Also, if your digestion is weak (i.e. gas, bloating), eat beans only with greens or other non-starchy veggies. If your digestion is heartier, feel free to combine with grains (rice, quinoa). Consider using a digestive enzyme like bromelain or papain which are extracted from pineapple or papaya, respectively, to aid in digestion. Lastly, digestion is hormonally-controlled so it will be influenced by moods, stress, and menstrual cycle. Make note and don’t have the same expectations of your body on a daily or weekly basis.

Lemon Water

Filtered water with lemon. First thing. Every morning.

Implementing this simple and totally un-original morning habit still seems to elude most people. The first thing to do upon waking is hydrate (then eliminate, but that’s another discussion!). Before you put anything else in your mouth…this means coffee, tea, green juice…chug some warm or room temp lemon water first.

At night, I place a 16oz bottle of filtered water on my kitchen counter next to my French press pot. I wake, stumble to the kitchen, turn on the tea kettle, squeeze 1/2 a Meyers lemon (any organic limes or lemons will do) into the water bottle and down at least 8oz while I prepare my coffee. Done. 

How: Squeeze 1/2 Meyers lemon into a bowl, scoop out seeds, combine with 16oz filtered water, drink ALL of it.

Why: To rehydrate body after 8+hrs of fasting, to encourage morning elimination, to replenish vitamin C (water-soluble vitamin that requires daily ingestion), to purify the breath, and to increase production of bodily fluids.