Chickpea, Lentils, Kidney beans and other pulses - some questions!!

annie-c

Hello All

I'm sorry if these questions have been answered before, but I'm having trouble finding the answers I need (typing 'lentil' into the search box brings up an awful lot of entries!!!)

Anyway - here goes:

• Kidney Beans - these worry me as they are the ones that need rapid boiling. Can I assume that once the rapid boil is done that the toxins are gone forever? Can I then use them like other pulses, ie, can I freeze them, store them in the fridge a couple of days, without worrying about poisoning?

• Chickpeas - I read somewhere that these could be soaked a whole bag at a time and then frozen - do they need to be cooked first after soaking and before using/freezing? Do they need to be cooked at all? If I want to substitute soaked, dried chickpeas for canned ones, say in a hoummous recipe, or a recipe for veggie burgers, do the soaked chickpeas need to be cooked first?

• Lentils - I have three types of lentils - red and green split ones and lentilles vertes. So far I have only cooked with the red ones, which, on cooking, turned a mushy yellow colour - fine in soup, but too mushy to use in burgers, etc. Do green lentils and lentilles vertes go mushy in the same way? I'm sure I used a can of lentils recently that were quite firm and 'whole' in consistency. How do get my dried lentils to stay firm?

Sorry for all the questions - hope someone can help!

Thanks

Annie

Gingham_Ribbon

If you're serious about cooking with pulses I can't recommend Rose Elliot's 'Bean Book' highly enough. Plenty of information and some very tasty recipes that are quick and easy to make.

Kidney beans I buy ready cooked because I'm worried about the toxins, so I don't know about freezing them etc. But I imagine once they've had the rapid boil, they should be fine.

Chick peas need to be cooked before making hummous. I would cook them before freezing them otherwise you might as well just keep them in the dried state. By the time you've defrosted them etc, you might as well have just soaked them.

Red lentils are tiny and cook very quickly. If you want them to be firmer, cook them for a shorter time, with less water. But when they much up they're great for soup, as you say. And red lentils make great dhal.

Other lentils are firmer and don't do the mush thing unless you cook them for longer. I mainly use them for bolognaise, but try the indexed collections for recipes.

Don't salt the water you cook pulses in. It toughens them. With bigger pulses, I'd avoid cooking in tomato too for the same reason. Add it later. Some don't need to be soaked. Lentils for instance.

I love pulses. And they're really good for you too. Have fun!

annie-c

Wow, thanks Gingham Ribbon! I like to batch cook on weekends, to make meals for the week ahead, so your advice has come at just the right time.

I will look out for Rose Elliot's books... a few people have recommended them now.

Thanks again

Annie xx :j

Gingham_Ribbon

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/egg-and-lentil-curry-with-coconut-and-pickled-lime,757,RC.html

This one is very good. You can use any lentils. (Except red I'd have thought.)

thriftlady_2

I've cooked red kidney beans and frozen them.They are fine.

Soak them overnight,bring to a boil and boil fast for 10 mins.Then simmer until soft-about an hour.Cool and put in portion sized bags and freeze.

To use,either defrost at room temperature or add directly to boiling stews and soups.

Gingham_Ribbon

How did you get on, Annie?

Churchmouse

I love lentils and have been thinking about "padding out" some mince dishes this way. From what Gingham Ribbon says re salt and tomato, would I cook the lentils separately and combine at the very end?

Anne_Marie_2

Churchmouse wrote:

I love lentils and have been thinking about "padding out" some mince dishes this way. From what Gingham Ribbon says re salt and tomato, would I cook the lentils separately and combine at the very end?

You could do it that way, as have done it myself for different reason (daughter doesn't like lentils in soup but likes chunky veg , so cooked them separately, whizzed them with blender, added to soup - she didn't know they were there, and no harm done - I just wanted her to have protein - she was on a vegetarian kick at the time, and not eating properly - before anyone jumps in here, I am vegetarian! She seriously was eating rubbish and thought all was okay because it had no meat ! :mad: )
Or, you can add at appropriate times for whatever you are cooking, just don't add the salt until the lentils are cooked. It's okay to cook lentils with tomatoes. Gingham did say to avoid cooking larger dried pulses with tomatoes - this is just sensible as they take so long to cook, would be a total waste of tomatoes, not sure if there is any adverse reaction, but dried pulses do take in a lot of liquid, so more sensible to let them cook in water first, then add tomatoes later for any sauce - hope that makes sense!

Anne_Marie_2

As to original post...
Regarding lentils.
Red lentils turn yellow and go mushy on cooking - great for soups and making dhal.
Green, white and brown lentils hold their shape and don't go mushy - unless you overcook them I suppose. But you would have to well overcook them for this to happen.
I don't know about green split lentils - are they maybe green split peas perhaps? If they are, they are good for soups. They don't go quite as mushy as lentils, but they do go mushy, same with the split yellow ones.

Kidney beans - buy tinned, so can't help you there. In truth it's not the fear of toxins, I just don't use enough to warrant cooking them and freezing them. I do freeze leftovers from tins though, so no reason why you couldn't freeze cooked dried beans.

Chickpeas - Either soak and cook what you need, or soak the whole lot, cook and then freeze in suitable sized portions, if you have enough room in your freezer. You do have to cook chickpeas for any recipes that I know of. (Unless they are capable of being sprouted - different thing altogether, and never tried this with chickpeas).

Cannot see any advantage in freezing soaked uncooked pulses. Better to cook then freeze. Smaller portions are better than large, you can always take more than one small portion out .....takes less time to defrost - and no waste if fewer people are eating.
You can either let pulses defrost, or add them straight into stews/soups/casserole dishes.

Gingham_Ribbon

I wouldn't worry about cooking lentils with tomato. But the bigger ones can just remain tough and never soften in salt or tomato. I cooked a soup with borlotti beans in once for about 3 hours without the beans ever softening. It was tomato based. I would cook pulses seperately, then add them when they're soft. The big pulses hold their shape well, so don't need to go in at the last minute, but if you're using a cheapie tin of baked beans for example (I drain them and add them to curries etc) then I'd put them in at the last minute or they'll go mushy.

annie-c

Gingham_Ribbon wrote:

How did you get on, Annie?

Hello

Well, so far I have used up all of my remaining kidney beans split between a giant chilli for the freezer, and mixed with chickpeas to make bean burgers and a bean/cheese roast. :j

So, this time, I didn't have anything left to freeze

But I am loving pulses so much that I have requested a Rose Eliot Cookbook on the Readit Swapit website!!

Which leads me to another question (which I never thought I'd ask!!!)... Is there a cheaper place to buy pulses in bulk than in the supermarket? 500g bags don't seem to last long, but, price per kilo, Tescos does seem to be cheaper than my nearest health food shop Julian Graves. Any ideas anyone?

My next experiment will be with green lentils - I want to use them in a curry and am hoping they will stay firm on the first boiling - wish me luck!! :T