Three bean salad

zippychick

If you're so keen on feedng them to your family (yet don't like them) why not add them to a casserole or curry - something where they blend in rather than are the star focus?

Ill merge this later

Zip

ragz_2

I had a tin of those in my cupboard for months, I stuck them in a soup the other day and blended them in... I don't really like pulses either so that solved that problem!

meritaten

I can understand that although YOU dislike beans you realise that they could benefit your family so want to serve them.
ok.......try buying a tin of butter or cannelini beans, tin of red kidney beans and a tin of any other bean which looks pretty - broad beans would be nice as then you get red, white and green beans (either the Italian or Welsh flag colours).
You can then drain and rinse the beans (I do this as the cooking liqour in the cans is not that nice IMHO) and then just add a little salt and pepper and a good dollop of mayo or make a nice herb or lemon vinaigrette and toss the beans in this.
Serve it at room temperature - no need to cook or heat the beans!

Stephen_Leak

Why not make your own?

THREE BEAN SALAD

Makes a big bowl

INGREDIENTS

400g tin of borlotti/rose coco beans
400g tin of cannellini/white kidney beans
400g tin of red kidney beans
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of parsley

METHOD

Open the tins and drain off any liquid, Put the beans into a sieve or colander and rinse them thoroughly under running cold water.

Put the beans into a bowl. Add the lemon juice, olive oil and parsley. Mix thoroughly.

Cover and put in the fridge for at least half an hour.

ADDITIONS & ALTERNATIVES

Use dried beans, but these will need to be soaked and boiled first.

Use other beans, including sliced green beans or broad beans. If you use baked beans, wash the tomato sauce off.

Use black-eyed peas, which are really black-eyed beans, and chickpeas, which are also known as garbanzo beans.

Try to use three different looking beans.

Use fresh lemon juice for preference, but bottled lemon juicewill do.

Use extra virgin olive oil for preference, but normal olive oil will do.

Use chopped fresh parsley for preference, but dried parsley will do.

Add a clove of garlic. Peel the garlic and chop it into tiny pieces.

Add 2 spring onions. Wash the spring onions, cut off the root ends and leaves, peel off and discard any dried up or slimy outer leaves, then chop them into thin rings.

TIPS

Parsley is reputed to reduce the wind generating capacity of beans.

Sambucus_Nigra

I think a over a kilo of 3 bean salad might just send the OP over the top!

I can understand; I hated baked beans and kidney beans as a child; I started eating baked beans at college but still can only have them with chips. However, I discovered refried beans, dropped kidney beans from my menu and only used pinto beans for chillis, and now grow beans at home for drying and using in the winter. I grow lots and lots and lots now - but I expect being made to sit there and eat them is half the problem.

OP - just buy a bag of dried, soak them and cook them until they are soft. Then freeze them after rinsing in handful portions, and throw them into soups and whizz them down. That way, you really won't notice them and everyone gets the added protein. Also, if they go into stews and even chillis, they usually start breaking up so are completely different to the beans that you used to get years back [like bullets]. And go for Pinto rather than Kidney; smaller and more tasty.

katieowl_2

I think the cooking instructions on Mr T's website are a bit hit and miss. I've noticed a few weird things on that section.

I've eaten those beans loads of times, never cooked them and I'm still here.

I think if you are not a great bean eater, just one small tin is enough to begin with... but I would suggest a couple of additions that SL didn't have in his(?) salad. Some nice crisp finely sliced celery, a bit of finely sliced red onion (if you like raw onion) and a handful of cooked green beans - frozen beans are fine - but try and use the whole ones. Coat the whole lot with a really mustardy vinagrette, and you can add some chopped parsley if you want - one of the big stores bean salad has mint in and that's nice too.

Kate

Mrs_Chip

OH use to loathe and refuse to eat kidney beans/chickpeas etc, but over time, by introducing these things in tiny portions in things he did like, he has come to not only like but in some cases, love those things (did the same with tomatoes). For example, used to make chilli with RKB and OH always picked them out. But when I started making Rice and Peas with RKB, he liked that and ate them! Now he no linger picks them out of anything and asked for bean salad in the summer!

I am a firm believer that you can come to like food that is distasteful by small and frequent exposure to things, and being open-minded about it (if you eat something with your face screwed up you are not going to enyoy it!).

So, if you need to change diets for heath or finacial reasons, I would use both stealth (pulses make great pates and dips, can be lost in soups and stews etc), and at the same time be upfront and make it into a bit of a family challenge to learn to love a particular food each month.

Stephen_Leak

Point taken. OK, for "stealth" beans, how about this ...

CHILLI BEAN SOUP

This recipe is by “Turtle” on MoneySavingExpert’s Old Style forum, not me. I just added the Alternatives & Additions.

Serves 3 to 4

INGREDIENTS

1 onion
1 tablespoon of oil
400g tin of red kidney beans
400g tin of tomatoes
1 teaspoon of chilli powder
1 vegetable stock cube
250ml of water

METHOD

Peel the onion and chop it into 2cm (1 inch) pieces.

Put the oil into a saucepan on a medium heat. Add the onion. Fry the onion for about 5 minutes. Stir frequently to stop it sticking.

Open the tin of beans and drain off the liquid. Open the tin of tomatoes. Add the beans and tomatoes, chilli powder, stock cube and water. Stir thoroughly. Put the lid on the saucepan and continue to cook for another 10 minutes.

If you have a food processor, put the soup in it and blend it to the desired consistency. If you have a hand blender, put it in the soup and blend it to the desired consistency. If you don’t have a food processor or hand blender, use a potato masher, press the soup through a sieve with the back of a spoon, or leave it lumpy. If you used a food processor, rinse out the saucepan and put the soup back into the saucepan.

Put the saucepan on a low heat and reheat the soup gently.

ADDITIONS & ALTERNATIVES

Use dried beans, but these will need to be soaked and boiled first.

Use other beans, especially pinto beans, which are the authentic Mexican cowboy bean.

Add 1 teaspoon of ground cumin. Cumin comes from Asia, but the Spanish brought it with them to the New World, where it is now widely used in Tex-Mex cuisine.

Add 1 teaspoon of parsley, which is reputed to reduce the wind generating capacity of beans.

TIPS

Remove some of the beans before blending and put them back in afterwards.

Let it cool and reheat it, as the flavour of chilli improves with reheating.