Winters Coming-What Pulses In Stews??

Penny-Pincher!!

Hello

Just a few questions.

Normally when doing a stew, I put in tinned butter beans/harriot beans/black eyed/chick peas/barliotti beans etc. This is more for convienance and usually buy when on offer. If I was to buy them dry-do I need to soak first? How much do they cost compared to tinned? How much do you use in a stew? Also, how does the pearl barley work?

We love stews but need some variants.

Thanks in advance.

PP
xx

Curry_Queen

Things like barley and split lentils can be used in soups/stews without pre-soaking, just chuck them in, but all the usual bean pulses will need soaking for several hours/overnight before using them, and they also need to be boiled for a certain length of time, think it's 20 mins off the top of my head, to help remove any toxins and things.

Sorry for being a bit vague but I've not used dried beans in a long while, but I'm sure someone else will be able to fill in any missing details or correct anything I got wrong

squeaky

C_Q just about has it It's soya beans and kidney beans that need boiling for a minimum of ten minutes to break down toxins, other beans are OK as they are, but...

..if you're making your stew or soup in a slow cooker it's recommended that you boil beans and pulses for ten minutes to give them a good start before chucking them in the pot.

jobbingmusician

Did you know that you can get ready mixed stuff for stews in Sainsbury's (and I think in other supermarkets too)?

It's a bit of a cheat, and I dare say it's a little bit more expensive than mixing your own, but we are talking about MICROPENNIES here - a bag costs .....well actually I don't know how much a bag costs, because every time I buy a bag (which weighs 250g I think) it seems to last me for several years. So you see what I mean

These mixed bags are called something like 'soup mix' or 'stew mix' and are with the dried pulses, normally. They contain a mix of pulses, barley and sometimes herbs (different in different supermarkets). I just chuck them in the slow cooker with the meat and veg and let them do their thing - delicious! Also v good in veggie stews and soups.

HTH!

Curry_Queen

You should still soak those soup mixes overnight though as they contain whole peas/beans which will stay hard during normal cooking. The barley and lentils in them are fine added straight to a stew/soup though, and I keep those in the cupboard as separates rather than buying the soup mixes

Gingham_Ribbon

To add to the above, I think red lentils, split peas and barley are great for thickening soups and stews. They don't need to be soaked.

Brown and green lentils are tasty and filling but don't mush up and I don't use them in soup. They take a little longer than red ones but are done in about 25mins.

The others take between 30 to 80 mins depending on which ones and how soft you want them. (Eg chickpeas can take an extra half hour if you're cooking them to make humous rather than wanting them firmer for a curry.) They all need to be soaked overnight.

All the pulses you need to soak do better if you don't add salt until they're cooked. Salt and salted stock can make them tough or take ages to cook.

They all taste better dried (imo) and are usually cheaper unless you buy value baked beans and rinse the sauce off. I buy tinned kidney beans because of the toxins.

Finally, I like dried green peas done to a mush with a little salt and vinegar. I like chick peas in curries with cauli or potato. I like red lentils in soup and make bolognaise with green or brown ones. Butter beans are great in anything, black eye beans are great with rice and the obvious for kidney beans (but they're great mashed up in burgers too.)

Happy cooking! (Just remember to stick them in a pan of water the night before, or if you forget, they'll take about 4 hours to soak if you pour boiling water over them rather than cold.)

Curry_Queen

Oh, something else I just remembered when this subject came up once before is that if you buy big bags of dried pulses you can soak them all at once and boil them up the following day, then split into smaller portion sizes to put in the freezer! This way you can just grab a bag to add to a soup/stew just as you would grab a tin out of the cupboard!

Trow

FYI, black-eye beans don't need to be soaked before cooking, so you can just bung them in - they do take longer than lentils though, at about 40 mins to cook.

HTH

GreenFingers_2

....I mainly use a small tin of butter beans in my Slow Cooker dishes - they just seem to be so good with everything. If I don't use the BB's then a tablespoon of either dried lentils or pearl barley goes in the crock pot right at the beginning - yummy....

Gingham_Ribbon

Trow wrote:

FYI, black-eye beans don't need to be soaked before cooking, so you can just bung them in - they do take longer than lentils though, at about 40 mins to cook.

HTH

I've been soaking them for years!
:doh:

Ted_Hutchinson

If you have forgotten to soak your beans you can bring them to the boil for 2 minutes and then leave them in the hot water for an hour. They will then need fast boiling for 10 minutes and cooking normally.

You can cut down the cooking time, and eliminate the need for the 10 minute boil, by cooking your beans in a pressure cooker for 10-15 minutes.