Dried butterbeans and chickpeas

amyparr

Hiya,

I have a packet of dried butterbeans and half a packet of dried chickpeas which I bought as they seemed like a healthy choice and were also very cheap, but now I'm not really sure what to do with them!

I made a Spanish chickpea recipe by Tommi Miers which was quite nice, but now I'm stuck! As a last resort I can make some hummous as I love that, but I'm trying to think of more meals which I can make from them.

I'm also a veggie which complicates things!

Does anyone have any suggestions for recipes? Thanks!

freyasmum

Well, until I got to the last bit, I was gonna suggest butterbeans cooked in the stock from a cooked chicken until creamy, served with pork :rolleyes: But that simply won't do

To be honest, I could just eat the butterbeans themselves, cooked in vegetable stock - I suppose a bit like a bean stew?

Or you could put them into scotch broth! I was very impressed with the price - 20p a packet when I picked it up in tesco - that price isn't one you see a lot these days!

As for the chickpeas, I have no idea... though google did through up loads of recipes like curry, falafel, stew, etc. I also found this page.

I'm afraid I'm not au fait with vegetarianism, but I hope that helps a bit :undecided

whatatwit

I like butterbeans cooked in a thick tomatoey sauce with garlic....tried it in Greece once and it was yummy. :drool:

Beccatje

I made a bean 'salad' the other day.

Boiled lemon beans, chick peas and green split peas.
let them cool
Mixed with some chopped tomtato and cucumber. bit of salt and pepper and some olive oil.
Served it with fried potato wedgies (and pork).
It was really good.

Becca

Bf109

I wonder if dried beans are actually worth the added cost of soaking and then boiling for ages - when compared to canned beans that are pre-cooked?

I dont know really, but I get a tin of red kidney beans for 18p and its hard for me to beleive I could really be saving by boiling a pot of beans for an hour instead....

amyparr

That is true, I kind of wish I'd bought tinned - but you do get LOTS of beans for your money as they double in size when they're soaked, so I imagine it is more economical - but probably saves pence rather than pounds!

Pink.

Hi amy,

These threads should give you some ideas:

Use for butterbeans?

chickpeas

Pink

horsechestnut

Chickpea and potato curry-Yummy!!!
Curried chickpea pasties.
After soaking, cook chickpeas in the PRESSURE COOKER (no salt, it toughens the skins, add after they are cooked) 30 mins, switch off the heat and leave until depressurised will be very tender.

belfastgirl23

I fairly recently made a tuscan bean stew from someone on here's recipe (many apologies for forgetting if the OP is reading cos it is lovely!)

It was basically an onion, chopped and fried, a couple of potatos, diced, a tin of tomatos and a tbsp of tomato puree, some basil (the original suggested oregano but I like basil better) and three tins of beans, different types. Throw all in a saucepan and add enough stock to cover. Cook about 25 mins till potatos done. In your case you need to precook the beans.

The original also suggested using the cheapest baked beans you can find, rinsed, as one of the tins. I thought this worked really well as they slightly mash into the mix thickening it up The other useful tip was to cook your full pack of dried beans at once and freeze what you don't use - saves cooking energy and can be added from frozen next time.

amyparr

I'm going to do a bit of a butterbean stew tonight I think, have soaked them overnight and am going to mix them with onion, tinned toms, and some herbs and maybe some leeks too (they need using up!)

I just wanted a quick bit of advice - do you take the skins off of the butter beans as they can be quite tough - or will they just turn to mush when I boil them?

Thanks!

horsechestnut

Cook beans without salt,. Salt toughens the skins. Can you use a pressure cooker? That will soften anything!!!