Quick Tips: Make Your Beans Less Musical
By: Stepfanie Romine,
SparkPeople Blogger
2/24/2009 2:20 PM
: 92 comments
"Beans, beans, the musical fruit.
The more you eat, the more you toot."
We've all heard that tune, and most of us have unfortunately experienced the reality of it.
Beans are an excellent source of fiber, and they are a great source of protein, especially for vegetarians. So many people are scared to eat them because of the digestive ditties that their bodies play later.
Fear no bean.
TreeHugger recently shared some tips on how to make your beans less musical.
I make a big pot of dried beans once a week and rarely have much "trouble" eating them.
Now that you know how to quiet your beans, how do you cook them?
Here's how I cook dried beans:
Rinse 4 cups of beans in a colander.
Place in pot (or usually in my rice cooker) and cover with two inches of water. Add a strip of kombu (It's a seaweed that helps reduce the gassy effects. It costs less than $5, and it lasts a long time.) or a pinch of baking soda (which has the same effect).
Bring to a boil, cover and cook about 30 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and rinse beans several times.
Rinse pot, then return beans to pot, covering with water to about an inch above the beans. I add another strip of kombu (about an inch wide), plus seasonings. I add a onion, two bay leaves, two cloves of garlic, a hefty tablespoon of cumin and a couple of teaspoons of ground coriander seed. Boil until tender, another 30-45 minutes. Add more water if beans dry out or if you like yours soupy.
When the beans are as tender as you'd like them to be, remove from heat and take out the bay leaves. They're ready to eat. I usually make 4 cups of dry beans and 2 cups of dry rice (made separately then mixed) a week, and that's about a dozen one-cup servings (about 205 calories and less than one gram of fat).
For canned beans, just give them a rinse. That will help remove some of the sugar that causes the uncomfortable and embarrassing gas that accompanies eating beans.
Find more bean recipes.
Black, pinto, garbanzo, kidney, anasazi… So many beans, so little time!
Read more about bean varieties, and start cooking some beans!
What kind of beans do you like to eat?
The more you eat, the more you toot."
We've all heard that tune, and most of us have unfortunately experienced the reality of it.
Beans are an excellent source of fiber, and they are a great source of protein, especially for vegetarians. So many people are scared to eat them because of the digestive ditties that their bodies play later.
Fear no bean.
TreeHugger recently shared some tips on how to make your beans less musical.
I make a big pot of dried beans once a week and rarely have much "trouble" eating them.
Now that you know how to quiet your beans, how do you cook them?
Here's how I cook dried beans:
Rinse 4 cups of beans in a colander.
Place in pot (or usually in my rice cooker) and cover with two inches of water. Add a strip of kombu (It's a seaweed that helps reduce the gassy effects. It costs less than $5, and it lasts a long time.) or a pinch of baking soda (which has the same effect).
Bring to a boil, cover and cook about 30 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and rinse beans several times.
Rinse pot, then return beans to pot, covering with water to about an inch above the beans. I add another strip of kombu (about an inch wide), plus seasonings. I add a onion, two bay leaves, two cloves of garlic, a hefty tablespoon of cumin and a couple of teaspoons of ground coriander seed. Boil until tender, another 30-45 minutes. Add more water if beans dry out or if you like yours soupy.
When the beans are as tender as you'd like them to be, remove from heat and take out the bay leaves. They're ready to eat. I usually make 4 cups of dry beans and 2 cups of dry rice (made separately then mixed) a week, and that's about a dozen one-cup servings (about 205 calories and less than one gram of fat).
For canned beans, just give them a rinse. That will help remove some of the sugar that causes the uncomfortable and embarrassing gas that accompanies eating beans.
Find more bean recipes.
Black, pinto, garbanzo, kidney, anasazi… So many beans, so little time!
Read more about bean varieties, and start cooking some beans!
What kind of beans do you like to eat?
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Comments
This time I used our rice cooker, like Stepfanie suggested- after rinsing beans I put them back in with some more water, cummin & onion. I searched around my kitchen & found some seaweed sheets used for sushi (nori), threw it in!
Later I transferred that to a pan with cooked brown rice, a few frozen tomatos & some freshly picked & chopped silverbeet- it was so delicious!
Forgot the garlic & bay leaves but did chop up fresh coriander and squeezed lemon in also.
Served with heated chapati (Indian flat bread). - 6/9/2011 10:37:55 AM
I've never had the gassy problem, my DH & daughter do. I don't get it. - 11/16/2009 3:39:42 PM
Funny, yes?
I'm eating the apple, like jennimadison suggested.
- 3/31/2009 4:01:43 AM
a little before beans are done. It helps with the "music". - 3/2/2009 4:11:33 PM
I'm very curious about the Kombu...can you usually find that at Asian markets?
I love beans, all kinds of beans. I attribute it to having spent a few summers in a kind of youth peace corps program as a kid, living in developing nations and pretty much living on the indigenous local 'beans and rice' dish while there. Swore off them until somewhere in my mid-20's I found myself craving beans.
Now I cook them often on a weekly basis, a big pot. I love to add chopped veggies like carrots, onions, sweet potatoes and skip the rice or grain, just have a big bowl...yum. Very filling, too. Great over a bed of spring greens, btw, so the crisp freshness of baby lettuces with spicy (mine are always spicy) beans. YUM. - 2/28/2009 7:13:11 AM
Hoorah for the Beans, long live the beans, thanks for the ideas to reduce the flatuence. It is surely needed in my house. - 2/27/2009 6:54:11 PM
"In this country, coriander (coriandrum sativium) refers to the fruit seeds of the green leafy plant known as cilantro,but in many other parts of the word, coriander is used to refer to both the fresh and dried versions. The green leaves are pungent in a citrusy sort of way; they've been described as soapy. You either love it or hate it, but you might like it when its seeds are ground and mixed with other spices, as it's lighter and brighter without the intensity of cumin.
Pickling is one of the few applications when whole seeds are used; otherwise, they're ground and incorporated into curries, spice pastes, stews, even desserts. It figures into the cuisines of the Middle East, India, Thailand, Vietnam, and in some countries, the whole plant is used, even the root.
Unlike its multifaceted cousin, cumin (cuminum cyminum) is used in seed (or ground) form only. Bigger and darker than the fennel seed, but difficult to pick out in a lineup with the caraway seed (another relative), the cumin seed packs a major flavor punch and plays well with others, such as cinnamon, cayenne and ground herbs such as oregano and thyme. " - 2/27/2009 10:31:08 AM
I wonder if there is another tip that works for the canned beans.
Thank You! - 2/25/2009 11:23:51 PM
Also, please be aware that anyone with kidney failure should not eat dried beans because they contain too much potassium. Please check with your dietician, especially if you are on hemodialysis. - 2/25/2009 10:28:52 PM
Overnight soaking works best & then start cooking 'em the next morning, either oven-backed in our enamel-clad cast iron pot OR in our slow cooker. Either way works nicely. We don't seem to ever suffer with any "bean music" probably because of the overnight soakings & the fact that we've been eating beans pretty regularly for several years now. LOVE THEM so much especially with Brown Rice.
- 2/25/2009 9:42:11 PM
Thanks for sharing this article. - 2/25/2009 6:03:48 PM
We start on Saturday morning by sorting (sometimes the bags have stones or bad beans in them) and rinsing the beans and then putting them in pots and covering them with water to soak overnight. Check the water Saturday night and again Sunday morning, then come in around 11pm Sunday night to start cooking. We finish them around 6-7am Monday morning. It's quite the trip, but I've been doing it for years and have a blast every time!
As part of the cooking process, we dump in about a quarter cup of baking soda in each 60lb batch (yes, sixty pounds each, no typo; we have 2 HUGE steam cookers) and it lets out a little green cloud! It's so neat to see. We forgot the baking soda a couple years ago (no 24-hr grocery store and none in the closet) and heard complaints of the beans being extraordinarily gassy. We'd always done the baking soda trick, so people were not accustomed to getting too gassy from our beans!! - 2/25/2009 11:59:46 AM
1. baked beans (a favorite, cooked great navy beans or small white beans baked for 4-8 hours with molasses, onion, a bit of ketchup & mustard, chili powder)
2. dhal (split peas &/or mung beans with cumin, peppercorns, & whole cloves)
3. Colombian-style beans (pinto or kidney beans, onion & garlic, cumin & turmeric, cooked with chopped plantain or potato for thickening)
4. vegetarian chili (kidney beans + tomatoes, green pepper, onion, garlic, spices)
5. curried chickpeas
And so on! These are major comfort foods--so satisfying as well as nutritious.
Over time the musical effects have stopped. If beans are a staple in your diet, your body learns to manage them just fine. - 2/25/2009 11:47:14 AM
Great tip!!! - 2/25/2009 10:47:37 AM
As for the "music" that comes from eating beans, I cook beans at least once a week and eat on them all week, and once your body gets use to them you really don't have that much gas. - 2/25/2009 10:29:16 AM
hahaha jk
:) - 2/25/2009 9:22:06 AM
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