12 Steps to Whole Foods

Making Plant-Based Main Dishes
Tips for Cooking Beans
• Although it requires thinking ahead, try to cook your own beans rather
than using canned. Canned beans add too much sodium in the form of
refined salt. If you do buy canned beans, look for the “reduced
sodium” versions that are becoming more common. Also, rinse your
canned beans very well regardless of whether they are regular or low
sodium.
• Some people avoid beans because they cause flatulence. Presoak your
beans for several hours to reduce the oligosaccharides, the sugars
known to cause flatulence, and then rinse and cook them in fresh
water. Cooking with old beans will also cause more gas.
• Grind any kind of (uncooked) small beans in your grain grinder (the
K-Tec Kitchen Mill and GrainMaster Whisper Mill are guaranteed to
grind all kinds of grains and beans). Cooking bean flour with three
times as much water creates cooked beans in just a few minutes, and
this makes a good gravy base as well.
• Do not add salt and seasonings until beans are fully cooked, as doing
so will increase the cooking time.
• As a rule of thumb, use three cups of water for every cup of beans.
• When you cleanse your intestinal tract with several months of drinking green smoothies, you may find
that things that used to cause gas for you don’t anymore.
Tips for Saving Money
To save on energy and time, and to avoid using more expensive, salt-added canned beans, soak and drain a
large amount of dry beans all at once, and then bring them to a boil and simmer them in a huge pot or slow
cooker. Drain the beans and freeze 4 C each in quart-size freezer bags. Then you have the advantage of very
inexpensive, fresh-cooked, unsalted beans that are as quick and easy to use as canned beans.
You can do the same with brown rice, if you find the 45-min. cooking time is a deterrent in meal planning.
Your Journal Entry
Make sure you take a few minutes at the end of this month to document any changes in your health, as well as
your budget, from decreasing or eliminating meat from the dinner plate and learning new “main dishes” that
are plant based and high in nutrition.
1. What changes in your health do you notice from using legumes and whole grains in your dinner?
2. How you feel different after dinner now, compared to after a meat-based dinner? And has your sleep
changed as a result?
3. Has your digestion and elimination changed as a result of getting more fiber in the form of legumes and
whole grains?
164 12 Steps to Whole Foods
© Copyright Robyn Openshaw