Although we aren’t given to New Year’s resolutions, DF and I sorta-kinda made one this year. It’s called “weekly beans,” which is just what it sounds like: At least once a week, we will make a meal (or most of one) based on beans.
In part that’s because we have 100 pounds of them in storage. But it’s also because beans are cheap, nourishing, delicious – and did we mention cheap?
Especially since ours will be sunk-cost beans. We buy them by the 25-pound bag from Costco, and apparently we have done so more than once. High time to move some of them out of the basement and into our bellies.
And we’d like to invite you to join us in the Weekly Beans Challenge. Whether it’s navy bean soup, chili, burritos, moros y cristianos or just a mess of beans, a weekly bean feast is a great way to shore up your grocery budget.
They’re lots cheaper than meat, and good for you in so many ways. The Bean Institute spells out the specifics, and offers up recipes to the uninitiated. You could also just Google “easy bean recipes” and run with what you find.
The first weekly beans of 2023 came in the form of hoppin’ john, which DF eats every New Year’s Day for good luck. (His grandparents were from Mississippi.) Our version is made with black-eyed peas cooked with a ham bone, onion, and some frozen celery and dried celery leaf from last year’s garden, served over rice and eaten with cornbread baked in a black iron skillet. I added homemade mustard vinegar to mine, and DF sprinkled his with Tabasco.
We enjoyed them immensely, and DF noted that since we had soooo many beans in the basement, perhaps we ought to eat them every week. So here we go.
Tonight’s supper was lima beans cooked with ham scraps plus grated carrot and chopped onion sautéed in a little olive oil, and served with thick slices of DF’s rustic bread. The carrots gave the broth a lovely golden-orange color, which spurred me to break up bread bits and let them soak up that soup juice.
This picture doesn’t do it justice, and the ham scraps are kinda ugly, but the dish sure tasted fine.
Beans may save your budget
Will we really eat beans every week? Hope so. There might be spells when we go more than seven days between bean-eating. In fact, tonight was nine days past that Jan. 1 hoppin’ john. Generally speaking, though, the “weekly” part of the resolution should keep us honest.
And boy, do we have the raw materials. DF isn’t exaggerating when he said “100 pounds.” Our current supplies include pintos, black beans, small white beans and red beans. Although we default to the same old recipes, perhaps this will be the year that we try some new ones.
Right now we’ve got several cups of cooked, seasoned black beans in the freezer. That will likely be the basis of next week’s meal, which will be either rice bowls and tortillas or black-bean-and-rice burritos.
The former is really just a deconstructed version of the latter: a bowl of rice smothered in those black beans, which were cooked with olive oil, cumin, garlic, salt and a touch of cayenne. On top I drizzle a mixture of salsa and my homemade yogurt. Sometimes we add cooked chicken or pork, if we have any. Rolling it all up in a tortilla seems pointless to me, since I spend half the meal scooping up everything that falls out with each bite.
The tortillas, naturally, came from the bakery outlet (or as DF calls it, “the used bread store”). The rice and olive oil, like the beans, came from Costco. The yogurt, as noted, is homemade and much cheaper than the store brand.
Healthy, tasty and cheap: That’s a frugalist’s delight. With food prices jumping higher each week, I think it’s time we all did more beans. Weekly might be too often for you (or not often enough), but no matter how you do this, your grocery bill will thank you.
Readers: Are you eating more beans lately? Got any recipes to share?
Related reading:
This was a lovely article, Donna.
Husband the Brick is a North Carolina boy; we also have Hoppin’ John to celebrate New Year’s. (Except we had it a week later.) I add a bit of tomato and chopped green pepper to your recipe, along with some garlic. And the hot sauce goes right into the mixture to flavor it. (In fact, we had leftover HJ tonight for supper. It keeps well.)
I grew up in Michigan without ever knowing about black-eyed peas. We ate northern white beans, and my mom cooked them straight — no seasoning, no onion…and maybe a hambone, if she had it. (Usually she didn’t.) I ate them by the bowlful, with the broth seasoned with a slug of ketchup or barbecue sauce. They’re good, too.
This recipe was a favorite at the state building in Lansing:
https://michiganbean.com/senate-bean-soup/
As I noted in the linked “A mess of beans” article, I practically lived on Great Northern beans when I was a single mom. They really are good.
And now Abby has started making bean soup. The saga continues.
Weekly beans sound good to me! Black bean burgers are a staple of our menu. Take 2 cups of cooked black beans, a scant 1/4 cup chopped onion, 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs (I use ground oatmeal), 1 egg, 1/4 teaspoon each of chili powder, cumin, and a pinch of crushed red pepper. I sometimes add a splash of worstershire sauce. Mix together, crushing some of the beans, and form into patties. Melt a little butter with olive oil in a frying pan and cook for 5 minutes then flip the patties and cook covered for 5 more minutes. Serve on toasted buns with your preferred condiments. Homemade baked fries are a treat with this.
We find this recipe to be more filling than beef burgers and I don’t feel greasy afterward. I got the recipe from Kevin Lee Jacobs years ago and everyone loves it.
Wendy,
This sounds SO good. I am going to try. Thank you for sharing! Ann J
I hope you enjoy!
I tried black-bean burgers while living in Seattle and they were tasty, but a bit hard to cook because they crumbled so easily. However, this recipe sounds so good that I might try again. Love the idea of using ground oatmeal, even though we do save our breadcrumbs:
https://donnafreedman.com/extreme-frugality-use-all-the-bits/
I think the trick to keep plant-based patties from being crumbly is to make sure the batter is wet. I find if I can squeeze the mixture into a ball and it keeps it shape when wet, I generally don’t have issues once it has been cooked. I hope you enjoy!
When I make patties from beans or fish I put them in the fridge for about 30 min right before I cook them. Seems to help.
Thanks for that. I will give it a try.
I’m not eating more beans but I have started looking at my pantry and going what can I make with what I have? It helps stretch my food dollars and has helped me come up with some creative and cheap meals I don’t mind making in the future.
Eating from the pantry is always a good look. Among other things, it keeps us from wasting food.
I can totally eat bean every week! We also had Hoppin John for New Years as we always do. Also, collards for good financial luck because they are green like money. We put chow chow on ours. A pan of cornbread and sometimes a baked sweet potato. It’s a tradition.
I have been freezing a lot more cooked dry beans in the last months since prices have risen. I have a freezer full of black eyed peas, navy and white bean, black beans, pintos and reds. Also, I have quite a few bags in my pantry to cook as needed. I watch for sales and good prices and try to get what I can.
We stuff them in bell peppers with rice and whatever we have… maybe corn and other veggies and cheese and seasonings. Especially good if I can find the peppers in the “last day”bins. We love vegetarian chili with them I make baked beans with them. Any kind of bean soup. Or rice bowls like Donna. I make a bean and pasta dish.
We will definitely take the challenge. Maybe Mondays for the old Meatless Monday concept.
Always enjoy your posts! Ann J
Thanks, Ann. I always enjoy hearing from you.
And the celery leaves represent money/good fortune in our hoppin’ john — starting with the fact that they were free, vs. the collard greens that can be a bit spendy up here.
I have a small note attached to our fridge that reminds me to put “beans, greens, soup & fish” on our menu each week. I don’t always manage it, but it’s a good reminder. Tomorrow we are going to have pumpkin polenta with white beans for lunch. https://www.naturallyella.com/roasted-pumpkin-polenta/%3famp=1
I am a member of the Rancho Gordo Bean Club, which apparently has a cult following. Their website has a lot of cool bean recipes. The beans are a bit spendy, but are incredibly flavorful.
Cool beans, indeed.
Funny, I told a friend last week I was going to be eating more beans this year as everything as gotten so expensive! i am a big fan of Garbanzo’s on salad for protein, and am going to be using more other beans as my main protein in meals.
Another advantage:
“If a food has a low GI – less than 55 — it will affect your blood sugar less than a medium or high food will. The GI score of beans ranges from 10 to 40 for a serving of about a 1/2-cup. ”
https://www.livestrong.com/article/184943-glycemic-index-for-beans/
Lentils also.
Budget Bytes has a good recipe for lentil stew:https://www.budgetbytes.com/lentil-sausage-stew/
Another plus for lentils: They cook really fast and no soaking is required.
Every time I read something about saving money and eating healthier with beans I grieve that I so hate beans that even the smell of them cooking will drive me into another room (or house!). The taste, the texture (especially the texture) are just too much for me, no matter what the variety. I even hate the way they look, all cooked up. I have tried and tried but finally given up. The husband likes beans so when I make chili, I divide it in half and put beans in his half and he eats it when I am not around.
Until i was well into my 40s, i HATED all beans. Hated them with a red hot burning hatred. The texture? Noooo! 😆 For some reason, i tried a recipe for red lentil soup and I didn’t hate it. And then i tried some very smooth retried beans. And now I’ll eat most beans except pinto beans and lima beans. It took a few years though – didn’t happen overnight and i still don’t like all bean dishes. Baked beans? Those will always be a no for me. 😄
I love this idea! This recipe is a hit in my mom’s cooking group (we focus on ideas to get our kids to eat). https://smittenkitchen.com/2017/09/pizza-beans-cookbook-preview/
I also love sweet potato and black bean enchiladas
I make a tasty southwestern ‘tortilla’ soup.
Sauté a large onion in oil in a Dutch oven, season with 1+ t each of cumin, chili powder and oregano and 1/4 t cayenne pepper. (More cayenne if you like it spicier, or throw in a can of mild chili peppers or use some fresh jalapeños.) Add a big can (28 oz.?) of chopped tomatoes and a can (or about two cups of cooked black beans) and 1/2 cup of brown rice (or a can of hominy) and about six cups water (or chicken broth). If you have leftover shredded chicken, that’s yummy too. If needed, thicken with a little tomato paste, or thin with more water. Obviously, it’s soup, measurements are approximate!
Cook until the rice is done. Top with avocados (or guacamole), Mexican cheese, tortilla chips, salsa, sour cream or anything that strikes your fancy.
One of my favorite soups.
Enjoy!
Okay, now I’m hungry.
I make a crackpot full of Boston Baked Beans at least once a month. Chopped hotdogs can be added at the end if desired. The recipe is from the old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook but I can write it out if anybody wants it.
I also keep portioned out beans in the freezer and add them to vegetable soup for protein instead of meat. So delicious with some elbow macaroni added in too.
I have the ham bone in my freezer from Christmas Eve and have the split peas to cook with it. Dried peas count too, I think.
I definitely want to jump on board with the weekly beans plan. Thanks for the idea Donna. Perfect time for more beans, between inflation and the cold winter weather.
We’ve been growing peas every summer, and a few years ago learned that the pods can be cooked into broth. So instead of putting them in the boiling bag, we save the pods separately in the freezer until we have a slow-cooker’s worth. The result is very sweet and makes a killer split-pea soup.
Maybe that will be the “beans” one week. They’re not technically beans, but I think I’ll let that slide.
My parents and grandparents all grew up in the south, so blacked eye peas on New Year’s Day was something we did every time a new year rolled around. Mom said it made sure you had money all year long. Beans are a great money saver in the kitchen and we are depending on them to help keep our grocery budget down during these hard times.
We have many recipes for beans, but one of our favorites come from the Hurst Beans website.
Pizza Beans
Ingredients:
1 package HamBeens® 15 BEAN SOUP®
1 white onion, diced
2 green bell peppers, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1lb. ground Italian sausage (mild, sweet, or hot)
6oz. sliced pepperoni, cut into quarters
7 cups chicken stock
24oz. of your favorite marinara sauce
Shredded mozzarella for topping
Directions:
Rinse and sort through the beans. Check for any debris and discard. Pour beans into a large bowl or pot, cover with water by 2″ and allow to soak overnight (or at minimum 4 hours). When ready to cook, discard the excess water.
Turn stove to medium-high, and in a large Dutch oven sauté the ground sausage and pepperoni until sausage is completely browned.
Spoon out the meats, pour off any excess grease, then add the onions, peppers, and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes, then add the chicken stock and turn heat to high. Use your spoon to scrape off any browned bits on the bottom of the pot as this will add great flavor. Add the meats & soaked beans (no marinara yet!) back into the pot and bring to a boil.
Cover the pot and place into a 350º oven for 2 hours, stir the beans halfway through the time.
When beans are completely tender, stir in the marinara sauce. Put pot back in the oven for an additional 20 minutes, then turn oven to warm until ready to serve.
The recipe can be very versatile. For example, the recipe calls for green peppers, which I like, but other family members don’t and they do tend to permeate a dish when they are included, so I simply left them out.
There is a list of suggested add-ins at the recipe site, which includes black olives. As we were eating these I was thinking black olives would be a good addition
I love Hurst’s 15 Bean Soup! Plain or with additives, it is just delicious and filling. I’ve thrown pieces of ham in with it. Also, carrots, celery, onions and any other leftover veggies I have. I wasn’t aware they had recipes on their website. The pizza soup sounds really good. Thanks!
We had Hopping John on New Year’s day, had the leftovers on the 3rd. Made Chili Beans on the 6th, had the leftovers on the 9th. Having Beef and Bean Burritos tomorrow the 12th. Next time after that making soup with white beans, smoked sausage, onions and carrots. I love cooking Wintertime food!
To paraphrase Thoreau, these dishes nourish us twice: once in the fragrance, and once in the consumption.
I’ll give it a try. It may not be weekly, but we do have several cans of various beans waiting to be used. I like beans; I like the idea of using them to make nutritious meals and to save money. Beans do not always like me, however. I’ll see if I can work on that. I love all the suggestions and recipes posted, as well as other sources to check out. Thank you, Donna, and to everyone who shared recipes and resources.
I’m also a big fan of Rancho Gordo beans. During the cold weather, I like to make a big pot of pasta fazool with sauteed onion, garlic, celery, carrots, green peppers, and herbs (oregano and thyme, plus of course crushed red peppers). I add a small can of crushed fire-roasted tomatoes and some veggie broth made with Better Than Bouillon, cooked small white beans, and some tubetti. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and more red pepper. When it’s all done, drizzle with good olive oil and grate some Parmesan or Pecorino Romano on top–delicious! Zucchini would be great, as well, added to the veggies. I cook half a pound of beans at a time and have enough for this soup plus some refried beans for burritos.
It all sounds wonderful! I cannot cook any beans until I make space in my fridge and freezer.
There are three pints of homemade British style bsked beans in my freezer waiting for the next occasion to eat them. I meant to have some with ham for New Year’s, but my whole household was sick with some vicious coughing crud and that did not happen.
I eat a lot of beans in homemade soups. Just finished a delicious black bean and pork soup with tiny pieces of broken whole grain spaghetti cooked in it. The previous soup of the week was a clean-out-the-crisper-drawer winter veggie soup with chickpeas. So yummy.
I recently had surgery and found a new favorite: the 79-cent bean burritos that are sold in the frozen foods case at the local drug store. They were as filling as they were cheap and they had a good flavor. No matter how out-of-it I felt, I could just pop one into the microwave and it only took 60 seconds until I had a hot and filling “meal.” I now buy those 79-cent packages by the hand full. Great items to stock up on, in case you feel too tired or sick to actually prepare a meal.
Friday night we had pulled pork and one of the sides was baked beans. There were more leftovers than I’d expected, so when I made chili the next night I used the baked beans instead of opening up a container of kidney beans. They improved the depth of flavor a lot, especially since I made turkey chili instead of ground beef (I’m trying to work my way through my freezers and cupboards, so I’ll substitute lots of ingredients and not purchase things unnecessarily.) So far that chili has been served on its own, as a topping to make the small potatoes left in the bag look more substantial, and with chips as a snack.
Kudos for eating from the pantry, for using the leftover beans and for making the resulting dish do for two meals and a snack.
I love this idea! This recipe is a hit in my mom’s cooking group (we focus on ideas to get our kids to eat). https://smittenkitchen.com/2017/09/pizza-beans-cookbook-preview/