You Should Know

Lentils are another good legume. Look up a daal recipe for any lentil you find, and basmati rice

Fortified short grain white rice... hit up Costco or Sam's, or your local Asian market, and you can score a 20 lb bag for like $15 which comes out to literally a few cents per meal. (well... pre-tariffs at least... nowadays idk)

From there, add beans, or eggs, or chicken broth, or literally almost anything else: shit off the clearance wrack, from the food pantry, w/e. If it's a meat or veggie, it'll go with rice. In the case of the pantry, if you're not actually sure what it is, it'll still probably go with rice. Got a bag of spicy cheetos you forgot to close and now it's all stale? Don't throw that shit away, smash it up and throw it in with your next batch of rice - now it's spicy! (I've done it - texture's a little weird, but otherwise came out better than expected). Rice is ridiculously versatile.

Disregard the hate for white rice being nutritionless junkfood - it is, but when money's that tight, you don't give a fuck. The fortified rice mitigates that a bit, and in my experience is usually cheaper. It's a starting point: add what you can to make it less shit; and even if it's a meal of just straight rice, that's still better than an empty stomach.

Imagine living in a country with 900+ billionaires, with growing tendency, where regular people are discussing about the best ways not to starve.

Not that it's much better where I live, but damn, what the hell is wrong with this world?

Bean stew is one of the most delicious things you can cook whether you can afford more or not. Here's my recipe. Everything but the beans, onions, carrots, paprika, oil and salt is optional and mainly improves the taste profile. Works with almost any kind of bean. Can be done with dried beans too but you gotta handle softening them up first.

Bean stew/soup v4.1

• 3x beans cans - 540ml
• 2x onion heads
• 2x carrots
• 2tbsp paprika, 1tbsp smoked paprika
• cooking oil
• 1/2 tsp salt (or less) and 1/2tsp of MSG
• 2x chicken or beef cubes
• marinara/tomato puree/diced tomatoes/vinegar/some other acid

• Add beans with some water in a pot. Use OG bean water too.
• Chop onions and carrots in small pieces.
• Fry onions and carrots in a pan with oil.
• Once fry is done, add all the paprika and stir for 10-20s then pour into the pot, let it boil once.
• Add the beef/chicken cubes.
• Add spearmint, lots.
• Add some more oil if needed. Olive is great.
• Add 3-4tbsp marinara, diced tomatoes or balsamic vinegar.
• Add 1/2 tsp salt (or less) and 1/2tsp of MSG.
• Test for salt, it might be good enough.

Eat it with some bread or by itself. It goes well with any type of hot pepper too.

Also, if this sounds too boring to anyone - do not underestimate the power of keeping a bunch of fun hot sauces around. They don’t have to be too spicy, but something similarly vinegar based will have a decent shelf life and be pretty cheap per serving.

I’m not just eating pantry staples again, I’m enjoying a smoky chipotle bean stew on top of some fragrant mango-lime-habanero rice.

As a vegan, this has been my main meal because I'm pretty lazy (usually wrapped in a tortilla with guacamole, but I also eat it plain)

The gas issues are only a problem for a few days / weeks until your gut biome adjusts !

Brown rice, barley, or other whole grains have much more protein than white rice

White rice is pretty much pre-diabetic junk food that's been stripped of most of its fibre and nutrients. I'd recommend always replacing with something like the above, or my favorite, steel-cut oats.

If you get dried beans, make sure you follow the directions to pre-soak them.

When cooking from dried, some baking soda in the heating process can greatly speed things up. The use of a potato masher here and there can also speed up the softening of the beans, and makes it easier to tell how far along they are.

Get some bulk garlic powder, paprika, cumin, crushed red pepper, black pepper, etc. Season and salt the pot to taste.

Don't forget MSG, which boosts up the savory / umami taste. It's cheap, you don't need a lot, and there is no such thing as an MSG allergy. (altho very occasionally people can have sensitivity)

Frozen peas are great for that too. Goes with a lot of different dishes. just throw in a handful, or make a side-dish.

My kids call me "bean lady" for my love of beans. They are a perfect food.

Red beans and rice (red beans cooked with small chopped veg, long grain white rice)

Pinto beans on brown rice, with tahini.

Pinto beans on brown rice, with chili paste.

Pinto beans refried with breakfast.

Lentil dal with coconut milk and spinach (or lately with Hong Tsoi because it grows here, spinach is too fussy. )

Garbanzo bean soup with potatoes and chorizo.

Ful mudamas with pita and feta cheese and scallions

Channa masala so spicy, with chopped onion and mixed pickle, on white basmati

Red lentils and greens on sourdough toast. East with knife and fork.

Brothy enormous white beans cooked in veg broth but with a Parmesan rind or a bone.

I really truly love beans.

Rice and beans together make a full protein, so eat them together.

Rice takes up arsenic when it grows, if you eat a lot it can add up. It's mostly in the bran which is in brown rice and is removed for white rice. Rinse many times before cooking and you can either boil in lots of excess water and drain (like you do with pasta) or parboil it. https://health.osu.edu/wellness/exercise-and-nutrition/how-to-reduce-arsenic-in-rice

https://sheffield.ac.uk/sustainable-food/news/new-way-cooking-rice-removes-arsenic-and-retains-mineral-nutrients-study-shows

I just want to add:

If you are in NYC - check out the Chinese and Mexican grocery stores!!! Usually a ton of foot traffic keeps the vegetables fresh. I do most of my vegetable shopping at one particular Chinese store which I find to be the best - [except for the onions (why are the onions so bad - do chinese people not eat yellow onions?)] - and it's fun to try new vegetables!

Also, strange, and I'm not sure what to make of it - fish in the Chinese grocery stores costs 1/2 of what it at white-people ones.

My go to rice recipe: spanish rice

Add some refried beans and a protein or cheese, kids will clean their plate.

leave it to lemmy users to disparage the primary staple of 3.5 billion people. "Pre-diabetic junk food" lmao sure ok

If you can get a hold of some chipotle chili pepper, adding a little bit to the beans is a great way to get some smokiness and depth of flavor too. It's really strong so one container lasts basically forever

It's the return of depression meals, 1930s style

Taco seasoning goes great in beans too.

Some notes about gas: It's primarily caused by a combination of fiber, and in the case of beans, by the oligosaccharides. The fiber can be handled by gradually increasing intake of high fiber foods. The more you get used to eating them, the less bloated you should feel, and it generally goes down to a normal level of gas that most people experience.

For the oligosaccharides, soaking and rinsing the dry beans does help remove a lot of it. Rinsing canned beans also helps. Taking Beano (or an equivalent) can help too. There are also claims of various spices being able to help as well.

It's also important to note that different types of legumes can cause more bloating, or less. Experiment with different kinds to find what works for you.

If you're willing/able to make the effort, sprouting and even fermenting will significantly help with bloating as well.

As a last resort or easy reprieve, opting for low fiber plant foods like white rice and tofu won't hurt in the short term, though whole foods should generally be preferred because natural sources of fiber of hugely beneficial.

On an unrelated note, I have always hated soaking beans, which is why the Instant Pot has been one of the single greatest cooking inventions I have ever used. Supposedly the pressure cooking also breaks down the oligosaccharides and reduces bloating. I just love it because I can toss in a bunch of beans and oat groats, and have enough of that stuff cooked to easily and quickly prepare meals every day for a week with each batch.

To reduce gas with beans:

• soak with baking soda (1tsp per cup of beans)
• before cooking boil some water and in a bowl cover the beans with the boiled water, after 5 minutes drain and wash them and throw them in to whatever you are cooking
• ferment the beans, best results but more work

Also remember that as your body gets used to it, the gas is reduced.

Also a very underrated flavoring that's unjustly stigmatized because of racism is MSG. You can get really big bags of them for super cheap, and it's an easy way to make any meal taste savory.

Been on lemmy like two years, and this is the first post I'm gonna actually save for later cuz damn this is just useful and nice information to have, thank you so much for sharing!

This will cost an extra few dollars but still totally worth it..add curry sauce! Aldi has butter chicken, korma, and tikka masala sauce for abt 5 bucks a jar and it is really good with rice and beans.

I got a tray of rotisserie chicken leg quarters (maybe 8 of them) for $5 at Costco!!!

We should have a post of cheap foods!

1kg dry beans soaked and 150g of most types of curry paste makes for a great meal. I'm currently eating red lentils and vindaloo paste with cabbage cooked in with it.

Soak lentils overnight, then rinse and whisk to clean them off before use.

Good post. Will try it out.