THE BEAN BIBLE:
The Legumaniac’s Guide to Lentils, Peas,
and Every Edile Bean on the Planet!
Aliza Green
Photos: no
Ease: 3-5
I love beans, pulses, legumes, call them what you may. Fresh, dried, fermented, ground into flour, made into noodles – I’ve yet to meet a bean I didn’t like. (OK, I take that back. The Japanese fermented slimy soybean, natto, is an exception). But even if you are not (yet) a “bean head,” you may just be interested in finding new and delicious ways to get more whole foods and complex carbs into your diet. You’ve got to give this book a look.
The first 45 pages contain a catalog of bean types, their nutritional content, and how to cook them (with the all-important “anti-flatulence cooking tips,” page 39). Then follows a plethora of recipes from food traditions around the world – hummus, edamame, dosas, pea soups, fritattas, bean thread salads, pakoras, baked beans, refried beans, succotash. Also sprinkled throughout are interesting sidebars about ingredients and recipe history for the serious foodie.
When reading a new cookbook for the first time, I often mark the “must-try” recipes with a little Post-it flag – this book is awash in flags. The ones I’ve already tried and can vouch for include: Chinese Yard Long Beans w/ Black Bean and Garlic Sauce (246), Boston Baked Beans (212), Maccherone alla Contadina (192), Moros e Christianos (263), Piedmontese Red Beans in Red Wine (256), Miso-Marinated Glazed Halibut (we’ve used salmon and butterfish, 196), and the Oven-Cooked Italian-style (228) or Country-style (229) Beans.
The Bean Bible provides a wonderful starting point for incorporating versatile and healthful beans of all kinds into your meals.