Sprouted Refried Beans (Sooooo good!)

I love sprouting! I often forget to sprout ahead of when I want the actual sprouted bean, but sometimes I remember. I wanted to cook some of our 25 pound bag of pinto beans I'd picked up at Costco a few months ago. My friend gave me the best recipe for vegan refried beans and my kids DEVOUR them at coffee hour when ever she brings them, so I got the recipe and it's InstantPot friendly and I got one of those last year and love it. I decided on an 8 quart InstantPot last summer after researching my brains out. Because my year has been so busy I haven't learned how to use it much yet... The Instapot and I are still dating and not in a full time committed relationship yet. But this recipe has helped me warm up to him quite a bit.

I use this sprouting method for all of my beans and our favorite is lentils because they sprout even faster. I have to use this bowl/strainer set up pictured below all the time now. I used to use jars more when we didn't have as many hungry teenagers.

My sprouting set up. The first night I soak beans in a big bowl of water.
In the morning I dump them into my spaghetti strainer and rinse them.
Then I put them into the bowl and put a random lid or a plastic plate
or saran wrap on top to trap in some of the moisture.
I also use sprouting jars (2 qt jars) and a sprouting screen if I'm doing smaller batches.

Can you see the tiny sprouts right in the middle?

I soaked about 5 1/2 cups of beans on Monday night (I think?) and today is Wednesday. This makes a LOT, you won't want this many if you have a smaller family. It nearly fills up my 8 qt pot once they are all cooked up. I knew I'd like to have a fasting/vegan food on Wednesday that the kids would gobble up and this is CHEAP and good for them especially when sprouted. When you sprout grains and legumes it removes the bad stuff (I forget the science name) on the outside that naturally preserves the grain and beans from bugs...but it doesn't let our bodies absorb the vitamins in the grain. So if you ONLY soak them for 12 hours you're helping your family out a ton. Sprouting it it starts to change the chemistry and turns it from grain/legume into a vegetable and makes it much healthier, upping the vitamins, nutrients and sometimes the protein. Amazing stuff.

Anytime after the initial 12 hour soak you can cook your beans, but if you rinse them once in the morning and once at night they'll start growing and then you can cook them as healthy little plants! You'll notice a considerable reduction in gas in the family if you eat a lot of beans and some people who can't eat beans at all because of gastrointestinal issues can eat these just fine. After you sprout you can cook any of your beans any way. But we love this way!

The handsome 8 qt InstantPot containing the beans, onions,
cumin and salt. Does not yet have salsa or water.

Turning it on is no small feat! I use the beans setting and put it for 20 minutes.
I think it should work for any soaked beans. This will PRESSURE COOK your beans...
so if you don't have a handsome InstantPot you can cook them on the stove
in a traditional manner in a normal pot for a much longer number of minutes...
you'll have to figure that one out. Basically you don't want them crunchy.

Note, my fingers are pushing the lever into the "pressurized" position.
Don't let this recipe sit on venting or it won't cook
in 20 minutes and it'll spit a lot at you.

Sprouted Vegan Refried Beans

5 cups pinto beans - soak and sprout 2 days in advance or do quick soak or overnight soak method as stated on the package
Put beans into the cooking pot then add:
1/4c minced dried onions
2 T garlic salt
2 T cumin
Water up to right UNDER the beans for sprouted beans...and just over for soaked beans.

Cook in your InstantPot on pressure cook for 20 minutes, then let the pressure slowly dissipate on it's own. Set your valve to pressure. Should take around 45 minutes in all. Carefully check your valve and carefully move it to venting with a wooden spoon. Close again if pressure starts bursting out and wait. Once it does not vent anymore you can remove the lid. If using a normal pot, cook as normal on the stove.

2-3 cups salsa-medium

1/2c. corn oil

Heat up oil in 8 qt dutch oven or other heavy bottom pot.

Carefully pour in beans into the hot oil. Let them fry for a bit then mash them up with an immersion blender or potato masher.

You can eat immediately with chips or tortillas. The next day they have set up firmly in the fridge and also the flavors have blended nicely. Use for burritos, tacos, quesadillas or freeze in 1 qt yogurt containers. If you freeze: thaw and fry your pre-frozen beans in a small frying pan (like with eggs, in oil or not) to get rid of the excess water that seems to come with freezing beans.

Enjoy!

Shop this post.

Here is the 8 quart InstantPot but people love the 6 quart also.

This is not the same immersion blender that
I have but it gets great reviews for the price!

I use my 1/2 gallon jars regularly.
To store grains, sprout grains, store goat milk, homemade juice...

Canning Beans My Way

This is NOT the proper canning method recommended by extension service or Ball Blue Book, but it is what I use.

I presoak the beans in their individual jars the night before and I do not cook them for 30 minutes recommended time. This is much faster (for me) and gives me perfectly non-mushy beans (at least for the chick peas, my current favorite beans to can so I can make my hummus.)

 1/2 cup dry beans per pint, 1 cup dry per quart.
Soak in water overnight. I like it in the jars but you can do this in a bowl to make the rinse faster.
Rinse beans the following day.
1/2 tsp salt per pint, 1 tsp salt per quart
pour boiling water over rinsed beans and salt, secure lids, place in pressure canner

Can using following proper canning procedure, this is a VERY quick step-by-step:

2 inches of water in the pressure canner, hot jars in, lock on lid, heat up, let steam vent for 10 minutes, put on 10 or 15 lb weight depending on elevation, then start timer...

1 hour 15 minutes for pints (75 min)
1 hour 30 minutes for quarts (90 min)

Turn off heat, let pressure go down to zero, remove weight, remove lid (carefully! hot steam!) remove hot jars with jar lifter and put onto a dish towel on the counter, if using tattler lids, CAREFULLY tighten down rings, DON'T do this with metal non-reusable lids. Let cool completely, if using tattler, check for no seal. Any that did not seal I will use right away for hummus.

Beans on right just came out of canner, on left are ready to go in.

If you love hummus like I do then you will love the GoRemy Hummus: The Rap or maybe their new one, All About The Paste. But I really dig their Falafel Song, but don't use canned beans when making your Falafels! Only soaked overnight, see the recipe here.

Chick Pea Love

Advent is another vegan season for us. And as I get older the more I fall in love with "ethnic" foods. Such as Arabic, Indian and Mexican. There are many varieties in the spices that we don't have in American food and the more I eat it, the more it becomes comfort food. These are some staples with the traditional Chick Pea that are our favorites.

The hummus and the falafel recipe both require a food processor. I was 36 years old before I bought my first processor (just last year). I really thought I didn't need one...and I didn't. But there were more and more things that I just couldn't make like the recipe stated...so I cleaned out space in my cupboard and bought a used one. I'm so glad I did!

Note on the beans. I LOVE sprouting beans (as of this update 3/14/2019 I try sprouting all the beans before cooking them...) It takes an extra day or two but your tummy will be much happier with you. If there are certain beans your body can't tolerate try sprouting them first and see what happens. Try lentil hummus too, sprout them first. I have soy beans that I sometimes add in to my garbanzo beans when I make it too, ups the protein and helps get rid of my stash.

I canned 14 pints of chick peas on Saturday and made a giant batch of hummus for coffee hr on Sunday. We're ready for Advent!

Hummus
This recipe was given to me by a special friend...but this never had enough FLAVOR so I am altering it and adding in more good stuff 3.14.2019.

3 cans garbanzo beans - one with juice and two drained. Coarsely grind in a food processor. Save some juice in case you need more liquid later. Please note if it's canned from the store if there is salt or not, I almost always make my own beans, usually sprouted first, so I don't have any salt in mine.
1/2 c. lemon juice
1/2 c. tahini (I have used almond butter with good results)

1 Tbs cumin (this is not in many other recipes I see, I think it's a secret ingredient, I have only left this out of my basil pesto flavored hummus otherwise keep it in...)

2 tsp salt (probably less if your beans are pre salted, but probably more if they weren't salted)
Olive Oil -while processor is running, drizzle in about 15-20 seconds worth of olive oil (I have used peanut oil when we were fasting from olive oil, I have seen sunflower oil suggested too)
8-12 cloves minced garlic 

Season variation of the day we have made:

Herb Hummus: thyme, sage, oregano, black pepper, two tsp each of the herbs and 3/4tsp of pepper
Paprika Hummus: Smoked paprika 2-3 tsp smoked and regular paprika, 6-10 shakes cayenne pepper, (everyone likes this one)
Basil pesto Hummus: I use a premade-pesto packet or two in place of cumin and other spice (soooo good, everyone loved this!)
Indian Hummus: 2tsp Garam Masala, 1tsp coriander, 1tsp garlic powder 1tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp. ginger, 1tsp black pepper. Also used melted coconut oil for half of the oil to add the flavor.

Haven't had a chance to make these kinds yet:
Za'atar Hummus: Za'atar contains salt! We love za'atar but can't always find it, if you're Arabic you probably know where to find it and you obviously already know how to make hummus so you're likely not reading this blog post...)
Chives/scallions Hummus.
Roasted red pepper Hummus, top with pinenuts!
Olive Hummus

Add more seasonings 'till it tastes right. Try extra salt first, then tahini, lemon, olive oil. Flavors will blend if you let it refrigerate overnight. Process the heck out of it, the longer it stays in the blender the better it gets.

Before serving drizzle over with sumac, paprika or cayenne. Drizzle with olive oil. Serve with pita or chips.

Pita Bread
This recipe was given to us by the same friend. It is our go-to pita recipe now, I have made it twice this week already.

2 c warm water
2 Tbl dry yeast
-let yeast proof-
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbl olive or veg oil
5 cups flour
extra flour

Mix the 5 cups of flour into the wet ingredients. You want an almost sticky dough.

Let rise 'till doubled. Preheat oven and baking sheets at 450-500 degrees F. Punch down. Pull apart into 2" balls, form balls, place on a well floured surface. Starting with first formed balls (they have risen some by now) roll them out (remember extra flour) and place how ever many will fit on a baking sheet. They should take about 8-10 minutes to puff up and bake. Best to store in a bag right away to keep them soft and pliable. If you used too much flour they will be much more crispy and not as soft.

A bowl of hummus and fresh pita.

Falafels
For this recipe I give full credit to The Shiksa in the Kitchen. Her recipe is fantastic. It is the first and only one I have tried making from scratch (I used to buy boxes of falafel mix, a great alternate!) But after I bought the 25lb bag of dried chick peas I was committed to finding ways to use them. This recipe is so good and easy, it's worth trying. I think the reason I like it so much is it works perfectly and I never changed it.

1 lb (2 cups) dry chick peas/garbanzo beans
-cover with 3" of water and let them soak overnight or sprout them over a couple of days-
1 small onion, rough chopped
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley (I have used dried)
3-5 cloves garlic (she likes roasted)
1 1/2 Tbl flour
1 3/4 tsp salt 
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (I almost always skip the hot stuff)
Pinch of ground cardamom
Veggie oil for frying (grapeseed, canola, or peanut)

Drain and rinse the garbanzo beans well. Pour them into your food processor along with the chopped onion, garlic cloves, parsley, flour, salt, cumin, ground coriander, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and cardamom. Pulse all ingredients together until a rough, coarse meal forms. Scrape the sides of the processor periodically and push the mixture down the sides. Process till the mixture is somewhere between the texture of couscous and a paste. You want the mixture to hold together, and a more paste-like consistency will help with that... but don't overprocess, you don't want it turning into hummus! I prefer mine more fine than coarse. Pour out into a bowl, mix with a fork, fish out large chunks, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate one or two hours.

This is the part where she lists all sorts of suggestions if it's not behaving itself and variations on the recipe. I'll skip to the frying...

Fill a skillet with oil to 1-1 1/2 inches. Heat slowly over medium heat. Form some falafels into round balls or small patties...I prefer small egg shapes I make with my table spoons. Fry for 2-3 minutes on each side to brown. Turn down heat if it goes much faster, heat up if it's too slow.

Drain on paper towels. Serve them traditionally with hummus and tahini sauce...or our favorite way is in a pita with lettuce, onion and tomato with some tzatziki sauce.

She also recommends other "add ons" such as:
Israeli salad
dill pickles
tabouli
french fries
sprouts
cucumber slices
roasted peppers
roasted eggplant
sunflower seeds
feta cheese
yogurt

Tzatziki Sauce
This is my "vegan version" of it. It's not as great as the sauce made with the yogurt, but it's a great sub-in if you don't eat dairy. Some people also prefer it with sour cream.

1 cucumber -peel, de-seed, and grate or chop very finely, put to drain in a sieve or cloth-
1 cup Vegeniase (you could try soy yogurt, but I always have Vegenaise on hand) 
1 Tbl lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbl chopped fresh dill (I use dry if it's winter)
salt and pepper to taste

Combine and let refrigerate 1-2 hours. 

Slather it on everything and enjoy!

Here is Shiksa's beautiful photo of her falafel.

And just for fun...every time I make hummus or falafels we must watch GoRemy's "Falafel Song" and the "Hummus Rap". They are a hoot.

Canning bean & bacon soup with Tattler lids

My son helped me film my first ever howto video on Tuesday.


My girlfriend wants to come over so I can teach her how to can, but between our 11 kids and our crazy homeschool schedules I realized it would not happen any time soon.

This video is for her or anyone else looking for a canning tutorial. I used Tattler lids to demonstrate how to use them and I used a yummy soup recipe and included that as well. It ended up being 27 minutes long, we still have to figure out all the editing tools, but when you consider canning is an all day (or at least 1/2 day) process, I don't think 27 minutes is too bad.

Have summer herbs? Try this.

Here's an inexpensive but tasty meal you're family should like, I got it from Martha a few years ago from a cute Brazilian lady who worked on her show.

I got a beautiful bunch  of cilantro from my friend's greenhouse yesterday and had to make this today. I was going to use the black beans I'd canned up this winter but much to my chagrin I had only pintos canned. Oh well. Guess what? Pintos are just as good cooked this way. I used 3 quart jars so I didn't have to soak the dry beans. So easy!

I served it over my white rice recipe which the same cute Brazilian lady made on Martha's show that day. I'll post that as well.

Brazilian Black Beans

1 lb dried black beans

4 medium beets, scrubbed (I never add these except for when i have them, I've realized this is probably an economical method for cooking beets since you're already cooking the beans and they had some red color.)

Combine beans and Beets. Add enough water to cover but 1/2 inch, about 8 cups. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until beets are tender, 40-60 min. Remove beets and cook beans 'till tender, 1-2 hrs more. Peel beets when cool and use as desired. (I have a honeyed beets recipe if you want that)

Towards the end of beans cooking:

2 TBS minced garlic

4 1/2 tea. coarse salt...mash these together in a mortar and pestle or something that will work, then fry in med skillet in

2 TBS corn oil, also add

3/4 cup chopped scallions/green onions/chives (maybe one bunch?) and

1/2 cup chopped cilantro (again one bunch)

Cook until scallions are soft 2-4 min, stir mixture into cooked beans and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve with white rice and some veggies.

This is a great one to double and freeze into small containers. The boys prefer these made into burritos and I prefer mine with rice in a bowl with jalapenos and sour cream, yum!


Necy's White Rice (Brazilian lady)


.After making this rice the first time I realized there was no better way to make it and I gave away my rice cooker and use this method every time. My kids all love it and want just plain rice...


3 c white rice (can reduce to 2 or 1 cup, then use 2 or 1 teaspoon of salt to match)

1/3 c corn oil (I used coconut today 'cause I didn't have corn, but the flavor of corn is better)

1 TBS coarse salt
Bring a teapot full of water to a boil (~6 3/4 c)
In a fine strainer rinse rice under cold running water for 1 minute, drain well, set aside.

In a stockpot heat oil until very hot but not smoking, add rice, cook stirring until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add salt and stir to combine.

Add enough boiling water to cover (~4 1/2 c). Simmer over med-high heat, partially covered (i don't even cover mine) until water is absorbed about 9 minutes. Add rest of the water and continue cooking over low heat until water is absorbed and rice is cooked, ~15 minutes. I don't follow these precise directions, I eye it, and if it needs more water then I add more and when it gets to the end when you're afraid it'll burn you can turn off heat and put on lid and leave it for 10 minutes and it'll probably be done after that... Enjoy!




pintos used today instead of black...just as good (I think)



3 Bean Salad

In my quest for not spending so much stinking money at the store, I have been learning more about dried beans, how to grind them for flour and how to put them in things more often to make meals stretch farther.

One of my favorite salads is homemade bean salad because I like the dressing. I made it the other day and have been snacking on it. I used only the things I already had here at home. The dressing is what makes it good, so you really can add what ever beans or veggies you want. Mine was not as colorful as normal, but still very tasty...

I'll list the recipe and what I used:

3 Bean Salad (can make 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 7 or 9 or 10 but not definitely not 11 bean)
1 can French green beans (I did not have these, I soaked and cooked soy beans)
1 can white wax beans (I did not have these, I soaked and cooked garbanzo beans)
1 can red kidney beans (I had these but opted for pinto since when soaked and cooked they stay together better than my kidney beans do)
1 sweet pepper, diced (I did not have these, but yellow and red make a pretty salad, I used celery)
1 whole onion, cut into rings

Dressing:
1 1/2 c sugar
2/3 c oil
2/3 c vinegar
1 tsp celery seed
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

Combine all in bowl or jar, chill for 6 hours or so before serving.

I keep mine in a large jar in the fridge, it lasts a long time as long as you don't share it.

Easy vegan night

As Orthodox, Wednesday and Friday are usually our "Vegan" nights.

They are typically the days where I freak out at the last minute because I didn't do any thought prep. This is why, when I do cook, I make extra and stick food in the freezer. I had some re-fried beans in the freezer and also some Brazilian black beans that we like, I got those out and put on some rice to cook. I took a call from a customer and burned the rice (as per normal). I think my kids don't know how to eat rice with out bewaring of the dangers on the bottom of the pan...skim the rice off the top only.

As we were almost out of flour tortillas I got our corn tortillas earlier out of the freezer and they were in a sorry state of breakage.

 So I decided to make chips with them instead.

 Why oh why have I not done this for so long?! They are so good!

 Our dinner. We really needed a salad, but we aren't "good" vegans, my kids are not fans and I'm lazy and don't push it and I'd also have to get more greens at the store and then not eat them. I could have gotten out the carrots at least. Oh well.

 Here are two of the kids plates. The one with the burrito said, "what a great way to fast, this is great!" that's a good sign.

 My dinner, I had seconds.

mama making dinner is boring

Superbowl...er...canning day.

We got invited to a Superbowl party today. I don't remember the last time that happened. We were going to go for about, oh, 5 minutes, hubby wanted to...but the kids have been under the weather and I was just feeling OUT OF IT! Also when you have 6 kids to take with you I can't imagine our hosts and other friends would have tons of fun watching a game will a billion-and-six children running around screaming in their not huge house.

The other catch is that I put beans to soak last night for canning today and soaked another pot of chick peas to cook to make a boat load of hummus to prep for Lent and just to have on hand 'cause it's so good and cheap to make. The gigantic pot of chili I made last night also needed to be taken care of. I opted not to can the chili as it looses flavor and God gave us a nice frozen back porch so we don't have to even pay any electricity to freeze them. Once they are frozen they'll go in the freezer. More yummy food in the freezer for days I don't want to cook don't have time to cook.

they don't look pretty, but will taste good later on

Reality is, the beans won. Hubby went to town with the girls and picked out some sub-sandwiches and Doritos and all the wonderful junk food that husbands buy and you pretend to be "mad" about but really you love eating them just as much... I even saw him sneak some "flowers" for me into the freezer (A few years ago I decided I'd rather get Ben & Jerry's Vanilla Caramel Fudge ice cream rather than flowers, so that's what he's gotten me ever since) I had a few more cups of coffee, some food, cleaned up the kitchen and lo-and-behold, I felt fine. I know Sunday is my day "off" but during the week I don't really have time to sew or can and this year the sewing bug has not bitten, but the food storage OBSESSION certainly has. 

gotta love a good dose of junk food while cooking "healthy"

*Rabbit trail* I just read on Granny Miller today how to simply use the Food Saver (that we own), along with a jar sealer attachment (that I want to buy) to vacuum seal tons of stuff in jars including: nuts, noodles, chocolate chips, probably marshmallows! (I just thought of that), extra candy, and  basically anything that might go stale or rancid sitting on the shelf otherwise. Need. More. Jars.

At the moment my beans are cooking in the caner nicely on our new cook stove.

*Rabbit trail* Since most of the people who read this blog are either friends in RL or FB friends and I have blabbed plenty about the new cook stove...but I say again, I got a cook stove for last year's and this year's Christmas present. It's AMAZING and beautiful and all that I dreamed and more. Now I just want more counter space next to it to make it more functional. I've been baking and cooking on it when it's "on" but it gets so hot in the house we have to open windows if we keep the fire up for long.

Today is one of those hot days because it's my first time attempting to can on the stove, so far it's working perfectly...oops went under the 10 pounds pressure, got it back up above and re-set the timer. Here are some photos of getting them there and the recipe.

Easy canned beans:

1c beans per quart-soak overnight

rinse and put back in jar

1/2 t salt pour over boiling water

adjust 2 piece lids

Pressure cook for 90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure

adding the water

attaching lids

ready to go

gee, what was I doing when this was getting so hot? or right writing the blog

it seems happy at 12 psi, the chick peas are cooking along side

too cute

and, they're done...
notice the Veginaise jar?? it has a regular size top, score on the "free" jar, after processing the label even came off

Onto the hummus. Chick peas are cooked, we now have 8x the ammt for the recipe. This is a food that has grown on both of us and some of the kids are just now starting to like it also. I think my husband likes this recipe because it tastes lemony and he's a fan of lemon, I also leave out the green onions as he typically is not a fan of green things in food. The recipe was submitted to a church cookbook that I use all the time by a friend of ours, thanks Laura T!

Humus:

2 c cooked chick peas/garbanzo beans (either a can from the store or about 3/4 dry cups soaked and cooked.

1/3 c lemon juice

1/4 c tahini

2 minced green onions (not us)

1 clove minced garlic

1/2 t paprika

1/4 t salt

2 T water (this is usually the bean "juice" and sometimes I use more, just depends)

2 T olive oil

Blend in a blender or food processor (I use my hand blender in the pot, love that thing). Pure until smooth. Put in fridge overnight or days for best flavor. Serve with pita bread and kalamata olives, yum!

ingredients assembled

let the blending begin, I had to get some skins out of the blender 2 times

gigantic pot of hummus

Now what do you do with a huge pot (about 1 1/2 gallons) of hummus? Check the internet and see how to can it! Yes I did. Found a Backwoods Home post about it and she recommends 10pounds pressure for 35 minutes. She said that even with the oil you can can this, that it's just very important to have clean rims because oil can prevent the lids from sealing, so check carefully when done.

they are so pretty!

ready to roll

At this moment they have 17 minutes left and are at 13pounds pressure. I'm going to wrap this up here and go spend some time with my man when all is said and done.

Thanks to Granny Miller for the kick in the pants, to my Backwoods Home magazine for the other kick in the pants and my sister and bro-in-law who got us the subscription for Christmas.