Cooking with Beans

One of the biggest money stretchers to our food budget is beans and rice. I keep all kinds of beans on hand because they are so versitile and can add volume to a soup or stovetop dish. I buy dry black, white, red, and pinto beans for their price and will cook a whole lb. of beans and package them in individual portions and freeze. That way they are ready to use in many ways. I try to keep a few varieties of canned beans on hand for those times when I have not soaked or cooked up any. My goal this year is to pressure can some beans so I get the best price.

A few of my favorite recipes are white and black bean chili. It is a vegetarian dish so really stretches the budget.

No southern person goes a week without seeing a butterbean or having peas for supper. I think our peas (black eyed, pink eyed purple hull) are really beans and it was just a southern phrase to call them peas. They have the texture of beans. You cook them in water enough to cover them adding in either some bacon strips or a spoonful of bacon grease to season them. I always add a ham bone to my butterbeans. They produce a liquid that is golden with cornbread or rice.

Some of my other favorite meals with beans are:

1. Red beans and rice
2. Ranch chicken with corn and black beans on salad
3. Black bean soup
4. Burritos with mexican filling (meatless meal)
5. Chicken soup with white beans
6. Bean and rice burritos
7. Chili
8. I add black beans to my taco filling to stretch it
9. Southern Caviar by Pioneer Woman
10. Ham and bean soup
11. Taco soup
    
    
    
    I am joining in the Bean Recipe Exchange at Homestead Revival.