Don’t feel like sitting down to a plate of rice + beans for dinner AGAIN? Me either!!! I call it a bean rut. What else can we call it? Bean boredom, bean redundancy, bean fatigue. Get the point? Yes, I know you do. But wait! Good for your body + good for your budget, beans NEED to be on everyone’s plate, vegetarian or not. Protein, fiber, vitamins, resistant starch, this list goes on. So, let’s make it easy to have your beans + eat them too … minus the bean boredom. Read on to find out all of my tips for easy ways to eat more beans every day!
Tara’s Tuesday Tips: Easy Ways To Eat More Beans
Beans are healthy, filling + inexpensive. So, why not eat a whole bunch of them? Read on for my tips that make eating beans easy!
You Don’t Have to Go Vegan to Enjoy Eating Beans
Don’t be so extreme! Eating more beans does not mean you need to deprive yourself of other things you love. Eating more beans means you will be increasing the amount of fiber + protein you consume. This will make you less hungry throughout the day, and provide you with a whole host of vitamins + minerals. Beans are one of those awesome foods that make you feel fuller with less calorie intake, decrease your diabetes risk, and might even put you in a good mood!
Pick a Bean + Plan A Meal Around It
Traditionally, family meals are planned around the meat (burger, chicken, steak, fish). Instead, pick a bean you are curious about (chickpeas, black beans, lentils, soybeans), search for a great recipe, give it a try! Make the bean the center of attention like with Instant Pot Vegan Lentil Soup, Chana Masala (Chickpea Curry) or Lentil Curry. With these meals, your bean is the main attraction!
Say Goodbye to Boring Salads + Add Beans!
Forget boring iceberg lettuce with pasty tomatoes + chemical-infused bottled dressings. I talk a lot about salads on this blog. For very good reason! A salad is a blank slate, a meatless-dream-meal-come-true! ADD BEANS! I am a HUGE advocate of ditching the boring salad. I LOVE salads because I make them VERY interesting without added oils or highly processed foods that give salad a bad reputation. Try one of my (many) salad recipes by clicking right here. Check out one of my most popular articles: How To Build A Healthy Salad That Still Tastes Good! I enjoy a hearty salad for lunch or dinner a few times a week. What is on top of my salad? Air Fryer Buffalo Chick Peas or Easy Black Bean Hummus!
Go Slow + It Will Be Sustainable
Some people get bloating and abdominal discomfort from adding more beans into their diet too quickly. In turn, adding more fiber than their usual meat-laden diet. Go slow! Beat the bloat by SLOWLY adding beans in small amounts. Another helpful tip is to soak your beans prior to cooking, this helps decrease bloating + gas that some people get with bean consumption. Lots more tips for beginners here: The Vegetarian’s Guide To Beans.
Rethink Tofu aka Soybeans
Calling all tofu skeptics. Come on, be fair, give it a try! Once in a while swap out just one meat item for a wonderful block of tofu!!!! If you know me, you know I love tofu. I write about tofu regularly in my Tuesday Tips and I create A LOT of tofu recipes. It truly is a staple here in the MVF kitchen. For good reason! Still not a believer? Check out my convince-everyone-to-eat-more-tofu articles: Learn To Love Tofu, Tofu For Beginners, Tofu 101. Alternatively, you could whip up a batch of Oil-Free Edamame Hummus for double dose of beans!
Explore New Cuisines
Sometimes just getting out of our cooking rut will open the door to many, many, many easy ways to eat more beans. The more diversity you have in your cooking, the more beans you will eat. Swap out your favorite American cuisine for incredibly Indian dishes, Asian, and even Mexican and you will see how many more beans go into these meals!
Need help getting started? Start here with all of my incredibly Indian recipes or here for my Guide To Vegetarian Mexican Cooking.
Cook Without A Recipe
This is a SUPER easy way to eat more beans! Toss a can of chickpeas into your salad, soup, or pasta, layer black beans into your burrito, or whirl some white beans into your salad dressing. When you have other dominant flavors, you won’t even notice the beans! Need some bean-spiration on cooking without a recipe? Check this out: Guide To Cooking Recipe-Free Meatless Meals.
Make Beans A Pantry Staple
If you learn nothing else today, learn this. ALWAYS have beans in your pantry or freezer! Dry beans are SO inexpensive and you can store them in glass jars in your pantry for months. On the other hand, you can cook a giant batch when you aren’t busy, portion them out into single serving freezer containers and store them there for an entire year! Another great option is BPA cans of beans, or some stores (like Whole Foods) have those awesome boxes instead of cans. Check these out to see what we do to always have beans ready to go in the MVF kitchen: What’s In My Pantry or 10 Things To Do On Weekends To Make Weeknight Cooking Easier.
A Few More of My Favorite Easy Ways To Eat More Beans:
Click the name of the recipe + it will take you right to it!
- Mix Beans Right Into Salsa (Mango Black Bean Salsa)
- Crisp Them! (Air Fryer BBQ Chickpeas, Air Fryer Garlic Chickpeas, Air Fryer Buffalo Chickpeas)
- Turn Beans Into a Burger (Easy Black Bean Oat Burger, BBQ Chickpea Veggie Burgers, Chickpea Veggie Burgers, Pumpkin Veggie Burgers)
- Add Beans Into Your Pasta (Easy Vegan Taco Pasta, Oil-Free Vegan Pasta Salad, Creamy Vegan Chickpea Tomato Sauce)
- Don’t Forget About Breakfast! Breakfast burritos are awesome!
- Make Dessert Out of Beans (Cake Batter Dessert Hummus, Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies , Healthy Peanut Butter Chickpea Muffins, Brownie Batter Hummus, Edible Vegan Cookie Dough, Healthy Vegan Chickpea Blondies)
- Pair Beans + Grains (Quinoa Black Bean Salad with Lime Dressing, Mediterranean Quinoa Salad Bowl, Instant Pot Mexican Quinoa)
- Make Chili! (Easy Vegetarian Tempeh Chili, Easy Vegan Pumpkin Chili, Vegetarian Chili)
Hope this helps you stay healthy, friends!
All the best,
Tara 💚
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