Liz’s Healthy Table Podcast Episode #77: Cooking with Beans with Joe Yonan

A kitchen without beans is like a day without sunshine. Beans are versatile, delicious, nutritious, and they add an endless array of recipe possibilities to meals, snacks, and desserts. I use them all the time in my everyday cooking, and so does Joe Yonan, author of the new cookbook, Cool Beans: The Ultimate Guide to Cooking with the World’s Most Versatile Plant-Based Protein. If you’ve been cooking more and more and more these days at home, then you’ll love the recipes, kitchen wisdom, and cooking advice from Joe Yonan. He’s the Food and Dining Editor for The Washington Post, and as you’ll discover on this week’s show, he’s also the master of cool bean cookery. Oh, and wait till you hear about his recipe for Harissa-Roasted Carrots and Bean Dip and Julia’s Deep, Dark Chocolate Mousse. Let’s get cooking with Joe!

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Whether you prefer the convenience of canned beans or prefer cooking them from scratch, we’ve got you covered on this episode!

“When you cook dried beans, you get the added bonus of the ‘liquid gold,’ the cooking liquid.” – Joe Yonan

Harissa-Roasted Carrots and Bean Dip from Cool Beans by Joe Yonan.

On the show (@ time 22:45), I explain WHY I have an 88-ounce can of chickpeas in my kitchen right now. Tune in to hear how my new friends at Sogno Toscano sent them to me along with other goodies like canned artichoke hearts, extra virgin olive oil, canned tomatoes, and artisanal salami. And … if you want to check out their specialty products and get them delivered to your door, use my special 15% discount code: LIZW15

Show Highlights:

• Get to know Joe Yonan better
• How Joe became interested in food shopping and meal prep at the young age of eight
• How the coronavirus crisis has impacted the restaurant industry and food journalism
• The new website geared to novice cooks with recipes, tips, and guidance for beginning cooks: Voraciously
• The silver lining to the pandemic: more people are interested in cooking at home, and family dinners have made a comeback
• How Joe became fascinated by beans when he became a vegetarian eight years ago
• Benefits of beans: incredible nutrition, packed with fiber, vitamins, and minerals, versatile, shelf-stable, and affordable
• How beans are a common denominator in “Blue Zones,” which are places across the globe where people live longer than average
• Benefits of dried beans over canned: they are less expensive and include many different varieties that aren’t canned; also, you have more control in the cooking process (and texture) and have the cooking liquid that can be added to dishes for extra flavor
• Timeless Natural Foods (where Joe buys hard-to-find dried beans)
• Joe’s rules for cooking dried beans and his take on the “to soak or not to soak” question
• How kombu (dried seaweed) helps “digest” beans to reduce flatulence and soften them
• Joe’s favorite recipe in Cool Beans: Lalo’s Cacahuate Beans
• Joe’s recipe for Harissa-Roasted Carrot and White Bean Dip, which call for harissa (a North African chili paste), carrots, a can of white beans, mint and lemon juice
• Where Joe’s inspiration for recipes comes from
• The adaptability of beans in many recipes, since they are a vegetable AND a protein
• Gateway recipes for beans include hummus, chili, and purees to use in soups and pasta
• Joe’s recipes for Julia’s Deep, Dark Chocolate Mousse and my Black Bean Brownies

LINKS and RESOURCES:

My email: [email protected]