Digesting bean species

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Shule
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Digesting bean species

#1

Post: # 2105Unread post Shule
Thu Dec 19, 2019 12:20 am

If I have a slight intolerance to the common bean, what are some other bean species you might recommend that I might tolerate better? They don't cause obvious digestion issues for me; it's just, I don't feel very nourished by them, and they make me feel a little funny. Adding leaves from the herb called epazote and cooking them with the beans completely fixes the problem—but, I'm still curious.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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root_grow
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Re: Digesting bean species

#2

Post: # 2945Unread post root_grow
Tue Dec 24, 2019 11:46 am

My SO has obvious digestion issues with many beans, we've done a lot of experiments. There are a few varieties that don't cause him problems: flageolet vert, good mother stallard, khabarovsk, edamame and soy products, chickpeas if they're soaked and drained before cooking. Plus lentils and split peas. Favas were tolerable. I have a few varieties from this year we haven't tested yet. Soaking in hot water for several hours then draining and cooking in fresh water seems to help. Black beans and pintos are the absolute worst. I wish I could crack the code to help with selecting varieties to grow that we can both enjoy...

Have you tried lentils, runner beans, limas, favas, mung beans, black eyed peas?

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Shule
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Re: Digesting bean species

#3

Post: # 2961Unread post Shule
Tue Dec 24, 2019 5:27 pm

root_grow wrote: Tue Dec 24, 2019 11:46 am
Have you tried lentils, runner beans, limas, favas, mung beans, black eyed peas?
Thanks!

I've tried lentils (lots of times), lima beans (a few times), mung beans (maybe once), and black eyed peas (several times).

Of those, I probably tolerate black eyed peas the best. I like them a lot (especially in chili), as long as they don't get that fishy taste from sitting in a can. Next, I tolerate lentils decently well (probably about as well as split peas), but I still feel the need to add epazote.

You have to be careful with black eyed peas, though; they can trigger an allergic reaction in at least some people with peanut allergies.

I haven't evaluated mung beans much; so, I don't know how well I tolerate them.

I wonder about tepary beans, such as nativeseeds.org sells.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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Shule
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Re: Digesting bean species

#4

Post: # 2963Unread post Shule
Tue Dec 24, 2019 5:34 pm

Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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root_grow
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Re: Digesting bean species

#5

Post: # 2979Unread post root_grow
Tue Dec 24, 2019 8:28 pm

I grew tepary beans once when I lived in the southwest... I cook beans from dried almost daily, but I never managed to get the tepary to cook fully, even with the pressure cooker. Friends/teachers who were far more experienced with native varieties weren't surprised, and their commentary about eating tepary beans only got more disparaging from there, even though their life's work is preserving native plants. They're like pebbles. Their strategy to stay alive in the desert is to have thick, impenetrable skin so they don't dry out and die, but it also means water can't get in, which is a problem for both germination and for cooking.

And Native Seeds isn't kidding when they mention the pods shattering. Anyway I don't mean to discourage you from trying them, maybe you'll love them, they were definitely interesting. For what it's worth, I remember my friends saying the white varieties were less terrible. ;)

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Shule
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Re: Digesting bean species

#6

Post: # 3034Unread post Shule
Wed Dec 25, 2019 4:04 am

[mention]root_grow[/mention]
They sure look like rocks! That's what I like about them! They seem rustic. Good to know they're so tough to cook; that's probably not the best trait for digestibility in beans, but maybe.

I wonder if using baking soda would help them to soften. I read from a commenter called Bigfoot on Cheftalk.com that it works for regular beans. I need to try baking soda more, though, to evaluate what I think of their use with regular beans.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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Tormato
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Re: Digesting bean species

#7

Post: # 3225Unread post Tormato
Thu Dec 26, 2019 1:57 pm

Shule wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 12:20 am If I have a slight intolerance to the common bean, what are some other bean species you might recommend that I might tolerate better? They don't cause obvious digestion issues for me; it's just, I don't feel very nourished by them, and they make me feel a little funny. Adding leaves from the herb called epazote and cooking them with the beans completely fixes the problem—but, I'm still curious.


Boston (100 miles east of here) Baked Beans is almost like eating candy; molasses, brown sugar, maple syrup, onion, bacon, mustard.

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Tormato
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Re: Digesting bean species

#8

Post: # 3226Unread post Tormato
Thu Dec 26, 2019 2:01 pm

root_grow wrote: Tue Dec 24, 2019 11:46 am My SO has obvious digestion issues with many beans, we've done a lot of experiments. There are a few varieties that don't cause him problems: flageolet vert, good mother stallard, khabarovsk, edamame and soy products, chickpeas if they're soaked and drained before cooking. Plus lentils and split peas. Favas were tolerable. I have a few varieties from this year we haven't tested yet. Soaking in hot water for several hours then draining and cooking in fresh water seems to help. Black beans and pintos are the absolute worst. I wish I could crack the code to help with selecting varieties to grow that we can both enjoy...

Have you tried lentils, runner beans, limas, favas, mung beans, black eyed peas?
Have you tried beans in the "shelly" stage?

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bower
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Re: Digesting bean species

#9

Post: # 11855Unread post bower
Mon Feb 24, 2020 8:40 pm

Read somewhere recently that vitamin C helps to make beans more digestible - you get more of the protein that way iirc. So cooking with tomatoes, or serving with lemon juice or a lemon or orange sauce, might help. Then again, every bean or lentil recipe I can think of involves tomatoes or lemons. Lentils with oil simmered onions and a lemony-garlicky dressing is my fave.
I'm presently looking at dry peas as a thing to grow instead of beans, since beans have a high risk of failure due to our fickle foul weather. There seem to be some types that would substitute for a chick pea or bean.
AgCan Zone 5a/USDA zone 4
temperate marine climate
yearly precip 61 inches/1550 mm

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pepperhead212
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Re: Digesting bean species

#10

Post: # 11874Unread post pepperhead212
Mon Feb 24, 2020 11:21 pm

Lentils bother me the least, and black beans are some of the worst, though the almost round, shiny, Mexican black beans aren't nearly as bad as the longer, dull black ones, used more in the Caribbean, and usually found here. I usually add some fresh epazote to black beans - a traditional Mexican addition to black beans, though it's good in many other things, as well.

The "split and hulled" Indian lentils, looking much like split peas, bother me less than any. Red lentils (masoor dal) and moong dal (split and hulled mung beans) cook down quickly, to thicken a soup or curry in 20 or 25 min. Mung beans are considered the "easiest to digest" of the legumes, by the Indians. Chana dal (a split and hulled variety of chick pea) keeps its shape well, even after cooking 45 min. - something I make salads with all the time in the summer. Toor dal is in between, breaking down after 30-35 min. None of these seem to bother me at all, and are the legumes I use the most.
Woodbury, NJ zone 7a/7b

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