12 January 2016

Our Favorite Vegetarian or Low-Meat Meals



I know that some of you are here because of the title of the post, so feel free to skip all this jibber jabber at the top, and go right down to the list below. But for those of you who want a little background into why we eat so many legumes, read on.

A few years ago Eric heard a snippet of a Diane Rehm show with guests talking about the areas of the world where people live the longest. In the few minutes he heard, the guests discussed that in all of the "blue zones," as they're called, the people eat a lot of legumes. (I went back and listened to the whole show later, and it really is interesting. I am not 100% sure, but I think this is the same show.) This diagram from Wikipedia is also a good summary of what the different blue zones have in common.

Not too much later we were shopping at WinCo and came upon a section of bulk foods. We bought some 25-pound bags of beans and rice. Then some friends moved and gave us some of their food storage, and we had even more beans and rice. As we gradually used up these products, we continued to buy more from WinCo.

Eric served an LDS mission in Brazil, where he ate rice and beans every day. He has said ever since then that it didn't get old, and he wouldn't mind continuing to eat rice and beans every day. Since he became a teacher, we've tried to make a lot of rice and beans at one time, package them into containers and freeze them so he has easy meals he can grab each day for work. Because I dread the idea of him eating the exact same meal every day, I've tried to have a few varieties of rice and beans or lentils and beans at the ready.

So when I say, "These are some of our favorite vegetarian or low-meat meals," I'm not saying these are things we've tried once or twice. These are actually meals that are tried-and-true for us. We eat them regularly.

Black Beans

Red Beans (or Kidney Beans)

Pinto Beans

White Beans (navy, great northern, cannellini, etc.)

Lentils - (I've used green lentils for all these recipes. Occasionally I splurge and buy red lentils, though.)

Chickpeas
So there you have it. Feel free to suggest your own faves. I'm always looking for new ways to eat legumes.

1 comment:

Feisty Harriet said...

I am not a huge rice person, but I like adding a few beans to most things. J, however, hates them. (I think most of his problem is he doesn't actually chew food, he just swallows it, and beans are hard to digest whole, they must be mushed or chewed first.)

xox