What to do With Bean Juice

[shel]

There's about a half quart of cooking liquid left over from making the black garbanzos last night. Besides using it as a base for soup, what other uses might there be for this tasy and perhaps even nutritious liquid?

Shel

[kuan]

Uhm, water your plants?

[phatch]

It's gonna be high in oligosaccharrides--the, uhm, indigestible gas producing starches of beans. If I'm making soup from the beans, I'll use some of it in the soup. Otherwise I pour it out. If there's no salt in the water from pork products or added fat then it would be fine to water plants or pour into your compost pile.

phil

[kuan]

My grandmother used to wash rice. I used to say don't need to wash it we're modern now, but she still did. Heck I still rinse chicken.

Anyway she watered the plants with that milky white water. Didn't seem to make a difference to me.

[bluezebra]

shel if I understand correctly this is cooking liquid as in "bean liquor" right? Not soaking liquid? Cuz if it's bean liquor then I would use it to cook other things that would be complemented by the flavor of the broth. Things I would be tempted to use it for would be as soup bases, poaching liquid for pork or beef or even chicken. I would use it for a liquid to cook things in like rice or even risotto or cous cous. That sort of thing.

[thetincook]

Use it as the cooking liquid for rice. The liquid from regular black beans is used with rice to make arroz negro.

[OregonYeti]

Bean juice, aside from green beans, is what mostly causes the unpleasant side effects of dried beans (should I elaborate?). Yeah, water the garden with it.

[bluezebra]

Oregon I eat borracho beans all the time without any gas problems...that's essentially pinto bean "soup" with bean liquor from the cooking. But that is massively different from the water used to SOAK the beans in, pre-cooking. That pre-cook, soaking water, I pour off the beans at least twice prior to refilling with new water and cooking the beans.

[OregonYeti]

Okay, I stand corrected. By the way, I cook a lot with beans. I think they are one of "the next big things", but even if they're not, definitely one of my favorites.

[shel]

Originally Posted by bluezebra

shel if I understand correctly this is cooking liquid as in "bean liquor" right? Not soaking liquid? Cuz if it's bean liquor then I would use it to cook other things that would be complemented by the flavor of the broth. Things I would be tempted to use it for would be as soup bases, poaching liquid for pork or beef or even chicken. I would use it for a liquid to cook things in like rice or even risotto or cous cous. That sort of thing.

Yes, cooking liquid as stated. Great idea to use it for rice - I make a lot of brown rice, and it might even work nicely with a carribbean rice and bean dish that I frequently enjoy. Thanks for the ideas!

Shel

[Luc_H]

A little digestion and nutrition insight:

Yes the bean liquor will contain inulin (and oligosaccharide) that is indigestible in the human digestive tract but not the microflora (bacteria in our digestive system).

Inulin feeds the bacteria in the last part of the intestine (right before the colon). If you get excessive gas by eating beans (and or the liquor), It's a sign that your microflora lacks in these beneficial bacteria. The more you consume oligosaccharides, the less you will produce gas which means your microflora is healthier. This is the meaning of <prebiotic>.

Just a little nutrition lesson.

So eat beans and toot away until you toot no more! (grin)

Luc

[shel]

Originally Posted by Luc_H

So eat beans and toot away until you toot no more! (grin)

Luc

Beans, beans, the musical fruit,
The more you eat, the more you toot,
The more you toot, the better you feel,
So have some beans at every meal ...

[Luc_H]

Hi Shel,

I am mostly French Canadian.... I knew there was a song about that.... but I couldn't come up with it...

Luc

[OregonYeti]

When I visit my mom, I always ask for her bean curry with basmati rice. Love those beans. And I lived in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, endless view of India's prime basmati growing region.