May food storage tips:
Legumes (dry beans, lentils, split peas): are a very important food storage item. They are little storehouses of fiber and nutrition. Store a minimum of 60 pounds per person/one year (about 2 cups of beans per pound, which is 120 cups per year). One cup of dry beans makes about 3 cups when cooked. Figuring one cup of cooked beans per day, then 60 pounds will interpret into 360 meals per year. It is important to find at least ONE kind of legume you are willing to eat. Lentils cook without soaking; but, as with all legumes, cook them in water only (salt/other ingredients inhibit beans from getting tender, and it makes the outer portion tough). Protein in legumes is incomplete, so eat cooked beans with the grains you store (wheat/rice/etc.) in order to complete the protein. Beans are good for diabetics as they digest slowly.
Note: always sort and rinse legumes before cooking. Best to rinse lentils in a screen-type colander.
Cooking lentils: 1 part lentils + 2 parts water, bring to boiling, cover, turn heat to low, cook about 40 minutes or until tender. Do not add salt. Brown lentils or green lentils are most common to find/buy. We have several legumes that we particularly like. We have Pink, Pinto, Garbanzo and Small White Beans in our food storage.
Storing Legumes: Long term storage of legumes can be done the same way as wheat.
As beans age they lose their oils, resist water absorption and won't swell. Worst case, they must be ground to be used. Storing beans in nitrogen or oxygen absorbers helps prolong the loss of these oils as does cool temperatures. Hermetically sealed in the absence of oxygen, plan on a storage life of 8-10 years at a stable temperature of 70 degrees F. They should keep proportionately longer if stored at cooler temperatures.
Here is our first easy recipe. I make these often because they are so good. Remember, the more often you serve legumes in your diet, the more your body will become accustom to them and the less uncomfortable side effects you will have.
Rinse one pound of Pinto Beans and put them in a large crock pot. Add 1/4 cup of dehydrated onions, 2 Tablespoons of minced garlic and two ham hocks or 1 cup of freeze dried ham and fill up the crock pot to just below the top of the crock with water. Turn the crock pot on high and let it cook overnight. You will awake to the most wonderful smell. Salt to taste. Make up a pan of cornbread from last months cornmeal food storage buy and enjoy. To add a little spice to it, add in a teaspoon of freeze dried jalapeno.
Enjoy your food Storage.
Bob and LouAnn Singer
