Beantown

this is not a Boston story

This is the long and winding road to refried beans (crushed pintos). This is what the lowly Phaseolus vulgaris ‘Pinto’ bean starts out looking like. My PSA for tonight is most dry beans are poisonous — they need to be cooked!

The Gauntlet

• Tonight it’s beans. Many of my past food posts are linked at the end.

• For my GOOD FRIEND from tennis and Scotch Club, Mike H, you get a reward with the music tonight. I finally chose a head-banger song and I think YOU WILL LOVE IT although the title might make you blush.

• Received some comments that my writing in “Scaffolds” was disjointed. I appreciate the comments without which I cannot improve. I appreciate it when the comments are in the app as others can concur OR pile on. Without the misses, I might not appreciate the “good” posts :)

You Don’t Know Beans

When it comes to protein I eat a lot of beans and quinoa these days. Growing up in a meat and potatoes house meant the transition to plant-based eating was an adjustment.

The two largest crops in the United States, by a large margin, are corn and soybeans. Each accounts for about 90 million acres in a given year. The combination is larger than the State of Texas! The next time a zealot complains about how much room solar panels might take, share the perspective about Texas. It is important to eat but it is okay to use the land for lots of different things.

Unless you’ve driven through Iowa it is hard to fathom how intensive agriculture is in the Midwest. Even in the Twin Cities, when you get to the outer ring suburbs, there is a lot of corn and soybeans! Zealots who raise fears for solar land use are just silly as even a 100% solar future is well below 1% of land use. Time to find another conspiracy folks.

Most Americans don’t sit down and have corn or soybeans as their meal to any significant degree. These crops have transformed the way we eat. It is estimated that about 75% of the SKUs in a grocery store contain soybeans, corn, or both. Most food additives are derived from them and we merrily consume them in every bite.

When the season for sweet corn arrives, many will enjoy an ear of corn. The truth is less than 1% of all the corn grown in America is eaten directly. I enjoy it during the summertime in moderation and of course at the Fair. While the numbers might vary yearly, approximately 1/3 of all corn is diverted to make ethanol, a fuel additive. Another 1/3 is given to animals as feed. The fractions I use are in the ballpark for the sticklers. The final third is largely used in the food industry for such things as high fructose corn syrup and maltose and dextrose. Read a food label and most of the hard-to-understand stuff comes from corn or soybeans. Our economy is heavily dependent upon the amazing array of uses of these two plants!

Corn at the Great Minnesota Get-Together

So let’s get down to beans which of course is our subject today. It is estimated that the AVERAGE AMERICAN consumes about 2.7 kg of beans per year. I am not average by this measure. By comparison, US Agriculture produces about 1252 kg of corn per person in the United States¹

An Average American

I found a funny article in the Saturday Evening Post about the average American. Kinda fun if you like that sort of thing. Now, this article is HILARIOUS. The title is what the average American eats. I LIKE the mental image that an average American eats the weight of an adult moose every year! Parts of the article are based on 2011 data. Based on the folks I see in the wild, I would imagine the numbers continue to grow upward!

Bean Balance

So let’s talk about 2.7 kilograms a year. In a desire to give folks the benefit of the doubt, the range of estimate goes up to a high of almost 7.5 pounds (3.4 kg) per year. For those of you that make beans occasionally, we know they expand. A pound of dry beans makes about six cups so 7.5 pounds means 45 cups of beans per year. Now that is beginning to sound like a respectable number to me! This brings to mind a fun expression:

There are lies, there are damn lies, and there are statistics.

The current regime I am on as a plant-based eater is three servings of beans per day with each serving being equivalent to about 1/2 cup of cooked beans. That equates to about 540 cups of beans per year for me if only cooked beans. That sounds like too much even though I’ve come to like them. It means I am eating 12X as many beans as the average American. Now let’s be realistic. When we go to the DMV and we get asked how much we weigh, we seem to shade the truth. I’m guessing that while I work to the goal on my beans, I doubt I am eating THAT MANY.

Is there a better way to estimate more accurately? Well, I imagine that 2/3 of the beans I eat are warm cooked beans. Otherwise, some canned beans, lentils, peas, hummus, edamame, and occasionally tofu. That reduces me to 360 cups of cooked beans a year. Geez, that is a lot of beans!!! At six cups a pound, that is 60 pounds of beans per year. Believe it or not, that is sounding reasonable (in my distorted view at least). I make dry beans about once a month or so. At that time, I make anywhere from 4-8 pounds of dry beans across a group of different recipes. Holy crap, I have become a plant-based eater! Five pounds of dry beans a month get me to sixty a year. Besides, in the “end-times”, I am probably ready for the zombie apocalypse if the stores are closed as beans go a long way.

So what made me think of this? As I’ve shared before, the end of summer for a Minnesotan is the State Fair. The weather is wonderful but the days of 90F temperatures are few and far between. When I run out of beans in the freezer, I shift to my usual set of tried and true recipes. Since the Fair, I have been making overnight recipes occasionally for beans and lentils to freeze.

I like black beans. This recipe is great because there is NO PRE-COOKING just throw everything into the crockpot and soon a great batch of Cuban Black Beans. This is 2 pounds of dry beans.

My favorite tasting bean (pintos) but you have to pre-cook some of the ingredients. The tradeoffs of taste and convenience

• Baked Beans — I make these in a Dutch oven starting with two pounds of great northern beans. These I add one pound of bacon to so they are a BIG TREAT! Hardly plant-based but they taste great!

• Garbanzo Beans — I LOVE THESE in salads and occasionally make them from dry beans. A pound of garbanzos in the crockpot is about the same as about six cans of beans. I don’t make my hummus. If you want that, go to Holyland. Best hummus EVER!

• Madras Lentils — I LOVE THESE as they are more interesting than just beans. I make these from dry red beans and dry lentils. I love my recipe for these and they are probably the favorite of my warm bean varieties. When I run out of all beans and am too lazy to make more I love the ready-made packets from Costco.

• If I make all of these recipes, that is 9 pounds of beans, much more than an average American eats in a year. There are LOTS of other sources of beans beyond cooked dry beans.I probably have 5 pounds of cooked beans and lentils in the freezer at any given time.

  

  My FAVORITE cold bean salad. Can’t miss, holds up in the fridge for more than a week because of acidity.

• Bean Salad — When I am sick of beans or just need a change from warm, I make this cold black bean salad. This is my favorite summer salad but make it at all times of the year.

I considered including the recipes above but as I have been writing how CRAZY I must sound to many of you!!! Food has ALWAYS been important to me and I love writing about it occasionally. I still have great food memories of my Mom’s cooking and holidays remain intertwined with the food memories my wife and family have created. When I decided I needed to change my diet, I was unwilling to give up on taste or I knew it would not last. After this mental trip, I am now convinced I probably come close to the crazy bean totals I imagined!

What’s Wrong With Me?

How hung up on food are people generally? There is comfort in thinking you are not alone. I enjoyed this article from Psychology Today. Whether crazed dieting, control issues, or affluence, food culture seems to be here to stay.

The Poll and Music

I am sensitive to becoming preachy. I just pick a topic that seems interesting to me. For those easily offended, tonight’s song is not for you. Tonight’s song is a headbanger titled “Stupid F#^$ing Vegan”. It might apply to people like me. I hope not. For the record, I’m not a vegan since I proudly wear a belt. For those of you that soldiered through and did not enjoy tonight’s post, the song is an outlet for your feelings. Mike H, I EXPECT A COMMENT TONIGHT about the music :)

More Reading From Mark About Food

• “All Hail Crucifer” — What’s so special about cauliflower and brussels sprout?

• “Scotch Whiskey” — Food and drink as friendship.

• “Food Time — Beef on Weck” — the GREATEST sandwich in the world from Western New York!!!

• “How Not To Die” — My food journey

• “I’d Like a Large Cookie” — Baking 101 by Mom

• “Nature’s Cookbook” — How our bodies work — the real recipe

• “A Healthy Burrito” — Some things are hard to make healthy

• “Food Connections” — A family avocado tale and a dog on a diet

• “Stop Wining” — I prefer red wine

• “Phytochemicals” — Read this one just for the infomercial

• “Food Dreams” — A crazy trip through Western New York foods!!!

• “The King’s Cut” — How much is one serving?

• “I Want That” — essential kitchen gadgets

• “Breakfastaganza” — come join this crazy Minnesotan for breakfast

• “Heme” — If I’m going to eat a plant-based burger I want to see some blood

• “Scaffolds” — If you know what nigiri is, this post is for YOU

I seem to talk about food A LOT. Please let me know if that is okay with you in the comments.

What’s Next

My next post is titled “Risky Business”. I am fascinated by all that our brains can do for us. One of its legacies though is humans remain very poor at assessing risk.

1. 90,000,000 [acres] X [180 bu/acre] * 56 [lbs/bushel] * .454 [kg/lb] / 329,000,000 [people]