Lentil Biryani and The Great Vegan Bean Book Review

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Hmm, lets see, do I need to eat more legumes, hell yes! and there is a perfect book to help me do that in so many different ways. Kathy Hester’s The Great Vegan Bean Book has a lot of my favorite things, beans, lots of beans, plant-based with options for gluten-free, nut-free, soy-free or oil-free.

There are beans for breakfast, meals and even dessert(chickpea cookies and black bean fudgesicles). There are usual vegan meals, burgers, dips and then other cuisines and fusion recipes to choose from Indian, Mexican, Jamaican, Asian, French, Moroccan, you name it. If you don’t win a copy at this giveaway, pick The Great Vegan Bean Book at amazon.

Kathy explains all the possible standard beans, along with variations for specialty heirloom beans. She describes which beans are in each family and that can be used interchange-ably in a recipe.

The book has nutrition information with each recipe.
It has Recipes to make your own staples like chorizo and chik-un patties.
Staples to keep food budget in check and also to avoid all the added preservatives.
Allergy friendly, gluten- and soy-free and no added oil and also an index for gluten and soy-free.

I made this Smoky White Bean dip from the book. I added a roasted Red bell pepper to it and spiced it up a bit more for my taste, and sent most of it and fresh veggies, packing with hubbs for his rafting trip. It was a definite hit with everyone.

I also used another batch of the dip to make sandwiches the next day. They will soon be posted in a separate post. I added some roasted Veggies and greens.

You can check out many more tried and tested recipes from the book on Kathy’s blog tour, like these Pecan Chickpea Chocolate Chip cookies, butternut Squash Frijoles, These Chickpea Seitan Crispy patties & Coconut Pecan Blondies!

Super Easy Lentil Biryani

soy-free gluten-free oil-free

If you’ve had the longest day ever and still need to make dinner, this is the recipe for you. Throw everything into a pan or your rice cooker and dinner will be ready in no time!

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups (279 g) brown basmati rice

4 cups (950 ml) water, plus more if needed

½ cup (96 g) lentils

¼ cup (35 g) chopped cashews

¼ cup (35 g) raisins

¼ cup (33 g) minced dried apricots

2 teaspoons minced ginger

½ teaspoon turmeric

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 bay leaves

2 cinnamon sticks or ½ teaspoon ground

3 black cardamom pods or ½ teaspoon ground

4 whole cloves or ¼ teaspoon ground

8 whole black peppercorns or ¼ teaspoon ground

10 coriander seeds or 1 teaspoon ground

½ teaspoon garam masala

¼ teaspoon salt

Yield: 4 servings

Total Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Cooking Time: 40 to 60 minutes
Per 1 ½-Cup (340 g) serving:
377.0 calories; 5.0 g total fat; 0.5 g saturated fat; 10.0 g protein; 76.5 g carbohydrate; 7.5 g dietary fiber; 0 mg cholesterol.

Stove-Top- Directions:

Put all the ingredients except the salt into a large saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and

decrease the heat to low and cook until the rice and lentils are tender, 40 to 50 minutes. Check after 30 minutes

and add more water if needed.

Add the salt and adjust other seasonings if needed and remove the bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, and cardamom

pods before serving.

Rice Cooker Directions:

The two differences between cooking this on the stove top and in your rice cooker is that you will use 2 cups

(380 g) brown basmati rice (use the measuring cup that came with your rice cooker) and add water to fill line 2

in your rice cooker plus 1 cup (235 ml) water in a regular measuring cup.

Put all the ingredients into the rice cooker and cook on the brown rice setting if you have one.

When your rice cooker beeps, taste, add salt, and taste again. Adjust the other seasonings if needed and remove the bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, and cardamom pods before serving.

Recipe from The Great Vegan Bean Book. Republished with permission.