How to use up my dried beans

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If I had any, I would.

But it amounts to using the “ham & bean” recipe (that I’d likely look online for) and tweak it by using a 1+ pound steak (uncut) or round-roast instead of the ham.

I was thinking lamb or a turkey breast might be a better replacement for ham than beef would be.

(In general, i find duck the best replacement, but duck doesn’t come in big pieces.)

Smoked turkey legs are a good substitute for ham in some recipes. You get a little of that smoke+saltiness that you want.

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100%. I’ll have to see if I can track down that recipe.

So I’m sure you’re all curious what I’m cooking tonight. Instead of the “chili thing”, i decided to do a version of my MIL’s piccadillo.

So, one pot has kidney beans, cooking with onion, garlic, and a little salt. I meant to add a bay leaf, but forgot.

Another pot has plain white rice.

And the third pot has ground beef, turmeric, cumin, tomato sauce (Contadina, one of the few brands that doesn’t add bell pepper) , and because the recipe calls for raisins, but we don’t have any, i added fresh cranberries. That should give a similar change of texture/sweetness/bite. More bite and less sweetness, but we all like cranberries, and we had a lot in the fridge.

I’ll plate it in three stripes, with the white rice in the middle.

Wish me luck. :smiley:

Next week maybe I’ll try not-ham and beans, or red beans and rice.

If i do this every week, i should get through the dried kidney beans in about 6 weeks.

It occurs to me that my husband makes pasta fagiole from time to time. The white beans are larger than his first choice, but they should work for that.

So now i need to figure out what to do with the large white lima beans.

:rofl: Nice turn of phrasing!!

Excellent substitution!!! There are some posters who shall be nameless who want to add rai-SINS to their cooking - VOLUNTARILY!!! :roll_eyes: :man_facepalming:

So, the results were … a work in progress. The beans needed more salt, and (imo) less onion. The cranberry was a bit too potent. I liked it by the time I had finished, but my daughter didn’t, and half as much cranberry would probably be better. But all in all, I’m going to call it a qualified success.

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That recipe sounded pretty good up to the raisins. I like raisins, they just seemed like an odd addition here.

How do white lima beans compare to green? I’m not a fan of the green ones that sometimes get added to mixed vegetables. Because of that, I’ve never tried cooking with them.

You can use the Navy Beans to make hummus.

White lima beans are larger and … drier. They are a dried bean, not a fresh bean, and are more like white beans than like peas.

(like how dried yellow peas are a different thing from fresh green peas.)

I like white lima beans in soup. But it would take an awful lot of soup to use up the supply I have. I do make a 3-bean soup that uses a lot at a time. But it’s a ton of work to cook 3 different types of beans from dried, because they all need different cooking times. I suppose I could use canned beans for the other two types.

I’m going to try to post a picture of this recipe to see if it’s legible. I’m sure you’ll at least have to zoom in to read it at best.

The accompanying pickled tomatoes:

I agree with this. White lima beans are sometimes called Butter beans or Gigante beans. The green limas are typically baby limas and are smaller. The dried white ones get a creamier consistency when cooked and taste milder to me than the green babies.

I like both styles but they are pretty different to me even though they are the same plant.

So… I made ham and beans. But I substituted a duck sausage for the ham. As I cut up the sausage, I realized I was making an upscale beanies and weenies. It came out soupier than I expected. And it needs something. I might add some lemon juice to the leftovers and see if that perks it up.

I just started a crockpot of beans. I threw a smoked turkey leg in there along with some veggies.

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