Legumes

If all else fails, just cook this for dinner every single night. Easy, tasty, cheap and delicious. The only thing my whole family agrees on is RB+R.

BEANS

1 Onion

3 cloves garlic

1 bottle passata

3 cans kidney beans

2 TBS cumin seeds

2 TBS coriander seeds

TOPPINGS

1 lime

2 avos

cheese

sour cream? 

Red onion?

Iceberg lettuce?

Corn?

Chop and fry onion and garlic.

Add freshly ground coriander and cumin seeds – fry for about a minute, moving everything around the whole time.

Add drained kidney beans and mix around for another minute or so.

Add passata and  some salt.

Cook on a medium low heat for at least 20 mins

Give a little mash so some of the beans get smooshed up

Serve with rice and toppings. For a lower carb option, replace the rice with a vege of choice. I love the beans on mountains of fresh iceberg lettuce.

 Oh Dhal. Gawd I love you.

DHAL Ingredients

500g red lentils 

3 litres water (and some salt) or stock

2 tbsp coconut oil

2 tbsp mustard seeds

handful curry seeds

3 dry red chilli

60g ginger pounded into a thick paste

2 tbsp coriander

2 tbsp turmeric

TURKA Ingredients

1 tbsp coconut oil

2 tbsp mustard seeds

2 tbsp cumin seeds

10 curry leaves

salt

DHAL METHOD

Fry mustard seeds, curry leaves, chilli, coriander, turmeric, ginger in coconut oil for about a minute.

Add lentils and coat with oil, fry while mixing a bit for a couple of minutes.

Add water and boil hard for 20 mins or until it's a consistency you like.

TURKA METHOD 

Heat up coconut oil then add mustard seeds, fry for one minute, add curry leaves and cumin seeds, fry for another minute or so.  

Mix Turka through cooked Dhal.

Serve on rice with some/all/none of the following

• cucumber and yoghurt salad

• tomato and onion salad

• banana and coconut salad

• pomegranate seeds

• sliced mango

• mango chutney

• rice

• bit of chilli

CARROT SAMBAL

lots of grated carrot

lots of shredded coconut

finley sliced green chilli

pinch salt

pinch sugar

lime

crushed cashews

This is so good.

2 cans borlotti beans

parsley

red onion

lemon juice

olive oil

black olives

walnuts

Chop up ½ red onion fine and let it sit in some olive oil and lemon juice for at least 10 mins.

Drain the beans and roughly mash about ½ of them.

Chop the olives and and parsley.

Mix it all together, add some more olive oil (actually, the more the better) and top with some walnuts.

Serve with brown rice or on toast.

My kid loves baked beans from a can. Wow. They are so gross. Anyway, sometimes I'm happy with him eating them, and sometimes I go crazy and feel like I need to make him eat these in order to be A Good Mother. These are much nicer, but obvioulsy he  prefers  the can.

3 small carrots diced small

3 small celery sticks diced small

one small onion diced small

3 cloves garlic sliced thin

2 bay leaves

1 can tomatoes

2 cans butter beans

1 tsp sugar

salt and pepper

Olive oil

Big splash of olive oil in heavy bottomed pot. Fry up carrot, onion, celery and bay leaf on a medium heat for about 10 mins til it's nice and soft.

Make a space in the middle of the mixture and add another splash of olive oil. Add the garlic to the oil and cook it in there until you can smell its garliky goodness.

Mix garlic through the rest of the mixture and add the tomato tin and sugar. Cook for about 5 mins, until it gets a bit jammy.

Add the drained beans, salt and pepper.

Cook for another at least 10 mins.

This is nice as a pasta sauce, and you could also make this soup, by adding about a litre and a half of stock and an old paremsan rind at this point and simmering for 15 mins or so. You could chuck in some lovely greens. But my son wouldn't be happy.

I need to thank my in-laws for introducing me to this recipe, which I've made more when people are coming over than any other recipe.

3 cans butter beans

garlic

sweet paprika

salt 

olive oil

lemon

red onion

greek yoghurt (or plant based alternative)

Heat fair bit of oil and chuck in the beans,  fry for about 3 mins until skins start to blister.

Chuck in 3 cloves finely sliced garlic and some salt, fry for another 2 mins.

Sprinkle in tsp of paprika and mix it all around the beans, fry for a minute.

 Mix lemon juice and salt into the yoghurt.

 Serve beans on top of the yoghurt.

Great with the Martini barley in the 'wholegrains' section.

Roasted Tofu is a terrific vege burger base. 

• 1 block firm tofu

• olive oil

• soy sauce or maggi seasoning sauce

• burger buns (the brioche ones are basically cake and so delicious)

Cut the tofu into a good shape for the buns. I usually just do squares. Coat with some oil, soy or seasoning sauce and salt and pepper.
Roast on baking paper on a very high heat for about 7 mins, turn over and do another 5-7 mins.

Great with all the burger stuff - tomato, lettuce, beetroot, cheese, pickles, onions yadda yadda yadda.

According to some geezer in the SMH millions of years ago, lots of people virtually live on this soup. 

250g small brown or green lentils

2 garlic cloves, smashed

2 bay leaves

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 carrots peeled and diced

2 celery stalks finely diced

small jar artichokes

400 can chopped tomato

400g can chickpeas, drained

2 tbsp parsley

salt and pepper

Rinse the lentils and place in a pot with the garlic cloves, bay leaves and 1.5 litres cole water. Cook 30 mins or until almost tender, skimming occasionally.

Meantime, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add artichoke onion, carrot, celery, and cook, stirring well, for 10 mins. Add the tomatoes, stir well, then add lentils and their water. 

Simmer for 20 mins until nice and soupy. Add chickpeas, salt and pepper, simmer for further 10 mins or longer, adding extra water if necessary. Stir in parsley.

Could add some delicious feta on top. Serve with garlic bread if you want kids to be happy.

Does anyone else think this is the BEST FOOD ON EARTH?

1 can ful medames (from Lebanese grocery stores or even Coles)

1 can chick peas

lemon

oil

parsley

salt

red onion

Put one can ful, one can chickpeas in a pot with 1 cup water.

Bring to the boil then simmer for 10 mins.

Mash up half the beans/chick peas and let it sit for 10.

Mix through heaps of lemon juice and salt.

Top with parsley, toasted slivered almonds, sliced radish, tomato, boiled eggs, olives etc etc etc.

To make a more fancy version, top with double podded broad beans and burrata. Serve with Pita.

1. The perennial fave humus (about 1/2 cup is counted as one serve) 

2. Edamame that you can buy frozen and just boil for a couple of minutes

3. Peanut butter counts as legumes! Terrific!

Fresh and healthy. Cheap and delicious.

2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed (about 3 cups cooked beans)

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tbsp ground coriander

1 small red onion

3-4 limes

2 red capsicum

4 ears of corn

1 green chilli

1 big bunch coriander

pepitas

olive oil

sesame oil

salt

Chop the onion as small as you can. Let it soak in the juice of 2 limes and some salt. Add some olive oil if the onion isn't covered.

Fry the black beans in some olive oil 1-2 mins. Add ground cumin and coriander and some salt. Cook on a high heat, stirring a little, for about 5 mins. You want the beans to get a tiny bit crunchy on the outside so don't move them around too much.

Cook corn (I chuck in the microwave in a bowl with some water in. Corn doesn't need to be submerged)  cut off kernels and chuck in a big bowl. Add finely chopped capsicum, coriander, chilli and whole pepitas.

Add beans and onion mixture and a few drops of sesame oil.  Season - may need more lime juice, more olive oil or more salt.

Serve with roast sweet potato wedges and a massive bowl of guacamole. Add some corn chips if you want children to respond well.

You can often find a can of chickpeas for less thana dollar. This one can is going to give you a protein, calcium, fibre hit, all rolled up in some healthy, slow release carbs. It's kind of amazing. 

Add a tin of chickpeas to any salad or soup to make it into more of a meal.

Fry drained chickpeas in some olive oil. When the skin starts to blister, add some thinly sliced garlic, some ground cumin and coriander and salt. Continue frying for a couple of minutes.  Serve with Israeli salad, pita, humus, pickles, olives for a kind of deconstructed felafel.

Chuck a tin of chickpeas in the food processor with some tahini, lemon juice, mashed garlic and salt to make a delicious humus. Add whatever you like - I'm thinking parsley and chilli, roasted beetroot, roast pumpkin or kumera...

Macerate 1/4 red onion in lemon juice and leave for at least 20 min. Mix a drained can of chickpeas with lots and lots (I mean it, LOTS) of finely chopped parsley and mint and the onion. Top with toasted slivered almonds and some crumbled feta. 

Tofu is a great source of protein, iron and calcium.

Cut into 3 x 2 x 1cm pieces. Fry in a little sesame oil until lightly browned. Serve with steamed veggies and some dressing or anything else you can think of.

Mash the tofu, mix with a pinch of salt and pepper and fry in some olive oil then treat it like scrambled eggs. Yotam suggests stirring this through some harissa and caremalised onions. I concur, Yotam.

Coat tofu strips or cubes in some olive oil and soy sauce, roast in a really hot oven for about 10-15 mins. Turn over in the middle of the cooking time.