Make beans an essential part of your diet |17 June 2022

Welcome back to our weekly page which has the simple but grand ambition to make you healthier by eating healthy.

Today's star of the show is the humble bean – think of Mr Bean !! – which despite being a powerhouse of nutrients and fibre, is not often talked about or given much importance in our island Creole cuisine.
While we have been blessed with probably the best ocean fish in the world as well as vegetables and fruits with great flavours, beans come much lower down the pecking order on the menu.

Healthy and cheap

Bringing good nutritious food to the table is more of a challenge given rising food prices, decreasing buying power of our income, and decreasing availability of some important items.

So being cheap yet healthy makes beans a high priority item. This is especially important as many people perceive healthy food as being expensive.
                                    

Ease and versatility

The great thing about beans is its ease of cooking and its versatility in being able to be used in different styles and forms.

Most beans find their way into stews and salads, but they make for equally hearty dishes in lentils, in curries or cooked with rice.

You can also create patties and burgers in which they are the principal ingredients.

Food stars in their own right

Although beans is not common in our food vocabulary, let's take a look at what choices we already have and why we should give them more priority in our diet.
Leading the list are Haricot beans (also commonly used to make baked beans), chickpeas otherwise known as Garbanzo beans (better known as Granm locally), and two of the more common imported types in tins – butter beans, and kidney beans.

Haricot (Navy) beans/ baked beans

                                    
Haricot beans is the main bean used to make baked beans and is not readily available locally tinned or dried other than in this form.

Many people start their day with a breakfast of eggs, toast, and baked beans straight from the tin or warmed up.
You may consider draining some or most of the sauce it comes with, and add some herbs and spices to liven it up.
                                  
Kidney beans

These are best bought dry and soaked overnight before boiling, but here we get them mostly in tins.
They are great ingredients if you want to make your own veggie burgers or patties, and of course are the key ingredients in the famous Mexican Chili dish.

Butter beans
Butter beans are best in stews or salads. You might even use them in a hummus-like dish, or even roughly crush them and mix with herbs and spices and spread them on a cassava rusk (‘Galet’) or toast.

Chickpeas
                                            
When a bean is the highlight of a Middle Eastern dish, a Mediterranean dish, AND an Indian dish, then you know it's got a lot going for it.
Hummus used as a dip is a great way to consume a selection of vegetables raw, such as bell peppers, cucumber, carrots, zucchini.
Stir-fried with curry powder, turmeric, and spices make it a signature Indian dish. It even features in our local dry chickpea curry known by many simply as ‘granm’.
And the Middle Eastern Falafel also makes for a great chickpea dish.
It must not be forgotten that if there's one single dish in which all beans shine, it’s soup.
Besides just adding them, mash a few to add thickness to the soup.

A powerhouse of nutrients

Beans deserve a big Hurrah!! For the simple reason that they are an affordable nutrient powerhouse.

They are a good source of protein and are naturally low in fat making it an ideal meat substitute in a meal.

In our food culture and conversation, the importance of fibre is often very silent or ignored.
But a glance at the Ministry of Health's Food-Based Dietary Guidelines is enough to help you understand its importance. 
The soluble and insoluble fibre as well as resistant starch in beans benefit the digestive system, and may even help to reduce your risk of certain digestive cancers.
Beans also contain phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals with antioxidant properties that help prevent cell damage and fight disease and ageing.

Your eating resolution

A simple resolution after reading this article on beans would be to make sure you always have beans on hand, and include a portion in your daily meals.

What's more, most bean dishes can be prepared ahead thus saving you time while guaranteeing good nutritional value.
Thank you again for reading and do join us here every week on our Eat for Our Health page and look for our pages on Social Media - Eat for our health Seychelles on Facebook, and @eat4ourhealth on Instagram.

And don't forget to drop us a little email on myhealthyplatesc@gmail.com and let us know how you're doing with these ideas, or better still, share your favourite dishes or tips.

Yours in health
The E4OH Team