Without the discount rack I’m let loose into wonderland. My favorite foods as a seven year old were zucchini and berries, produce is my happy place and as I’ve aged I have not learned how to control my desires, so I find myself getting produce for a family of six as a single woman with a pint sized fridge.

This is not to say that any of that produce goes to waste, if you are a long time reader you know I’m a vinegar maker, avid fermenter, and the sound of my dehydrator haunts my dreams.

But in desire to put constraints on my boundless desires for produce, and to keep my brain in a constant episode of chopped, I discovered my home. The discount rack. Yes the quantities are massive, but the options (as I will only get organic) are limited. It forces you to lock in and see the produce and imagine the different routes it could take. Early girl tomato vinegar, roasted grape salads, dried blueberries, mesquite maca dried bananas, would not have existed without these bags.

They have inspired me to think beyond the standard recipe walls and think how we can push our ingredients one step further and create something magical.

So when the other day I found a bag of 6 large bunches of organic basil for $1.79, I knew I had to create a new bean pesto. My original bean pesto relies on aquafaba, and has a more expensive, less fiber forward recipe. I adore that recipe, I made a batch of it with the rest of my discount basil, but I wanted to make a pesto recipe that I thought summarized me as a chef.

It’s a basil white bean dip, but to me, it’s pesto.

White Bean Pesto Recipe:
Yield: ~3 cups (24 oz)
54g Protein, 35g Fiber

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He was the grade above, entering his senior year, where he had the dream to study economics and pursue a career in finance. My radical environmentalist 17-year-old self, standing there in a thrifted sweater and Tevas, told him how disgusting it was to live by his capitalistic corporate greed. That to study economics made him a “pig.”

I really had a way with words, vast maturity, and a perspective on the world at the time. Needless to say, our relationship didn’t continue, he graduated, and I pursued my dream of environmental science on the East Coast, with one thing standing in my way of saving the world from capitalistic economic greed: an intro microeconomics class.

I decided to take it first semester my freshman year of college. “Rip off the Band-Aid” so I could spend my later years taking classes I desired.

Four weeks into college, I called my father on the phone. I told him, “I want to be an Econ major.” Supportive but perplexed, he told me to wait until at least after the first exam. Four years later, I graduated top of my class with my favorite book* by my bedside.

*This is still in my top 5 favorite books of all time. It is an amazing read, and sometimes it brings me to tears with the beauty in how it makes the brain think.

I went on to work in finance, becoming everything I believed I had hated five years prior. I spent my 20s as a slave to corporate. I believed that my love for math meant that my only path in life was to be exploited in exchange for the golden handcuffs.

And then I crashed. Literally. I fell off my bicycle, got a concussion, got dumped, and lost a 15-year best friendship all within a month.

I looked inside my cabinet, and in a bid for reconnection and stability, decided to take my love of beans to the internet, under a pseudonym of Bean Supporter, in hopes that my colleagues would not be able to find this endeavor.

What started as me eating only beans for 30 days turned into a community of well over a hundred thousand bean supporters, community meet-ups, news articles, and a new way of life.

Growing up, I have distinct memories of my parents saying, “Does anyone even work?” whenever we would go into a store or hit traffic during standard working hours in the Los Angeles area. It was ingrained in me from a young age that to be “creative” was to have a fake job, and that my value to society came from my ability to automate, solve, and analyze in the mathematical sense.

So when, 5 months ago, I left my corporate job, I realized the beans had saved me from far more than my early college health scares. Beans had taught me my gifts, my value, my joy. None of that was tied to a line on a P&L, a KPI, a title, or a dollar, rather, in feeling at ease with what I create.

Today, I enter my final year of my twenties. I can’t wait to enter it with all of you and see where the beans will take us next.

I love you all.

Xoxo,
Bean Supporter

Almost a year ago, I first posted my beanut butter cup recipe, which is still in my top 5 recipes to date. If you haven’t made them, please do. As a bean dessert skeptic, they made me a believer, completely changed the way I think about bean desserts, and have made me a bean dessert advocate.

In my mind, the base recipe for the dough made it obvious as to how you could also make a beanut butter for things like sandwiches, waffles, and toast, but I think I forgot that other people’s brains think in things outside of soluble fiber.

Let me clarify a few things. I love peanut butter; I also love beanut butter, but to me, they are different.

If I’m backpacking, camping, or hiking, I’m bringing peanut butter. Beanut butter is made from beans, cooked beans, which means that it needs to be refrigerated. Please do not make beanut butter and leave it on the counter.

It will mold. You will get sick if you eat it. It is not a cute casual ferment; it is a food safety risk.

Additionally, the other beanut butter you see circulating on the internet tends to be made with peanut butter powder, which has had the fat stripped from it and is higher in protein and less caloric.

I am not, will never be, and have absolutely no desire to be in the macro/calorie-tracking Olympics.

I believe in eating whole foods, as close to the source as I can get them. For me, this means I make all my own nut butters (I buy my peanuts (or any other nut) and blend them in my food processor until smooth).

This peanut butter does end up being lower in calories and fat than normal peanut butter, but most importantly, it has more protein and fiber, and I can scarf down half a cup of it without feeling like I ate a brick, and if you love peanut butter as much as I do, this is an absolute necessity.

So to all my fellow straight-out-of-the-jar scoopers, this one is for you. And for everyone asking what to give someone with beans if they don’t like the taste and texture of beans, well, this is for you too.

Beanut Butter Recipe:
yield: 2 cups (16oz)
31 g protein, 26 g fiber

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Everything but the bagel? Have I become a Trader Joe’s seasoning blend? Before I fall into a millennial hole of mainstream marketing, I’m trying to remember that sometimes things are popular for a reason. Maybe I’m allowed to have a moment of basic and desire a world of everything bagel-flavored goods.

I think about my favorite everything bagel — the everything flagel (a flattened bagel) from Ess-a-bagel in NYC. I’m drawn to the seeds, salt, alliums, and crunch from the high surface area, and that is when it hit me. I didn’t need the wheat; instead, I could have my everything bagel breakfast love in a new light. Granola

Recipe:

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A few weeks later, I had a video where I addressed my bean consumption frequency.* Responders commented on the ease of this due to their “three-bean morning soup,” in reference to a vanilla mocha.

While I support the consumption of all foods, I want to make something clear:
Jelly, coffee, cacao, and vanilla “beans” are not legumes.

If you are new here, welcome. This is the Luxury of Legumes, where I share with you all the insides of my bean brain, how I’m a simp for soluble fiber, and my recipes for how I turn this pantry staple into the ultimate luxury.

This week, that came in reinventing one of my favorite foods: pudding.

Admittedly, I’m a chocolate pudding girl, but I’ve already perfected the highest-flavor, highest-fiber chocolate pudding there could be, and I wanted a challenge.

Chocolate can mask anything—that vegetal flavor, gone. Chocolate is strong and can mask any mistake. Vanilla is delicate.

I decided it was time to try my hand at making the first vanilla bean pudding. I like this recipe for many reasons. It is gluten-free, vegan, and refined sugar-free while still tasting like a delicious pudding, but most importantly, I think it may come together faster than “instant” pudding.

It can be the perfect base pudding to use in any of your favorite pudding desserts:
Add bananas and cookies for a banana pudding.
Layer with cake and berries in a trifle.
Or top with fresh fruit and lentil granola and eat it for breakfast or share at a Bean-Up.

Vanilla BEAN Pudding Recipe:

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I graduated college in 2020, from my childhood bedroom, having a tantrum about making waffle cones while my brother paraded around the house with cutouts of my face on popsicle sticks.

This means I also started my career during the pandemic as the second finance hire at a start-up in Illinois. 6:30 a.m. Zoom stand-ups sounded pretty good with the promise of being off by 3:30 to enjoy my summer afternoons.

Instead, days went until 8 p.m., and my only time not working was when I took my lunch, which was 30 minutes of me sitting in a hot tub trying to convince myself that this was my calling (it wasn’t).

I grew up in a water household. Outside of my father’s soda addiction when I was a child (we discovered our house flooded on the way to get Diet Mountain Dew), we drank water.

My experimentation out of the water realm began in late high school when I developed a fascination with Moon Juice, and grew even greater when I began to study bits of herbalism in college.

Shackled in spreadsheets, I used my hot tub time as a way to reconnect with my creativity, whimsy, and give me a will to live by means of a “fun beverage.”

My beverage creativity has felt a bit halted lately: the same herbs, flowers, fruits, and salts, until last week, when, I found organic fresh aloe.

My Fresh Aloe Source

Use Code: Beansupporter for $25 off your first Good Eggs Grocery Purchase*

I’ve never worked with fresh aloe before because I haven’t been able to find it organic, and even though you are peeling it, to properly treat fresh aloe, it needs to go through numerous soaking rounds to lose its bitter notes.

I skinned my aloe, looked in my fridge, and this Mango, Green Tea, Manuka Honey, Limeade was born.

I promise not to turn into a beverage girl of the internet, but maybe a hint of the spice of life here and there.

*This post is partially sponsored by Good Eggs Grocery. A service I’ve known and loved since 2014. More to come on my love for Good Eggs Grocery to come <3

Recipe:

1 aloe leaf, or ~1/2 cup of food-grade aloe gel, or aloe water

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So instead, here is my guide to Paris: Bread, Beans, and the In-between.

My first morning in Paris meant one thing: bread and butter. We got dressed for the great Parisian heat, I put on my favorite dress, and we made our way to my favorite bakery.

The Bread:

I have tried 20? baguettes around Paris. At sub-$1.50 apiece, I can’t go to a bakery in Paris and not get one. It is for research?

If you want the best baguette in Paris, there is one answer to me: Utopie Bakery. But no matter what bakery you go to, you must get the traditional, or your baguette will be deeply underwhelming.

The baguette is light and airy, but also a bit chewy, and tastes almost milky. There is a moisture mixed with an aeration and a developed flavor that, while not sourdough, provides more character than the traditional baguette I’m used to.

After getting baguettes, éclairs, flans, and croissants to enjoy in a park while watching games of bocce, we made our way across the river to get our butter.

The Butter:

If you have been to La Grande Épicerie in Paris, you have seen the famous butter wall, and while I’d love to have a photo of that here, I was instead elbowed to oblivion on a Sunday afternoon and was left standing hopelessly in the corner of the butter aisle until my sexy Sardinian lover could save me from butter-crazed tourists.

We got the full salt, not the demi-sel, and we did manage to slather it in big chunks atop our bread while resting on the hot stones of the Seine.

The next morning it was time for another BFD (a Big Fun Day—read more about the ultimate BFD here). We started off at Moon Croissant, which I was told is the best croissant in all of Paris.

Which brings me to a very important topic:

The Baked Goods:

I think I have somehow managed to convince the internet that I’m a sugar-free, gluten-free vegan, by the extent to which I love beans. And while I do “eat foods, mostly plants”—thank you, Michael Pollan—I don’t believe in restrictions in eating. My introduction to the food world was through baking. A perfect slice of cake is my greatest joy in life. I live for my walks to Nabalom in Berkeley for their almond croissant and a slice of pizza. A good life is balance.

Let me be clear, I’m very grateful I am able to live in a place in life where I am able to have this balance, much of which has come from beans, which have both transformed my health and my mindset with food. But all of this is to say, I eat everything, but when I eat baked goods, I’m very picky.

Moon Croissant was great. We got a pistachio croissant. It was flaky, buttery, but almost too much, and at 5x the price of a standardized French croissant, I don’t think I would return. Instead, I would make my way to Brigat.

The Best Bakery in Paris:

Brigat. Hands down, in my opinion, has the best baked good I’ve had in Paris in the form of their chausson aux pommes.

I’ve been to Poilâne, Union, Du Pain et des Idées, Moon Croissant, and so many more. I have walked hundreds of miles through the city over the years in search of the best laminated goods, and for me, it’s Brigat. Every time. Their chausson aux pommes is a must, the flan is sensational, and their baguette is passable, but at a 15-minute walk from Utopie, get your steps in.

While I’m totally for the spread of gratitude, I sometimes wish when I traveled I was able to find a “do not go” list.

So here is mine:

Du Pain et des Idées: Used to be my favorite bakery in Paris 9 years ago, but so much has changed. Prices have tripled, and quality has lowered dramatically. I used to dream of their pistachio chocolate escargot, which now has food coloring??? This has become a tourist trap and has lost its touch.

Union Bakery: After amazement from the Brigat chausson aux pommes, I was in need of finding better, so I set off to get the “apple bomb” at Union Bakery. Never have I been so disappointed in a bakery as I was with my haul from Union. Their baguette tasted like uncooked flour, the apple bomb was mushy and too sweet, even the basil lemon tart was thin, watery, and left something to be desired. The croissant was not buttery enough, and their kouign-amann was their best item because how bad can equal ratios of butter, flour, and sugar be? But the photos look much better than it tasted. If I wasn’t staying with a friend, I would have had to throw things out, and I think we still did? But the good thing about staying with a young, active man is their appetites seem to be never-ending.

Apart from baked goods, our BFD continued with searching for kangaroos at the Jardin des Plantes, getting denied to go on a carousel because we were “too old,” sitting on the cool tile floors of a stunning mosque discussing both art and the art of falling in love in this digital world to take respite from the heat.

Then it was back to work. The beans needed me.

The Beans:

I set out to explore bean pricing, options, and uses in Paris when on my map appeared “Best Tofu.”

As a Bean Supporter, I had but one option: to go. I made my way through the streets, cash in hand, ready to meet my tofu masters.

Best Tofu:

I ordered a marinated egg, glutinous rice, and a savory soft tofu.

All I can say is that it lives up to its name.

I got a full block of firm tofu and half a kilo of marinated tofu to bring home to share, as well as fresh soy milk. The total of all of this was €10.10.

No matter what, I advise a stop because even if tofu is not your thing, for the price it is unbeatable.

We ate dinner that night along the Seine. I made an “egg” salad with tofu that my lover, who claims to not like mustard nor tofu, managed to scarf down and ask for more of. I will chalk this up as a testament to the tofu rather than my cooking.

The week continued on. I made my way to Montpellier to meet up with my childhood friend in the 100-degree Parisian heat, and we ate a watermelon on the steps of a church, chatting about love and soluble fiber (do have it be known she is one of my recipe testers, all the way in France, so if you are international, thank her for letting us know that they work overseas). We saw some opera, went to a vernissage, got a spoon from the most beautiful cookware/home goods store I’ve ever been in, purchased a woven straw bag at a thrift store, and explored every bean in sight.

The findings: Beans in France are more expensive than beans in the US, but their jarred, already-flavored beans are elite. I should have gotten more pictures, but my struggle lies in the fact that I desire so deeply to live in the moment and enjoy beautiful crafts that I often forget to document these things.

On the quest for the best bean in Paris, though, I stumbled upon a natural wine bar recommended by the one and only David Lebovitz and saw that they served large white beans covered in lemon and oil.

I couldn’t tell if it was the 100-degree weather, the sexy Sardinian, or the perfect rounds of soluble fiber, but all I wanted to say was, “I love you.”

But instead, I analyzed every bean on the plate to take notes of what I loved and how it could be improved, so maybe you all can learn from my mistakes and tell someone you love them: with words and beans.

I Love You Beans Recipe:

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This luxury comes to me in the form of cranberry beans, one of the most beautiful fresh beans you can get. Sadly, they don’t keep their visual beauty when cooked, but their taste remains elegant.

The wonderful thing about this salad is it is actually great with just about any bean, so if you don’t have cranberry beans, or don’t feel like cooking beans from dry, this dressing will elevate any bean you have.

This salad comes together in a matter of minutes, is great on its own, on toast, as a side, or even on top of another salad, and only gets better throughout the week.

Recipe:
1 lb cranberry beans (fresh or dry) (cook them)

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I never planned to make a Substack, and I never thought I would go to Cambridge, but in September, I met a man who changed my life. Before we all get too excited, this is not a salacious story, but on the hill behind the Greek Theater in Berkeley, while discussing the feelings of heartbreak, beans, and, for the first time in a long time, I met someone who could “run their fingers through my brain.”

When I told him I was thinking about giving up Bean Supporter, that it had helped me get past some of my emotional turmoil, and that I didn’t know if I wanted it to be anything more, he told me I had to keep going, to spread the word of soluble fiber. So eight months after meeting, it was only natural for me to support him the way he once supported me. So to Cambridge I went.

Well, I said it is for him, but let’s be honest, bean fanatics in the chat—what is the first thing you would do in the UK?

If you answered: land, take the Tube to the closest grocery store and get your hands on Bold Beans, which you have been trying to find a way to ship to the US to try on a weekly basis for the past year, you would be correct.

These jarred black chickpeas were the best packaged bean I’ve had in my whole life. This is not sponsored; I paid for the beans. My only regret is only getting one jar. Silly me thought I would be able to purchase more Bold Beans in France. No! UK only. Don’t make the same mistake as me. Paris has jarred beans, some great ones, but nothing compares to the power of Bold.

My friend I was staying with, who lives in Paris, asked me how we could get more of these beans and asked me to look into getting some shipped. Bold Beans, if you are reading this, please ship to Paris.

Outside of my desire for more Bold Beans, I spent 10 days roaming the streets of Paris, London, and Cambridge looking for the best beans, bread, and whimsy. If any of this sounds up your alley, I suggest you keep on reading.

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First stop first… we got the beans. We then proceeded to make our way over to Ottolenghi’s to-go shop in Marylebone.

Ottolenghi:

I’ve always been inspired by the way Ottolenghi works with vegetables, but I’m actually most inspired by the way he works with cakes. We got three to eat up on Primrose Hill. We got the carrot cake, a double chocolate blackberry cake, and an almond orange cake (gluten-free) with chocolate ganache.

Hungry, we made a pit stop near a stream to watch ducklings and try my favorite cake, carrot cake. It was good. Moist, not too sweet, but forgettable.

We continued on our journey, passing natural food stores, beautiful streets, and buying the biggest carrot of my life. We made our way to the hill. I was slightly underwhelmed by the scenery, but overwhelmed by the cake. On that hill, I had the second-best cake I’ve had in my life: the double chocolate blackberry cake. There was a rich chocolate cake, a not-too-rich chocolate frosting, but what set this cake apart was the salted chocolate crumble and the tart blackberry coulis. It was a mixture of flavors that made me want to rethink my stance on disliking fruit with chocolate and was the initial inspiration for my double bean double chocolate cake. Now I must work on my coulis and crumble. More to come.

Why second best? The problem is I can only be honest. I’m not going to tell you something is the best when I have had better. Nothing compares to Hannah Ziskin’s Quince Cranberry Slab. That is my last meal, above beans (please don’t tell them).

We wandered our way back while chomping on massive carrots to rest up for a big day of punting to follow.

We woke up, sipped on potions, and dug into the third cake. This almond orange chocolate ganache cake was not almondy enough and felt one-note. It was not a winner, and we made our way up to Cambridge to punt. We punted the upper and lower streams before making our way to dinner.

Dishoom:

New-age Indian food. I had many recommendations for this place and was excited that it is where our Bean Supporter supporter had chosen to eat.

It was a large group dinner, and we got a lot of food, so I will give you the highlights and the lowlights.

Highlights:

Chili Broccoli Salad: It was sweet, spicy, crunchy, acidic, and just kind of perfect. The broccoli was shaved, which is maybe one of my favorite salad textures of all time, and filled with pumpkin and sunflower seeds for the perfect crunch, and dates for chew and sweetness. This salad is perfect and something I must recreate.

Dishoom House Chaat: I first discovered it in December on a terrible first date, but it was worthwhile in opening my eyes to the idea of a cold fried potato salad topped with yogurt, chutneys, and pomegranate. I’ve been obsessed ever since. The Dishoom Chaat was the best I’ve had to date. I sadly only got a bite of it in our large group, so until I return.

Lowlights:

Salted Lassi — While I love a savory beverage, this was just too salty. I needed the salt dialed back 50%, for I felt like I was sipping on sodium.

House Black Daal — This pains me to say, but if you go to Dishoom, I do not support their beans. Their lentils lacked flavor; they fell flat and were too runny. I love so many types of daal. This one was not it.

We tried many other dishes, but for me, these were what I’m still thinking about positively or negatively a month later.

We took a cab back to our friend’s place to sauna because no day is complete without a trip to the sauna, in which I got to experience my first English cab ride facing my friends. As someone who really dislikes cars and taxis, I love an English cab.

We made our way back to London and prepared for our BFD* (Big Fun Day).

*Every Wednesday my parents go on a BFD, a term coined by my father in which they go around different places in Los Angeles picking up Too Good To Go bags and shopping discount grocery circulars.

While I wasn’t picking up discount foods, I was on a BFD, quite possibly the most BFD of my whole life, where I did manage to cry tears of joy several times.

As every good day, we started with more potions before hopping on a double-decker bus to head to the Design Museum. A fun fact about me: I love public transportation, so yes, getting on a bus was a highlight of my day. We got off the bus and headed into the museum, where I was more impressed by the child rolling in the fountain outside than I was by anything in the museum.

Design Museum: A skip, but a child rolling in a fountain, always a must.

We walked our way over to the Victoria Albert Museum, which was my main call to London. Back when I was still a visual artist rather than a bean artist, my primary source of choice was William Morris. When I discovered his prints, patterns, and textures, I was hooked, so since 2018, on my places-to-visit list has been the V&A, as they are one of the largest collections of his work.

While I went there for the William Morris, I was instead taken by the exhibit of Jewels. My photo does this room no justice. It is hard to take pictures of a dark, backlit room on a phone camera while you are shaking with excitement, but if you are ever in London, please check it out. Better yet, like most museums in London, it is free.

Victoria Albert Museum: Check out the Jewels room, and make sure to look out for ring #9 in the most modern set of rings. Hopefully, it will brighten your day as much as it did mine.

On a high note leaving the museum, I decided my museum hopping was over, so we had a quick change of plans and decided to make our way over to Harrods.

I asked my friend upon entering if it was like Bergdorf Goodman. While he had never been to Bergdorf’s, I quickly learned, in the Egyptian Escalators, the true definition of “posh” and was reminded that not everyone is afraid of synthetic fragrance. While I don’t watch television, this experience felt like my version of bingeing a reality television show.

Harrods: Worth a people-watch. I advise staying far away from the home fragrance section.

As we returned to the street for some fresh air, I was asked if I wanted to check out Sketch. I had never heard of this bar/restaurant/tea room, but upon seeing a single photo on Google Reviews, I decided, why not?

Sketch:

I ordered a milky beet juice, and my friend got an orange turmeric juice. Upon ordering, my friend turned to me and told me to wander as far as I could, get lost, and make sure I found the bathroom.

As I pushed on a giant golden wall, I was met with a sound of buzzing. As I stepped inside the illuminated vortex, I made my way up the white staircase to be met by individual egg chambers washed in the technicolor reflections of the stained-glass ceiling. I had never been a bathroom crier, but in entering my egg, I too cracked.

I returned to the table with damp eyes when my friend asked, “Did [I] see the bathroom?” We sipped our drinks, discussed the beauty that is Sketch, and returned to the bathroom for a final viewing as we discussed our plans to one day return for high tea in the golden room.

Sketch: A must-go, even if only for a drink, and hopefully a few trips to the bathroom.

As I hopscotched my way out of the restaurant and onto the street, we decided to continue on the exploration of childlike wonder. Why not take a visit to Hamleys?

Let me be clear. I have joy. I have been told I exhibit overwhelming amounts of childlike wonder, but that seven-floor toy store is one of the worst places I have ever been. Joy does not need to come from the overconsumption of single-use plastic. Overwhelmed, disheartened, and off of my bathroom high, we left to head to lunch.

Hamleys: Never again.

Hoppers:

This restaurant came recommended to me by a supporter. Thank you all for your support and dining recommendations. While I wish I could tell you this is another daal review, it is actually a hopper review. Growing up, I would go to a restaurant in Los Angeles called Mayura, and I would get the appam. It was my favorite food, so when I saw that a hopper looked like a mixture between an appam and a dosa, I knew I had to go. We got the eggplant curry and an egg hopper.

All I know is that I dream of hoppers and need to figure out where to get these in the Bay Area, or even where to find appam. Please let me know in the comments if you have any recommendations.

Hoppers: Get a hopper. I didn’t try enough things to comment overall.

Rushing to make our train, we popped into Ottolenghi for another slice of the blackberry chocolate cake for train, and made our way to the train.

We shimmied through the layers of security and made our way to the Eurostar holding chamber, a crowded pen also selling light-up plastic toys. But as our platform was announced, a wave of relief washed over me. I was about to be under the English Channel for 19 minutes of under-the-sea train cake consumption.

Tune in next week for the Bread and Bean Guide to Paris, featuring Best Tofu, the most beautiful cookware store I’ve ever been in, dinners on the Seine, some of the most delicious beans I’ve had, and my recipe for them.

Tell someone that you love them, maybe by letting them punt you around Cambridge.

Xoxo,
Bean Supporter

In the back of my tiny box of ice, I found a jar labeled Thai Lentil Curry, and it was an immediate defrost.

Red lentils have always been my favorite legume to develop with. They make things like my mung bean waffle, Beanana Bread, and Lookies (lentil cookies), but they are also the first legume I ever used for my public recipe development.

In 2025, I made a New Year’s resolution to develop 52 new bean dishes that year and post them. I have never been one for New Year’s resolutions, a five-year plan, or anything of that nature, but going into 2025, I was feeling a bit sappy. I was lovelorn and in a place of constant sauna-ing and decided, if beans could heal my body, what else could they do? That lasted for four weeks, then I was off to Mexico City, living my best life and forgetting about my bean dreams.

Fast forward to June 2025, with five-ish recipes developed—I set out on Only Beans. Needless to say, I exceeded 52 bean recipes. In fact, I’m not a bean recipe developer. Back to my point that beans really can do anything... but I keep coming back to my Thai Red Lentil Curry Soup.

I hope you love this soup as much as I do, and if you cook the lentils separately, add no broth, and blend adding coconut milk until you get your desired dip consistency, it makes the perfect dip for any occasion. Maybe I am just in time for summer.

Ingredients:
-1 cup red lentils

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I call this breakfast a “gut bowl” as it is great for your digestion and gut health, but I’ve been told I need a better name for it.

Realistically, I’ve come to realize that my mission to get the population eating bowls of spicy fermented foods and beans for breakfast might be a bit far-fetched, but maybe I can take all the benefits of those bowls and turn them into a sweet breakfast sensation. That is how my original lentil granola was born.

While the original granola, lemon cardamom version, and the black sesame, buckwheat, red bean granola are all exquisite, I realized I wanted something a bit more familiar and comforting. When staring at a wall of discounted produce, some brown bananas called to me. They said, you love us in Beanana Bread, why not make Beanana Granola? I couldn’t deny this very reasonable request.

Why do I love this granola? It is crunchy from the buckwheat, a bit nutty from the lentils, and packed with so much banana bread flavor without being too sweet.

“Too sweet” is commonly used in this day and age with food, and to be perfectly honest, many of you may say this granola is “not sweet,” but when I was on the phone with my friend this weekend discussing granola, we both agreed that the world of granola has come too far. Why is the expectation that we are putting cookies in our breakfast? So this is not cookie granola, but it is delicious.

Recipe:

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This became apparent to me last weekend, at a Bean-Up.

What is a Bean-Up?

If you are from the Bay Area, or have been a subscriber for a while, you may know of something called “Cake Picnic.” Now think of that, but for beans. Everyone brings a bean dish to share, we have a potluck, and enjoy the beauty of community and legumes in my favorite city on earth, Berkeley, California. Last weekend was my 7th Bean-Up.

Past Bean-Ups have been about 25 people, and I’ve been thrilled. These events are what inspire me to keep innovating in the world of legumes. Meeting others who are passionate, trying their incredible creations, and sharing a meal in community has always been one of my greatest joys.

In recent affairs, however, we had over 70 people. As I write this, my eyes fill with tears. A year ago, when I started Bean Supporter, I never could have imagined having a Bean-Up, let alone a gathering larger than any class I took in undergrad.

I guess the manifestation meditations I do while cooking myself like a bean in my sauna bag every morning are paying off.

Why a Bean-Up?

On a mission for health, I left the walls of my bean cave and entered the world.

Okay, I’m taking too much credit. I didn’t enter the world, Bean Supporter did.

Beans in a park? I have never been to a run club, let alone hosted a bean bonanza.

I do best in the unknown, off the path, picking herbs, collecting plums to pickle in the pockets of my wool leggings. To be seen terrifies me.

But the only thing that might bring me more fear than the idea of interacting with the community at large is the idea of our community not getting enough soluble fiber.

But in this day and age, where I feel like I can’t go 5 minutes without hearing about an AI agent, I think it might be important that we all take a moment to step outside and sit in a park, maybe touch some grass, and actually eat food made by a hand rather than a machine.

History:

In late August, I got a message from a fan over my Beanthday Cake, asking when I was going to hold bean meetups. In a state of “new year, new me,” I decided to host my first Bean-Up a week later in Berkeley’s own Willard Park.

I think about 20 people came, but life isn’t always about numbers; it is about joy:

The Bean-Ups continued through the ups and downs of rain and shine:

So where are we now? Seven Bean-Ups in, with gatherings of 60–70 in the finest park in the land—Willard Park.

My hunger for beans, however, is only growing. As is my hunger to build a bean community.

Our Bean-Up is traveling, and this time to New York.

Next Bean-Up will be 6/27 from 1–3 p.m. at Sheep’s Meadow in Central Park, NYC.

Want to read more?
We have been featured in:
Berkeleyside
KALX Radio
Foodprint
What You’re Eating
Coyote Media
and… my childhood forever dream…
NPR
Stay up to date on the latest Bean-up announcements here.

Thank you all for continuing to spread the luxury of legumes with me.

Tell someone you love them,
Xoxo,
Bean Supporter

The internet is riddled with bean brownie recipes, but none of them speak to me. They often contain nut butters, giving the brownie a nut butter flavor that makes it taste like your local early-2000s health food store. Or they’re rich in regular sugars, which—personally—kind of defeats the point of a bean brownie? I love regular brownies. I make them frequently - I’ll save my cane sugar for those.

I wanted to keep it simple: a five-minute, single-blender, soluble fiber-rich brownie you could eat for breakfast without a sugar crash, and instead recharge from this magnesium, iron rich powerhouse.

Recipe as follows:

Ingredients:
Wet
-85 grams pitted dates (~1/2 cup)
-1/3 cup water (or coffee- will make the brownies incredible)
-1.5 cups black beans drained and rinsed (1 can)
-2 large eggs (can sub in 2 flax eggs)
-3 tbsp oil (I used coconut)
-2 tsp vanilla
Dry
-1.5 tsp baking powder
-64 grams cacao (or cocoa) powder (~3/4 cup)
-1/2 tsp salt
*optional - 1/2 cup chocolate chips.

1)Preheat oven to 350F
2)Blend all ingredients in a blender (I blend wet and then add the dry)
3)Stir in chocolate chips if using.
4) Scoop into muffin tins, garnish with flakey sea salt and bake for 20 minutes.

I remade these last night, as I wanted a sweet snack while I spend my day at Stern Grove today, and was hit with the fact that these black bean brownies might be the easiest possible dessert to make, and they do indeed work with flax egg.

I’ll be eating these brownies for breakfast on the BART, so I guess that is my little way of telling my gut that I love her.

Tell someone you love them, with a brownie or words.

Xoxo,
Bean Supporter

A white bean cake with whipped aquafaba frosting and Blenheim apricot jam.

I must say, that cake was stunning and tasted decent, but in the past year I have been able to meld my bean brain and my baking brain to add a bit more sweetness and create something as decadent and delightful as a true cake, while preserving the magic of bean-frosted bean.

Double Chocolate Double Bean Cake was born. She is a chocolate black bean cake topped with a silken tofu mousse and is everything I have ever dreamed of and more.

Growing up, there was a health food store in my area called Pacific Coast Greens. I talk about my formative experiences in this store in my Bean Pudding Recipe (which you can also use as a frosting if you want even more fiber and my eternal respect). What I did not mention in that article is that in the bakery case at Pacific Coast Greens, there was also your standard three-type chocolate mousse mini cake. White, milk, and dark chocolate mousse rested neatly atop a dark chocolate cake base, and while that store closed in 2018, and I believe that cake last graced my lips in 2010, I will never forget her.

The beautiful thing is that silken tofu can whip up into something just as magical in a matter of moments and solidify into a mousse that is truly indistinguishable from its cream-based comrades overnight.

So here is my black bean cake with a tofu mousse frosting that doesn’t taste like beans, and instead brings me back to the deep pleasures of my childhood, without the adulthood crash of processed high-sugar foods. This cake is gluten-, refined sugar-, and dairy-free, but it does require eggs for the perfect texture.

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Cake Recipe:

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Naturally, the question I’m asked most often is: how do you cook beans from dry?

My true answer: I listen to my beans. It always depends on the varietal, the harvest date, and the use case, but listening to your beans is not very helpful, so over the past year I’ve decided to take my bean insights and make them replicable.

I come to you with the ultimate guide to a perfect bean from dry every time.

One note: I use the word bean, as I am Bean Supporter, but this is a guide for all pulses (beans, lentils, chickpeas). Please use this as your guide for all of your soluble fiber needs.

To Soak or Not to Soak:

One common thing I see on the internet is that you NEED to soak your beans.

Let’s go into this:
Why soak your beans?
Soaking your beans reduces the cook time, especially with less fresh beans, often cutting cooking time in half, if not even less. With soaked beans, you can get a dry bean to perfection in about an hour in a Dutch oven on the stovetop. This is unheard of with conventional unsoaked beans on the stove.

Aside from cook time, there are also digestive benefits to soaking one’s beans. Soaking beans/pulses (yes, lentils too) releases oligosaccharides, which are indigestible sugars in beans that often cause gas.

For those that say beans are antinutrients, soaking beans releases phytic acid in beans, as well as lectins, so any lowered nutrient absorption worries and potential toxins become moot. Please stop spreading bean slander that is unresearched and based on a single fear-mongering social media person pressing for views (xoxo, your favorite bean influencer).

How Long Should I Soak?
This question is tricky; it depends on the freshness and varietal of your beans. My blanket statement is overnight.

For conventional grocery beans, I personally like a soak of at least 24 hours, changing out my soaking water after about 12.

For more heirloom beans, a soak as short as 4 hours can be enough, but for peak oligosaccharide mitigation, soak for 8–12 hours. This is also the case for lentils.

If this long of a soak is not in your cards, there is also a “quick soak” that involves boiling beans for 3 minutes, then turning off the heat, letting the beans sit in the water for an hour, and then draining that initial water, just as you would with normal soaked beans before cooking.

When not to soak?
I eat beans like they are water. My stomach is an iron-clad bean machine, and with certain beans that make a sensational broth, like a Rio Zape bean, I’ve bean known to cook from dry to make sure all the amazing bean flavor makes its way into the broth.

I also sometimes forget to soak my beans, and nothing will stop me from eating beans, so no soak, no problem. Game on, it’s bean time.

How to Cook your Beans:
To me, there are three main options: Stove Top, Instant Pot, VitaClay

Stove Top:
This is my original and tried-and-true method. A few years ago in Belgium, I found a Cousances Dutch oven on the street, used my limited French to negotiate the price, carried it around the streets of Brussels for 7 hours, took it on a train back to France, and flew it back to the States in the single backpack I was traveling with to make beans. My commitment to the perfect Dutch Oven is almost as high as my commitment to beans.

If you don’t have a Dutch oven, I really recommend investing in one. I own a few. My favorite that I currently have is my Staub. I also have a Lodge that is a great, more affordable option, and I’m trying to find a way to justify the purchase of a Smithey.

Once you have your Dutch oven, take your soaked beans, make sure to drain and rinse them, and add them to your pot with ~2 inches of liquid covering them. This liquid is up to you. It can be broth or water; just make sure it is nothing acidic.

The next step is controversial: I add all my seasonings to my bean pot before turning up the heat. I tend to add things like bay leaf, large chunks of yellow onion, and garlic cloves as a base, and adjust seasoning from there based on what type of dish I am making.

Bring the pot with beans and seasonings in it to a boil. Let it boil for about 15 minutes before turning down the heat to a simmer for the next 1–2 hours,* depending on the freshness of your beans. Some beans I’ve found cook in as little as 30 minutes.

*For lentils, this time is MUCH lower. Soaked red lentils cook in ~3 minutes, and ~10 minutes for other lentil varietals when soaked.

Instant Pot:
While I believe this is one of the most popular methods, it is by far my least favorite. That being said, it is very convenient, which is super nice.

I did some trials, and I’ve found it really depends on the size of your bean. For a pound of soaked beans, I use about 6 cups of liquid. For this, cook time depends on the size of the beans. Smaller beans I do for about 10 minutes, larger beans I do for about 15 minutes, and lentils I’ve never even tried in here.

Per usual, add all of the seasonings to your pot before you put the pressure on, and all of these call for a natural release. Size and freshness of beans make a big difference.

For unsoaked beans, the cook time is typically 20–40 minutes, depending on the size and freshness of your bean.

VitaClay:
This method is my newest, but I must say I am in love. While a stovetop bean will always be my favorite method of cooking beans, sometimes life is really busy. Sometimes I need to cook up pounds of beans to make you all new bean delights, but I also need to teach a fitness class, buy a new pot on FB Marketplace, get lost in Excel spreadsheets, or sew a new dress.

The VitaClay has changed my life. When I had once feared that I would have to switch to canned beans for my R&D based on the frequency at which I use beans, I am now able to cook with pressure-cooker effort without pressure-cooker anxiety.
You can use my discount code “Bean10” for 10% off.

Soak them overnight; I tend to do a 12–24 hour soak on my beans, then drain the soaking liquid. Add the beans to your pot (in my case, a clay pot). Chop your 1/2 onion into quarters, smash your garlic cloves, and add broth and spices. I use 1 lb of beans for 6 cups of water. Turn the VitaClay on to the stew setting for 2 hours, and your beans are done! If you are away longer, it switches to a warming setting and keeps your beans food-safe and warm for when you are ready.

My Beans are Hard What Happened?

One common misconception is that you cannot salt your beans before they are finished cooking. While this is a myth, this statement is true for acid.

Please add all acid sources after your beans have reached your desired texture, as acid sources such as tomato, wine, vinegar, and citrus will strengthen the pectin in the beans’ outer walls, making them harder to cook and keeping them tough.

While acid is a bean’s best friend, this statement only remains true after the beans have finished cooking.

How To Avoid Gas with Beans:

As a woman whose career is in beans, I eat a lot of them. The first question I always get is how gassy I am.

If I’m eating beans, I’m not gassy. Before you try to call this a bluff, let me tell you that 95% of Americans are said to be deficient in fiber. Since I likely get a minimum of 45 grams a day, I do not fall into this camp.

My body is a well-oiled soluble fiber machine. So when I eat beans, my body and gut are healthy and can handle them. If you are new to beans, your body may be waking up to getting the fiber you need, and the gas might be your body’s way of telling you that this is what has been missing. I recommend starting slow and increasing your bean intake over time.

Another factor is making sure to soak your beans and lentils, as mentioned in the soaking section, and lastly, the secret agent is…

Kombu:
Kombu is a type of kelp that contains enzymes that help break down some of the complex sugars in beans that often lead to pain or indigestion.

Outside of making you feel better, the kombu also makes the beans taste better, adding a rich umami flavor, as well as plenty of iodine and trace minerals, boosting the nutrient density of your beans.

How to Store Your Beans:

Beans can be stored in the fridge for 5 days or in the freezer for 6+ months. How you store them is up to you. I use glass jars, but I think I should probably tell you to use something like Souper Cubes. I just am so against buying things it hurts, but I also sometimes have glass jars fly out of my overstuffed freezer and shatter on the floor. I am not the best practice in bean storage, rather a woman with a passion for soluble fiber and planetary health.

Favorite Bean Recipes:
Best Beans of 2025
Cabbagio e Pepe
Protbean Bars: Bean Protein Bars
Flourless Chocolate Cake
Chinese Chickpea Salad
Lemon Cardamom Lentil Granola
Mung Bean Scallion Waffles

Favorite Bean Products:
There are so many great beans on the market, and things made with beans.

Some of my favorite include:
Beans (Dry Beans)
There are so many great beans on the market, but my favorite easily orderable, available nation wide bean is Primary Beans (Iacopi Farm are also sensational but harder to get your hands on). They have unique varietals, and they even feature a harvest date so you know just how fresh your beans are. All of their beans are pesticide free, which is important to me, and most importantly taste awesome.
Use: BEANSUPPORTER15 to get 15% off at checkout

Protein Powder
I’m not a huge protein powder girl, nor a big smoothie drinker, but this all changed when I started adding beans to my smoothies. If you want a bit more of a protein boost than beans alone, I really like this bean based protein powder (made of fava beans).
Use: BEANSUPPORTER15 to get 15% off at checkout

Accessible Grocery
I went to college in Maine, where I didn’t have access to an abundance of groceries, nor resources. That is where my bean journey began. My Thrive market membership really allowed me to access the beans I desired at prices I could afford.
Link gives you $20 off your first 3 orders as well as a sign up gift valued at up to $60.

Favorite Cookware for Making Beans:
Bean Cooker
For cooking beans, there are many methods I love, and you can see my favorite cookware in the “Cooks” Section, but for easy beans my VitaClay has truly changed my life. Outside of beans, I work three jobs, and often find myself running around. With my love of sustainability, living as low waste as possible, and avoiding plastics, canned beans aren’t my favorite option, but I’ve had to shift a bit to be able make all my recipes. Then I discovered my VitaClay. It is all the ease of an Instapot without making me scared of the pressure release valve or over overcooking my beans. Best yet, it’s also cooked in unglazed earthenware so it is a return to ancient cooking techniques and flavor.
Use: BEAN10 for 10% off

Microplane:
This is under $20, and the best for all zesting. Garlic, ginger, lemons, limes, spices — I’m Microplaning them. You might say that is not a real verb, but to me it is. I use my Microplane maybe daily? Cinnamon on my potion — microplane, zesty gut bowl, Microplane. You get it.

My Favorite Pan:
So we have one pot, now we have one pan. The All-Clad Copper Core D-5 Skillet is the best purchase I ever made. I bought this pan about 2 years ago as a holiday gift to myself as a way to signal to myself that I was worth nice things. The heat is so even, the sear is amazing, and it is non toxic, and non stick as long as you know how to cook in stainless (comment below if we are looking for an article on that).

The Only Pot I Use:
If I were to only use one pot for the rest of my life it is my Staub Dutch oven, especially in white truffle. The shade is timeless, the cookery is excellent, and I can’t stain the inside with all the turmeric I use. Yes I have tried Le Creuset, yes I own one, I am team Staub. Also, it is on a super sale right not for sub $300 for the 7-quart, so give the gift of love and soup this holiday season.

Blender:
The most common tool I use in my kitchen, maybe even more than a knife, is a blender. For me my blender being stainless steel is essential. I personally don’t love the idea of hot foods and sharp items knocking around in plastic. I own the stainless steel Vitamix Blender but I have found my BEAST blender in stainless steel to also be pretty incredible for about 1/4 of the price.
Use this Link to get 15% off any Beast model

Want more of my favorites? Check out my ShopMy

Lastly…. the question on everyone’s minds:

Are canned beans okay???

Yes. Yes, they are.

What about the PFAs in the can?
To that I say: if we spend every second in fear over our food, how will we ever live? If the thing blocking you from your bean journey is the process of cooking beans and the fear of cans, let me tell you: any beans are better than no beans.

The can will be just fine.

If you aren’t ready to start in the world of dry beans, that is really okay.

So as always, eat beans without rules, without fear, and remember to tell someone that you love them…
But maybe this time by making them a science-backed pot of dried beans.

Xoxo,
Bean Supporter

I gave up the protein bar about 10 years ago when I made my commitment to eating whole foods for health. I switched my on-the-go snacks for crunchy beans, dried fruits, and nuts. But there is something about having a bar, a handheld, contained, easy-to-eat vessel, that makes life on the go that much easier.

On day 27 of only beans, I first created a bean protein bar. Eleven months later, I live to tell the tale.

This isn’t the first iteration; it might be the 10th. Initially, this quest started as savory, and while I’m a huge fan, I’m not sure how ready the world is. So instead, I’ve created for you all the sweet chocolate chip cookie dough bean protein bar.

It is so stable that it has become a world traveler (SF, London, Cambridge, and Paris) and has been enjoyed by many along the way with no knowledge of beans.

What ispired the perfect bean bar you might ask?
This month I was inspired by sustainability. While there are very few areas of my kitchen that have not had a sustainable makeover, I decided to conveniently take bars out of their packages and into our kitchens with the help of the May Sustainability Challenge from my friends at FoodPrint. If you haven’t heard of FoodPrint or are looking for more inspiration outside of my page in sustainable eating, FoodPrint is truly one of the greatest organizations I know, and I’m deeply honored to work with them!

Sustainability Challenge

Recipe:

1.5 cups beans or 1 can, drained and rinsed (I used cannellini beans, but navy beans and chickpeas work great)

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*Properly is in question, as I started all of this by only eating beans for 30 days (no other foods) as a way to gain bean awareness and prevent the chocolate-cheese binge cycle I had entered myself into for a dopamine hit.

While I’ve never been to Japan, this dish comes inspired by the tastes of Japan that I hope to one day be able to experience. Toasted buckwheat mimics the flavors of soba while improving circulation, regulating blood sugar, boosting the gut microbiome, and providing all amino acids (for all of you who are deeply concerned about complete proteins). Red beans, for their nutty sweetness, are often used to fill mochi and buns with antioxidant- and potassium-rich goodness. And finally, sesame, especially black sesame, for bone, skin, and hair health, packed with calcium, magnesium, and vitamin E.

So thank you to Japan man, for not only reinventing how I thought about myself but for changing the future of granola to cut the water footprint, cost, fat, and allergens of nuts while conserving protein and crunch and increasing fiber.

This granola will relieve your stress, make your hair and skin glow, your bones strong, and maybe even cure your heartbreak. Beans truly can do anything.

Recipe:

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Both of my parents are, declaratively, not into pudding. My mother had bad memories of canned pudding from her youth at sleepaway camp, and I think my father had only ever had a snack pack. Need I remind you, beans were my choice, not the ways of my ancestors.

My desire for an ungodly amount of pudding left me feeling shame, but not as much shame as I had for my love of Jell-O… a story for a different day.

This weekend, for my bean-up (my community bean meet-ups, which I should write about soon), I was going to make brownies, so I cooked up a giant batch of black beans before I remembered that there are so many black bean brownie recipes—and even chocolate cakes. I wanted to make something different.

I thought, maybe pudding? I have made plenty of silken tofu chocolate pudding (blend silken tofu, melted chocolate, salt, and vanilla… or cut the melted chocolate and use cocoa powder and maple syrup), but that pudding, while protein-packed, is free of fiber and lacks my one true love—beans in their natural form.

I wanted to make a pudding that contained everything I needed in a complete meal while tasting like my complete comfort.

This pudding was born: free of refined sugar and thickeners, and vegan. You too can have your soy pudding childhood dreams—but out of the plastic snack pack.

One note: I advise a powerful blender or food process for this recipe such as this.

Recipe:
2 cups black beans

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Over the weekend, I returned to Los Angeles, to my parents’ house. The house where I spent my childhood eating out of Barbie Plastic Tupperware that were filled with microwavable Annie’s mac and cheese and had a pantry filled with Oreos, double stuffed, single stuffed, but always classic.

I wasn’t always a bean girl in upbringing, I lived a life of Flamin’ Hot Cheeto taste offs with my best friend, pints of Ben and Jerry’s (but only during ice cream season- the time where the ice cream sales were highest and the coupons were biggest), and a healthy dose of Feast From the East Chinese Chicken Salad, no chicken, extra crunchies, and Bigg Chill Vanilla Custard Frozen yogurt.

Nostalgia in food is an interesting thing, there are scents and sensations we remember and crave to be reunited with once again, and those that we would be thrilled to never look in the eye again (I’m looking at you Lemon Luna Bar).

This weekend I was feeling nostalgia, and decided to make my parents a classic food from my childhood, but rather than no chicken extra crunchies, the Feast from the East Salad got a bean supporter makeover, because, well sometimes I can’t help myself.

Happy National Chickpea Day!

Make some of my favorite Chickpea Recipes:
Crispy Buffalo Chickpea
Miso Maple Dark Chocolate Chickpea Blondies
Teriyaki's Glow Up: Sweet and Spicy Chickpeas
Lemon Feta Chickpeas
Beanut Butter Cups
Chickpea Gnocchi, Chickpea Cereal, and So Many More

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Or my new favorite:
Chinese Chickpea Salad:
Inspired by Feast From the East, but far better for your body and the planet. Count it as Earth Day and National Chickpea Day in one.

Ingredients:

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