Thursday, January 13, 2011

The Kidney Bean Salad

Kidney beans are a good source of cholestrol-lowering fiber, they're cheap, and are available all year round. You do have to wash them well, and then soak in water for at least 8-12 hours. But then the upside is that you dont need to cook them! They look soft to the touch after an overnight soak, but start to cook them and they will actually harden and take a hell of a time to be completely cooked. Why bother cooking at all?! They're perfectly edible raw.

The Kidney Bean Salad

Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 cups of kidney beans, presoaked overnight
  • 1 cup carrots
  • 2 cups green cabbage
  • 2 cups green peppers
  • 1 teaspoon curry powder
  • 1 lime
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil
  • 4 leaves of sage
  • Handful of mint leaves
  • Salt, per taste
To make:
Drain the kidney beans.
Chop your veggies fairly small.
Mix in with the kidney beans.

Add the salt, curry powder, lime juice, sage and mint leaves, along with the oil.
Let it marinate for an hour or so before eating.

19 comments:

Stephanie said...

I love kidney beans! This looks like a very healthy and delicious colorful salad. I've never added curry powder to salad, but that's a great idea. Thanks for the inspiration!

Tiffany said...

I had no idea that you didn't have to cook kidney beans if you soak them! That's awesome!!

Kate @ Diethood.com said...

Such a beautiful salad! I always use kidney beans in my salads and soups - they are so good.

Cakewhiz said...

I like the addition of kidney beans to a salad and topping it off with lime juice must have given it that extra tangy flavor.

Btw, I really admire how you incorporate so many raw veggies into your diet. I wish i could do that...

Bubbe Bites said...

What a wonderfully colorful salad. I need something healthy after my christmas indulgences

Patricia said...

FAB blog!! I will be back. I made a raw salad on my blog and it was by far the biggest hit in terms of recipes. Awesome salad here. I'd like to explore raw eating more and more. The only issue is the protein. I find it difficult to find raw recipes that contain protein so that exists in each meal. I'm off to explore your blog a wee bit more...
Cupcake
www.thefamily-table.blogspot.com
ps thank you for your efforts the blog is wonderful

JL goes Vegan said...

I'm new to "higher raw" and was missing beans. This is such great news that I can just soak beans and use them! Are they hard to digest? I'll definitely try this salad!

Luke @ WellJourn said...

Wow this looks really good and healthy!

Raw_Girl said...

@JL goes Vegan:
I was looking to cook the beans too, but felt them soft to the touch (not knife in butter soft, but still chewy), so figured why waste the time cooking them?!
There's some stuff online that beans have mild toxins and shouldnt be eaten raw - but then tons of raw foodists have all sorts of grains and beans raw by sprouting and such, so I figure its alright. They are a bit harder to digest and with any beans, you may find yourself a bit gassy. :)

Christina-Marie Wright said...

This is such a beautiful salad - I love the bright colors!

We use a lot of kidney beans around here, and I'm always looking for ways to dress them up in different dishes because the kids love them so much.

Bookmarked!

HappyGuy said...

Please don't kill anyone by suggesting that red kidney beans can be eaten raw:

"RED KIDNEY BEAN POISONING


Red Kidney Bean Poisoning is an illness caused by a toxic agent, Phytohaemagglutnin (Kidney Bean Lectin). This toxic agent is found in many species of beans, but it is in highest concentration in red kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). The unit of toxin measure is the hemagglutinating unit (hau). Raw kidney beans contain from 20,000 to 70,000 hau, while fully cooked beans contain from 200 to 400 hau. White kidney beans, another variety of Phaseolus vulgaris, contain about one-third the amount of toxin as the red variety; broad beans (Vicia faba) contain 5 to 10% the amount that red kidney beans contain.

As few as 4 or 5 beans can bring on symptoms. Onset of symptoms varies from between 1 to 3 hours. Onset is usually marked by extreme nausea, followed by vomiting, which may be very severe. Diarrhea develops somewhat later (from one to a few hours), and some persons report abdominal pain. Some persons have been hospitalized, but recovery is usually rapid (3 - 4 h after onset of symptoms) and spontaneous.

The syndrome is usually caused by the ingestion of raw, soaked kidney beans, either alone or in salads or casseroles. As few as four or five raw beans can trigger symptoms. Several outbreaks have been associated with "slow cookers" or crock pots, or in casseroles which had not reached a high enough internal temperature to destroy the glycoprotein lectin. It has been shown that heating to 80 degrees C. may potentiate the toxicity five-fold, so that these beans are more toxic than if eaten raw. In studies of casseroles cooked in slow cookers, internal temperatures often did not exceed 75 degrees C..

All persons, regardless of age or gender, appear to be equally susceptible; the severity is related only to the dose ingested.

No major outbreaks have occurred in the U.S. Outbreaks in the U.K. are far more common, and may be attributed to greater use of dried kidney beans in the U.K., or better physician awareness and reporting.

* Undercooked beans may be more toxic than raw beans.

Sources: FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition.
BAD BUG BOOK (Foodborne Pathogenic Microorganisms and Natural Toxins Handbook)."

Raw_Girl said...

Whoa, Happy Guy

Couldnt you just have posted a link here instead of a one pager?

Anyway - I dont believe in the F*D*A...the same FDA that says people need a certain amount of dairy and animal protein in their diets *eye roll* I'd also like to see the percentage of people who actually get this kind of poisoning....

Besides - I am not a doctor and everyone knows that. I'm just saying *I* tried them raw...and lo and behold, I'm very much alive and haven't suffered any poisoning or side effects.

HappyGuy said...

I don't trust links as they don't work when pages become unavailable.

You would rather be poisoned by a known toxin in raw red kidney beans because the FDA published the data suggesting that they be cooked?? That's a typical raw-foodist mistake, that I've also made in the past and have suffered greatly because of it (I was poisoned by fiddleheads because I didn't cook them).

Just do the research and protect your health.

Raw_Girl said...

No, thats not what i am saying. I just dont have that hyper attitude towards food and what may lurk beneath etc. I abhor people who use hand sanitizer - esp on kids. I'd much rather try something out, get sick -admittedly minorly ill, dont want to die! - and move on. Like this this post:
http://rawgirlinmumbai.blogspot.com/2010/12/ah-well-you-live-and-learn-or-youre.html

And, really, has anyone ever been killed by rkb poisoning?

Sorry with my tone in my last comment. I didnt know you were vegan as well.

Anonymous said...

http://offthecontrary.blogspot.com/2006/05/science-fact-dangers-of-kidney-beans.html
Scroll down and read the comments to see what some folks suffered from eating improperly cooked red kidney beans. If you want to eat raw beans choose something other than rkb.

"Sorry with my tone in my last comment. I didnt know you were vegan as well." - Good to know you know when you're being rude, not so good that taking a rude tone is fine so long as the other is a non-vegan.

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