Register for the Next 2 McDougall Webinars

Thursday, April 21, 2016 at 11 a.m. PST

Title: Making the Change – Why people resist cost-free health

Description:  In this live webinar, Dr. McDougall, MD, will discuss why people are hesitant to change their diet even if they will save thousands of dollars. Q&A will follow.

Register Now

---

Thursday, April 28, 2016 at 11 a.m. PST

Title: Cardiologists Acting Criminally

Description:  In this live webinar, Dr. McDougall, MD, will discuss why some cardiologists withhold life-saving information from their patients. Q&A will follow.

Register Now

Garbanzo Stew

Here's another that I found in the drafts folder. Perhaps I was waiting to post until I copied the picture from my camera to the computer, but I don't see a photo of it anywhere.

I *did* wind up making this again with a different brand of beans instead of Rancho Gordo and it tasted fine. I didn't have luck with most of the beans I got from there and quit the bean club just last week. Others have had great luck with their beans, but I know I'm not the only one because someone on Dr. Fuhrman's forums recently wrote the same thing, how the beans were kind of tasteless. Are we getting bad batches? Is it the way we cook them? I've done with and without soaking, slow cooker, stovetop and pressure cooker, and they all tasted the same - tasteless. Who knows what the problem is.

Anyway, on with the post.

~*~

This Mary McDougall recipe is an oldie. I remember first seeing it back in the 1990's, and it's appeared in the newsletter at least once. The copy I saved is dated 2008 from a "cheap recipes" newsletter listing.

Garbanzo Stew

This is another of our old favorites, made with inexpensive pantry staples.  Make it on the stove or in a slow cooker.  Garbanzo beans require a long cooking time to be really tender, so plan accordingly.

Preparation Time:  15 minutes (overnight soaking needed)
Cooking Time:  4 hours (Slow cooker:  8-10 hours)
Servings:  10

2 cups uncooked garbanzo beans (chick peas)
8-10 cups water
2 potatoes, chunked
2 carrots, thickly sliced
2 stalks celery, thickly sliced
2 onions, chopped
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

Soak the garbanzos overnight in water to cover.  Drain.  Place the garbanzos and 8 cups water in a large pot.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook for 2 hours.  Add remaining ingredients and cook an additional 2 hours, adding more water if necessary.

Hints:  To make in a slow cooker, combine the soaked, drained beans with the remaining ingredients (use only 8 cups of water) and cook for 8-10 hours on high.

Instead of the Goya or HFS's bulk bin beans, I used the bag of chickpeas that came with the last Rancho Gordo Bean Club order from October. I sorted and rinsed them as I usually do with garbanzos, and the next morning did the rinse and fresh water and cook routine. Hand chopped all the veggies during the last hour of cooking, adding a third of everything, including the soy sauce. Another 2 hours on the stove at a nice simmer, turned it off about a half hour before dinnertime so it cools down a bit, set the table and then served.

It tasted like . . .

nothing.

The beans had no taste, the carrots and celery were tasteless, the potatoes tasted like soggy potatoes. My husband said it's just beans and veggies floating in water.

He added a very generous amount of sriracha sauce to his bowl, while I went the salt and pepper route. It helped a lot.

I used veggies the same packages of carrots and celery earlier this week and they tasted fine. I've had taters from the same bag for breakfast and/or lunch this week and they, too, tasted fine. Was it the Rancho Gordo beans? So far I'm very underwhelmed with their beans so far and plan to cancel my membership after the January delivery. They charge way too much for beans that taste no different than the buck a bag - or less - Goya beans.

I have a 5 pound bag of garbanzo beans from the Amazon sale still waiting to be used and figured this would probably be the right meal to use them on during the winter, but now I'm having my doubts. I will try it at least once more, using those Palouse beans next time, and hopefully they have more taste than these did and rescue this dish. If not, it's back to Goya beans for a fraction of the price and a few hearty shakes of Mrs. Dash or McCormick salt-free seasonings before I serve this dish.

Simple Yellow Split Pea Soup

Here's another from Mary McDougall and the McDougall newsletter article Cheap Recipes. It's the Simple Split Pea Soup recipe that I changed ingredients around to make Yellow Split Pea Soup.



Simple Split Pea Soup

Preparation Time:  15 minutes
Cooking Time:  1 hour
Resting Time:  15 minutes (optional for thickening)
Servings:  10

2 cups green split peas
8 cups water
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2-3 potatoes, chunked
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons parsley flakes
1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Place the peas and water in a large soup pot.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.  Add the remaining ingredients, mix well and bring to a boil again.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 40 minutes, until vegetables are tender.  Remove from heat and let rest for 15 minutes to thicken before serving, if desired.  Season with a bit of sea salt before serving (optional).

Hints:  This will thicken even more as it cools, and will be very thick if refrigerated until the next day.  This is wonderful in a bowl with some fresh baked bread, or ladle it over baked potatoes or brown rice.

Variation:  For a delicious Curried Split Pea Soup, leave out all of the seasonings in the above recipe and add 2-3 tablespoons curry powder and ¼ cup nutritional yeast.

You will likely have the ingredients for this tasty soup already in your cupboards and pantry, so no need for an extra trip to the market for supplies.

I got the idea from Chef AJ and her own yellow split pea recipe. Just substitute yellow split peas for the green and sweet potatoes for the russets. How simple! And it's a nice change of taste than green split pea soup all the time.

Even quicker than the above directions  - just toss the ingredients into a pressure cooker and cook it up on Manual 10 minutes. It's your choice if you want to let it sit for natural release or release it as soon as it's finished. I usually press the power button when it's done then come back to it about a half hour later.At that point it's cool enough to blend without burning myself if it splashes a bit.

We don't like chunky pea soups around here so I always take an immersion blender to them as soon as they've cooled down a bit. It's also because I'm too lazy/tired/in pain to stand at the counter chopping my veggies into tiny pieces. If it's a toss up between tossing the raw veggies into a food processor to cut or blending the whole soup with an immersion blender so even the peas are blended, the immersion blender wins every time.