White beans – a character sketch 🙂

Many tend to underestimate this pale, whitish bean.

It's as if the general feeling is that most of us skip over it on the supermarket shelves, and it gets lost between bags of everyday red lentils and its cousin – the exotic red bean.

You'll be happy to hear that the white bean is the bad girl of the neighborhood. Why, you ask?

Because a cup of cooked white beans (180 grams) contains 17 grams of protein, one gram of fat, and is rich in iron, magnesium, and calcium. No wonder in England, for example, they love to start the morning with baked white beans in sauce on toast.

I've included 3 easy, vegan, and delicious recipes you can make with white beans – the bad girl of the block.

• In these recipes, I used frozen beans and cooked them for about 10 minutes in boiling water.

You can also, and it's recommended, use dried white beans: all you need is to soak them overnight in plenty of water and cook them with a teaspoon of baking soda for about half an hour until tender.

It is not recommended at all to use canned white beans.

Remember that next time you're at the supermarket, huh? :)

White Bean and Sweet Potato Patties in Cashew Curry Sauce

Yields 10 ping-pong sized patties

1. 1 cup cooked white beans
2. 1/2 cup cooked sweet potato
3. 1/2 cup tofu
4. 1 tablespoon coconut oil
5. A pinch of salt

1. 2 tablespoons cashew cream (cashews soaked overnight and then ground into a paste)
2. 1 tablespoon coconut oil for frying
3. 1 teaspoon curry powder from the spice aisle in the supermarket
4. A pinch of coriander seeds
5. 2 tablespoons unsweetened soy milk
6. Crushed garlic
7. 1 teaspoon soy sauce
8. A few drops of sesame oil
9. A little grated ginger

What to do?

Blend all patty ingredients thoroughly in a food processor until a stable, sticky mixture is formed.

Bake at medium heat (180 degrees Celsius) for about 15 minutes until the patties crack on top. Remove and cool.

Prepare the sauce

Heat the oil in a pan over low heat and add the coriander seeds, curry powder, and ginger for a minute or two just to open up the spices. Add the garlic, cashew cream, soy milk, soy sauce, crushed garlic, and a few drops of sesame oil and mix everything until a uniform sauce is obtained.

If the sauce is too thick, you can add a little water to thin it down.

Place the patties in the sauce and serve hot with a garnish of cilantro leaves and spicy chili.

Nutritionist Tami Adeeb adds:

To Nutritionist Tami Adeeb's Facebook page

Sweet White Bean Salad

1. 1/2 cup cooked white beans
2. 1/2 cup cooked sweet potato cubes
3. 2 large blanched kale leaves
4. 1 sliced nectarine
5. A small bunch of mint leaves
6. 1/2 red onion
7. 4 Brazil nuts

1. 1 tablespoon olive oil with a little lemon and 1/2 teaspoon silan (date syrup)
2. Salt/pepper