So I’m all about “Meatless Monday” and saving money, but I have to have protein or I get cranky and tired. It seems the best non-meat protein option is the musical fruit… beans.
After doing some research (read: listening to my hippie aunt) I heard that a natural cure for gas is cumin seeds.
So I got to work on a recipe that incorporated cumin with the beans to come up with a dish that had fewer musical side-effects.
Ingredients:
- 1 can of black beans
- 1 can of white navy beans
- 1 diced red onion
- 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
- 1 diced avocado
- 1 diced jalapeno
- 1/4 cup of chili-infused olive oil or plain olive oil
- 2 tsp coriander
- 1 tbsp of ground cumin
- 2 tsp of hot paprika or chili powder
- Juice of 1 lime
- Salt
Recipe:
- Start with a can of black beans and a can of white navy beans and wash them really well (this helps with the musical side-effects, too). Add a chopped red onion, a chopped bell pepper, a diced jalapeno pepper, and a diced avocado to a big bowl.
- For the dressing I used 1/4 cup of chili-infused olive oil (but if you don’t have that and still want the heat you can add a second jalapeno to the ingredients list).
- Whisk in red wine vinegar, lime juice and add in the spices.
- Once the dressing is all mixed together toss it with the chopped ingredients and the beans — make sure to mix it well so that cumin gets into every bite.
- If you’d like to cool it down you can replace the jalapeno’s with a sweet pepper and replace the paprika with fresh cilantro.
- Salt to taste.
You can enjoy this right away but if you let it sit overnight its much better because everything melds a little better.
I can’t wait to try this recipe! I love beans of all kinds and am currently working my way through a black bean & beer stew.
I’ve had better luck controlling gas when I prep dried beans and then cooked them. First I do one quick boil for about 30 minutes and then drain the water. Then I fill up with water again and cook until I have the consistency I want. We also serve rice with each meal. I believe the two are supposed to nutritionally complement each other AND help with gas.
If you’re trying to adapt to beans and lentils: Chewing fennel seeds every day is supposed to be a home remedy to building up your digestive strength. Mine’s better than it has been but I also do it because I think they’re super tasty!
I would like to comment as a sometimes vegetarian sometimes meat eater (only like 10% of the time) my farts smell like 50x worse when I eat meat versus when I don’t. Maybe that’s because I probably don’t have as many meat digesting enzymes and so it’s bad when I eat meat?
But either way you should let us know about the cumin thing…
Bean-loving vegan here. If using canned beans, rinse them well with cold water before using them. This makes a big difference in reducing gas also.
*looks nervously around for cameras* OBH&L, how did you know I had a rather bland bean salad in my lunchbag today? And that I love cumin?
Yeah, apparently if you soak the beans first, it reduced the gas-causing agents. Is that a thing?
I am a Nutrition grad student and see a lot of good comments here. Rinsing canned beans and soaking/ rinsing dried beans gets rid of a majority of the enzymes responsible for gas. Also- for another protein rich meatless option try quinoa- especially sprouted (but you don’t have to do that to get benefits). I have done bean salads over quinoa frequently to make my protein/ meat loving husband happy- he loves it and likes that it feels “clean” compared to meat laden dishes. Covert conversion successful!
<3 Beans, i have been vege all my life and i SWEAR i dont get as gassy as my carnivore friends. Im pretty sure your digestive system adjusts to this kind of thing, just like whenever i have tried meat things it has given me a terrible tummy ache.
Also, try dried soya mince. It really low in 'bad' fats, super cheap and easy to make very tasty. Just add it and stock to your bolognase sauce or whatever, it re-hydrates itself so as long as what you are cooking is nom, it will soak up the nom-ness!
My carnivore husband loves it too.
Totally went off on one there, sorry!