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Spilling The Beans: Cooking And Baking With Beans and Grains Everyday
Learning to cook delicious meals using healthy ingredients is a snap in this new cookbook. With humorous anecdotes and current factoids on health, Julie and Sue explain everything from the truth behind beans and flatulence to demystifying the simple process of soaking and cooking dried beans and lentils. At a time when eating foods that are as good for the environment as they are for us is a growing concern, whole, healthy, high-fibre foods such as beans and grains are in high demand. Helpful info from gastroentrologist Dr. Guido Van Rosendaal also highlights the physical benefits of incorporating more legumes and whole grains into our everyday diets. Spilling the Beans covers it all, from how to cook up beans and grains, to how to add healthy fibre to your favorite desserts. An entire section on baking delicious desserts with beans amps up cakes, bars, and cookies with flavour and fiber.
272 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2011
3 people are currently reading
84 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 11, 2013
Allow me to introduce to you two important works in the highly niche genre of bean cookbooks: by Crescent Dragonwagon and Spilling the Beans by Julie Van Rosendaal.
Both books are a good 3/4-inch thick and contain enough bean recipes to keep a dedicated cook knee-deep in trying out new bean recipes for several months.
Bean by Bean is a textbook on all things bean. No photos. Most recipes feature beans as the centerpiece. The reader is encouraged to start with the bean in dried form. And Bean by Bean has been created as a particular resource for those with dietary restrictions, (recipes are coded as vegetarian, vegan and/or gluten-free for at-a-glance browsing). Any time meat is included in a recipe, it is done so almost apologetically.
Spilling the Beans, on the other hand, comes across less like a textbook, and more like an issue of "Real Simple" magazine, highlighting many recipes using full-page photos. All recipes are written assuming the reader will be using canned beans. And beans are sometimes a more subtle element in several of the dishes. Think , except, with beans instead of veggies. We're talking pureed beans in our pancake batter, folks. Spilling the Beans takes a more traditional approach in balancing meat vs. vegetarian. No effort is made to highlight recipes for vegans or gluten-free eaters, though they do exist.
For all you WIC mommas out there, looking to use up 16 cans of beans each month, I highly recommend both of these books. However, hands-down, Spilling the Beans wins the "Bean-Book-That-Jen-Will-Purchase-in-2013" Award. Aside from wooing me with its attractive photos and quickie canned-bean appeal, the clincher was an entire chapter on Baked Goods. Black Bean Brownies, here I come!
--Jen
Both books are a good 3/4-inch thick and contain enough bean recipes to keep a dedicated cook knee-deep in trying out new bean recipes for several months.
Bean by Bean is a textbook on all things bean. No photos. Most recipes feature beans as the centerpiece. The reader is encouraged to start with the bean in dried form. And Bean by Bean has been created as a particular resource for those with dietary restrictions, (recipes are coded as vegetarian, vegan and/or gluten-free for at-a-glance browsing). Any time meat is included in a recipe, it is done so almost apologetically.
Spilling the Beans, on the other hand, comes across less like a textbook, and more like an issue of "Real Simple" magazine, highlighting many recipes using full-page photos. All recipes are written assuming the reader will be using canned beans. And beans are sometimes a more subtle element in several of the dishes. Think , except, with beans instead of veggies. We're talking pureed beans in our pancake batter, folks. Spilling the Beans takes a more traditional approach in balancing meat vs. vegetarian. No effort is made to highlight recipes for vegans or gluten-free eaters, though they do exist.
For all you WIC mommas out there, looking to use up 16 cans of beans each month, I highly recommend both of these books. However, hands-down, Spilling the Beans wins the "Bean-Book-That-Jen-Will-Purchase-in-2013" Award. Aside from wooing me with its attractive photos and quickie canned-bean appeal, the clincher was an entire chapter on Baked Goods. Black Bean Brownies, here I come!
--Jen
September 21, 2022
Every recipe I've tried my family has loved. The food in every picture looks delicious and I can't wait to try them all. In my recent rash of recipe book buying, this shares top place as my most favorite along with America's Test Kitchen Mediterranean Insta Pot.
January 9, 2024
Beans are the best :)
September 1, 2024
Recipes that aren’t too complicated. Good soup and lentil recipes, but not for me when it’s 100° out.
December 24, 2012
There are at least a few beans recipes for everyone in this book, and for me there were so many I wanted to try that I decided to buy it after having it for weeks from the library. The recipes are very diverse, some with meat, some without, some with veggies, some without.
Even desserts, which I don't think I'll ever try but who knows? I've already changed my mashed potatoes recipe to a mashed white bean / potatoes recipe from this cookbook because I loved it. I'd never had bet on that.
Even desserts, which I don't think I'll ever try but who knows? I've already changed my mashed potatoes recipe to a mashed white bean / potatoes recipe from this cookbook because I loved it. I'd never had bet on that.
January 31, 2014
Have you ever found a cookbook that you actually used on a regular basis? This might be the one. This is the most-used cookbook on my shelf and my hands-down favourite. There's not a bad recipe in there. Beans are economical, nutritious, and a great way to add fibre to your diet. The deserts are the best - try the Citrus-Bliss Pound Cake. You won't regret it.
October 5, 2012
For anyone who wishes to eat healthier, who would like to eat beans in delicious meals (including breakfast!), for those want to save some money and still eat well, and for the experienced as well as beginner (me!) cook.
The book is beautifully illustrated with easy to follow directions.
The book is beautifully illustrated with easy to follow directions.
February 24, 2013
A good book but not enough stand-out recipes and many, many variations on recipes you've seen 100 other places. If I wanted to "sneak" legumes into more of my baking I would probably be more interested.
Want to read
July 15, 2012"Beans, beans...are good for your heart..." T.B.A. :D
January 1, 2013
Nice salads and hot side dishes.
January 14, 2013
Why call a book devoted to grain-based recipes "Spilling the Beans"? Recipes were what you'd expect to find.
September 9, 2013
My new favorite cookbook.
January 15, 2014
From the library. Very good recipes, made the upside-down pear gingerbread. Many good ideas for incorporating beans into baked goods.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
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