Should beans be a major staple in your preps?

[DFBrews]

Made some 15 bean soup the other night and it got me thinking. The simmer time of 3 hours plus or minus seems like it consumes quite a bit of energy for the calories and other nutrients beans provide. If you are on a limited supply of your cooking fuel of choice are there other things that will cook faster and provide more bang for the buck?

[hatidua]

-buy a pressure cooker, your cook time will diminish significantly.

[Great-Kazoo]

Only if you can digest them.

[Tim K]

I agree the solar oven seems like a good way to cook beans. I'd fully intended to build a prototype over the weekend but ran out of ambition. Maybe this weekend. One of the first things I intend to try cooking is beans and rice. In combination, I understand they are a pretty complete source of protein and carbs. If the oven thing works, ill be adding beans.

[DFBrews]

i have a BIG pressure cooker for canning but do not have a small one yet. Solar ovens sound very intriguing

[Goodburbon]

also to consider, if you're going to have a fire going to heat the house, nothing's wasted if you put a pot full of beans on it.

[cofi]

can someone post a link to a GOOD solar oven project?

[Wulf202]

can someone post a link to a GOOD solar oven project?

Scroll down to the solar ovens thread Tim k started

[tmckay2]

Depends what you are prepping for. If you are prepping for increased food costs then yes they are good. If prepping for situations of no running water and lack of fuel sources, ie true shtf situations, then I wouldnt go heavy on beans.

[The Norseman]

OK, before the crash I posted pics of the solar oven my son and I built. It is a "Heaven's Flame" design, made with recycled cardboard, aluminum foil, and a piece of glass.

Here: www.backwoodshome.com/articles/radabaugh30.html

Anasazi beans cook really well in solar ovens, these are sold by Adobe Milling out of Dove Creek, CO

I'll cross post in Tim K's thread...

[KevDen2005]

lentils are a better choice. the cook time is much less. and they dont require pre soaking. Unfortunately, they are as abundant here as pintos. That being said, I have 0ver 600 pounds of pintos stored up. I havent gotten around to building my solar oven yet. But, cooking the beans in the solar oven, requires much less water. and NO fuel.


Where is a good source of lentils in bulk. I haven't seen them at Costco unless I'm missing them.

[Beprepared]

Most (but NOT all) beans can be sprouted, with no fuel expenditure, and 3x the survival nutrition.