Convenience Food: Soaking Legumes, Grains and Making Yummy Dairy Products!
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It has been almost two years since I have written a non-Finest Foodies Friday post on Friday on this blog! So I decided to post something simple, yet profound (for me, in any case). A few months ago I posted about Breakfast being the most important meal of the day. What I like to call my “Breakfast of Champions”. In that post I mentioned that I soaked my grains or grasses (buckwheat/quinoa) for 24 hours before cooking them in my breakfast. The post also explains my reasons behind soaking. I got a lot of comments about how good the breakfast looked, but about how it was too time consuming with the soaking for most people to make everyday.
I have wanted to write a post addressing this for a while, so yesterday as I was doing my weekly soaking and dairy product making, Roberto reminded me that I should post about it. So here I am. Basically I am here to say that you can soak your grains, grasses and legumes and make dairy products on a weekly basis, without taking much time out of your busy schedule. In fact, doing this helps you to save time during the week, because you have food ready to go. As I was telling Amy the other day, that this is my idea of convenience food. You can check out her time saving efforts here.
Basically prep time for getting beans and grains soaking is about as long as it takes to boil a cup of water and mix it with apple cider vinegar and more water to cover. Then it does the work itself over 24 hours. If you want to take it further you can cook them to almost al dente, and then freeze them for throwing into quick meals later in the week. The beauty of that is that while they are cooking, you can be doing other things. You can even cook them in your crock pot, and you don’t even have to be home!
The same can be said for dairy products. Every week I make yogurt, kefir and some kind of cheese. If you let your milk come to room temperature before cooking it to make these items, the whole process takes about 5 minutes. Maybe 15 for yogurt. Then you let it sit for 12-24 hours, while you are doing other things.
This week I made creme fraiche, which is a delicious version of sour cream! It is well worth the extra few minutes in taste as well as health because you can monitor exactly what goes into it.
All you need is 2 days – and really only about an hour or two on both of those days of actual labor. If you don’t have that much time, you could break it up into ½ hour over several days. Between yesterday and the day before, I made 8 cups of homemade turkey stock in my crockpot. I also soaked chick peas, buckwheat, 2 kinds of rice and oatmeal AND I made yogurt, kefir and creme fraiche. If you can spare 2 hours a week, you can do this too! It is fun, easy, a way to save money, and much better tasting than what you can buy at the store in cans, as well as better for your health! So try it today!
To get you started on the benefits of soaking beans, grains, grasses and making your own stock, please check out: Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats
If you want to get into making dairy products, please check out: Home Cheese Making: Recipes for 75 Delicious Cheeses
Have fun and enjoy!!!!
Elle - December 4, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Such great time-saving tips, Jenn! I’m very impressed that you make your own cheese every week!
Lyra - December 4, 2009 at 2:15 pm
This sounds like so much fun! I wish I could eat dairy. I’m going to have to get back into cashew cheeze making! <3
Kristina - December 4, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Yum! I’ve often considered making my own yogurt, but I’m not sure it’s worth the effort/cost. Do you have a recipe for it somewhere?
The Leftover Queen - December 4, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Hi Kristina! Thanks for your comment. The recipe for yogurt is in my Breakfast of Champions post. Persoanlly, I think it is totally worth it to make your own, as I can make a batch of kefir AND a batch of yogurt with one 2 quart of organic milk, and for me, I feel the effort is very little.
Amy @ Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free - December 4, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Love this post!! I saw it on Twitter and clicked and was so happy to find that you linked to me! 🙂
I am going to compile a big round-up of time saving recipes and methods that will help people eat healthier before the next Once A Month Cooking day. I’d love to include this. I hear all of the time that people don’t have time to eat healthier and I know differently. So, I’m on a mission to change the way people think about eating healthy.
I am getting ready to cook some black beans I soaked last night so I can freeze them. I followed your lead – cooked and drained – and we had them last night in a stew. They tasted fabulously fresh – worlds better than canned beans.
Happy Cook - December 4, 2009 at 3:04 pm
I am sure gonna check the home cheese mking link.
One of my Indian blog friend soak large quantity of legumes like channa, or kidney beans etc…….and she freeze them in portions, she swears it works and there is no need of saying I forgot to soak.
I have not tried myself, but she says it works like a dream.
Deborah Dowd - December 4, 2009 at 3:48 pm
What great ideas Jenn! Nice to take time out to try something new at holiday time. How can I let Foodie Blogroll members know that I am giving away a pair of Whooga ugg boots for Christmas- leave a comment and the drawing is next Thursday!
dawn - December 4, 2009 at 4:08 pm
very nice Jenn. I need to make my own creme fraiche…I use it a lot and it is so expensive in the stores. Love that Emile H. dish.
Marillyn @ just-making-noise - December 4, 2009 at 4:15 pm
This is great!! Love your pictures :o)
ValleyWriter - December 4, 2009 at 4:19 pm
I’ve started making a big batch of steel cut oatmeal every Sunday night, because I don’t have time every morning to cook them for 30-40 minutes. These are more great ideas for weekday/night time savers!
Natasha - 5 Star Foodie - December 4, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Excellent! I really do need to try to make some homemade cheese & creme fraiche, sounds wonderful!
Pam - December 4, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Oh, that sounds so easy…going to check this out…thanks Jenn!
Enjoy!
Bellini Valli - December 4, 2009 at 5:00 pm
I am not working at the moment so have no excuses for not making the effort Jenn. I am sure that the storebought varieties do not compare in taste either!
pam - December 4, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Great post! I try to do as many of these things as I can. I’ve really got to try the cheesemaking.
Jan - December 5, 2009 at 3:58 am
I really must have a go at cheesemaking! I love your creme fraiche.
Peter G - December 5, 2009 at 11:09 am
As I said to you in San Francisco last month I need to get more educated in the soaking process and I loved your original post on it. Thanks for continuing with this series and reminding me of the process.
Natashya - December 5, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Wonderful! This is a very informative post. I make much of my beans/legumes, stocks and broths, and start my yogurts and cheeses.. all in the crockpot. I now have three, they are invaluable! I have opened up all the links you have provided, now I will go check them out!
we are never full - December 5, 2009 at 3:49 pm
i’ve always been frustrated that creme fraiche seems to be difficult to get here in the states. it is so delicious and works much better than sour cream when appropriate. i will totally try to make my own.
RPW - December 5, 2009 at 11:11 pm
I always say that I am good at leaving food on my counter, so that means I should be good at making things like kefir, yogurt, kombucha, etc., and soaking beans, oats, etc. My only problem sometimes is remembering to do it!
For the person who said that they can’t have dairy, yogurt and kefir made like this is often tolerated well by those who are lactose intolerant. Also, my family has dairy allergies and lactose intolerance, and we have found we don’t react to raw milk (nonpasteurized). It turns out that a lot of the reason we react to milk is that we have killed the things in milk that help us to digest it. Lactase is still there to help us digest lactose, and enzymes are still present to help us digest the milk proteins. I’d consider giving it a try. Look at http://www.realmilk.com
Ivy - December 6, 2009 at 5:59 am
After making yoghurt last week, now I may attempt to make sour cream and creme fraiche as well.
kat - December 6, 2009 at 10:46 am
Such great tips Jenn! We got another interesting one from Jamie at Rancho Gordo while we were in San Francisco. He soaks & cooks his beans all ahead of time & stores them in mason jars until he needs them in recipes. Then they are as easy as canned beans.
The Leftover Queen - December 6, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I do that too – except I freeze them. It really is a great way to get ahead!
The Leftover Queen - December 6, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Thanks for those suggestions, and for your comment!
Erica - December 6, 2009 at 7:37 pm
What a great post!!!! I love homemade cheese and crema fresca (Creme fraiche).
Arlene (MOM) - December 7, 2009 at 11:43 am
I actually went to the store in search of Buckwheat to do the soaking thing and all I could find was flour and cereal with buckwheat in it but not the grains. So disappointed. But I definitely like the idea of this method and think it a great way to add some good fiber to the diet. I do the soak thing withbeans though and find it a big help.
Judy - December 7, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Great ideas Jenn. Now can you come to my house every Sunday and kinda do this for me???
Jeff - December 9, 2009 at 11:47 am
I am constantly amazed by the amount of people who think this stuff is impossible to make or it is time consuming. My mom makes her own yogurt and it takes little to no effort.
Fresh creme fraiche rocks and a great way to get rid of excess buttermilk from making your own butter with leftover cream.
Everything has a use and awesome write up!
p.s. homemade stock is awesome. We end up making batches of it and shove it in a freezer. The ingredients are dang near free since we already paid for the bones when we bought the animal and the rest is stuff that is already floating around the house.