We need your help on a top-secret project -- from a place where food52 recipes rarely go: the bulk bin aisle.
Sure, when you think of food52, creme fraiche and butter probably come to mind before adzuki beans and chia seeds (say it with us: ch-ch-ch-chia!), so we want to bulk up our beans, grains and seeds recipes. And (who knew?) they're inexpensive, healthy and tasty, if you know what to do with them -- and we know you do.
The details:
You have until midnight next Tuesday, March 22nd to add as many recipes to the site as you like highlighting any of the ingredients below (be sure to include the name of the bean, grain or seed in your recipe title so we can find it easily) -- this isn't an official contest, but other fun prizes will be involved. To upload a recipe, just go to the Recipes section of the site here and click "Add New Recipe."
Then on Thursday, March 24th, we'll announce Editors' Pick candidates, which you can claim in normal EP dibs-calling fashion (see here for details) and you'll have till Tuesday, March 29th at 5pm to send in your reviews to editors@food52.com. Then on Thursday, March 31st, we'll announce all the Editors' Picks and prizes.
Got all that? Now go hit the bins!
RICE
Bhutanese red
Mekong flower
brown germinated
long grain brown
short brown
sweet brown
medium brown
sweet brown
medium brown
purple tai
Madagascar pink
volcano
jasmine tai
OTHER GRAINS
hulled barley
roasted buckwheat
oat groats
sprouted quinoa
kamut berries
red quinoa
black quinoa
black barley
amaranth
LEGUMES
anasazi beans
adzuki beans
black eyed peas
dried fava beans
baby lima beans
mung beans
soy beans
yellow split peas
split green peas
sprouted mung beans
sprouted green lentils
SEEDS
chia seeds
hemp seeds
alfalfa seeds
whole flax
golden flax
73 Comments on Hit the bulk bins!:
How about some help for those of us who never, or almost never, use these ingredients? Maybe a list somewhere which describes the taste, texture, etc. of these in the recipe notes. I'd like to try some but with my Danish/German background I've only used dried green peas to make pea soup.
I think that is a fabulous idea!
Here's a good source of information:
http://www.foodsubs.com/Beans.html
This is the page for dried beans, and you can use the search for a single item or a category. It's been helpful for me in trying to straighten out the dried and fresh chilis.
http://www.foodsubs.com/Beans.html
Rebecca Wood is a pioneer in using and knowing about beans, grains and seeds. She has a "Whole Foods Encyclopedia" and "The Splendid Grain" -- see the home page on the website for info and links to the books, and a search box for more. She taught me (on the site) to cook amaranth -- it was delicious.
When I began learning about the lesser known foods, I took books out of the library and soaked up the information and recipes, along with an understanding of their backgrounds. I've been doing this for over 40 years, but you have the advantage of the internet at your fingertips. If you read and experiment, you'll know how and why and about, too.
Here's a favorite blog, that has separate posts for many, many pantry ingredients. Use this page to find many of the beans, grains and seeds, or use the search for more. Each entry gives interesting, sometimes funny, information about the item, and a recipe follows.
http://www.theperfectpantry.com/2009/06/pantry-ingredients-cupboard.html
I'm headed to add a recipe that has 5 lentils - some from list some not. Works?
Kristen is the Senior Editor of food52.
added about 1 year agoAbsolutely! Just be sure to include the names of the different kinds of lentils in the ingredients list.
Can we use the additional tag 'bulk bin' or bulk bin project so that you can access all the recipes realted to this in one shot & then sift thru for the individual ingredients?
Kristen is the Senior Editor of food52.
added about 1 year agoThis is a great suggestion! We'll see what we can do, since there have been a fair number of recipes submitted already.
I'm going ahead & giving my recipes an additional tag 'bulk bin'
Is there an upper limit to how many recipes you can submit for the bulk bin project... I'm going ballistic here..
Kristen is the Senior Editor of food52.
added about 1 year agoNope -- go nuts!
since everyone here seems to be pushing for their personal favorite lentils... may I add Black gram lentils ( Known as Urad dal in Hindi, they're from the same family as the green mung bean except way more glutinous, with a very meaty aroma when toasted)
Spelt or teff would be great to consider, or a Thai coral red jasmine rice? Here's to hoping.
Kristen is the Senior Editor of food52.
added about 1 year agoAny bean or grain is fair game for EP nominations, but we're especially looking for the ones listed above.
Lots of lentils feature in my daily cooking - black eyed beans, split pigeon peas, all manner of mung dals (green whole, green split, and yellow), whole Bengal gram, split Bengal gram....however, most of my recipes involve pre-soaking (usually night before) and pressure cooking the whole lentils before incorporating them in recipes. This is how I've learned to work with them, in the way that they are commonly cooked in India where I'm from. Is it ok to submit recipes that ask for pressure cooking the lentils? I always wonder if pressure cooking is a dying art, and wonder how people cook the "tougher" lentils.
Merrill is a co-founder of food52.
added about 1 year agoPressure cooking is great!
Did I miss it? I'm not seeing wild rice on the list.
How about chana dal? I've never seen it in the bulk bins but bought some at the Indian grocery for my Upma with Coconut Chutney, already posted. They are split desi beans.
Any chance that wehani rice and volcano rice are one and the same?
Kristen is the Senior Editor of food52.
added about 1 year agoNot sure (sorry!), but they don't seem to be. Based searching both kinds on Google images, the wehani appears uniformly brown while the volcano has lots of lighter grains blended in.
Thank you, Kristen! I found similar information, but I thought I'd ask anyway.
Is wehani rice at all close to volcano rice?
Do the grains need to remain intact, or can we stick them in a blender/grinder and chop them up and/or turn them into flour, for example.
Merrill is a co-founder of food52.
added about 1 year agoYou can do anything you like with them, but the idea is to start from the whole grain (re: your question below).
I know you include flax seeds, but what about flax meal? Is that okay?
I was trying out a recipe with dried peas (yellow) and the finished product was a success, would it be ok to add this in the recipe list even though they weren't 'split' technically?
Merrill is a co-founder of food52.
added about 1 year agoSure, go ahead! (See our response below to healthierkitchen.)
First experiment with roasted buckwheat did not go well - too mushy as it cooked much more quickly than I expected. Will persevere.
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
added about 1 year agoYou guys are the best. Thanks so much for your incredible enthusiasm! Can't wait to see the recipes -- this is going to be great.
So I brought this list with me to the store and I'm filling up bags with a little of this and a little of that, and someone must've thought I looked like a real cook because she asked me the difference between wild rice and brown rice, and I go into this thing about wild rice is really grass, and then I made her sniff some different rices. Then a guy says he never knew that rice had an aroma, and he starts sniffing. Then woman #1 asks another woman if the "chai seeds" are what make chai tea, and woman #2 says, "It must be," so I jump in real quick to tell her it's "chia," as in "chia pet" and I don't think they believed me, so I tell them about food52 ("Win fabulous prizes!") and foodpickle ("We know everything, and we're nice about it!"). Then, I asked a stock clerk if they carried hemp seed. They don't, so I say something about wondering how long it would take my Seattle son to save me a cupful, and everybody chuckled and promised to register here. Then, in the deli, I see woman #2 buying 2 pounds of ricotta, so I tell her about this week's contest. Like I really want more competition, right?!
Anyway, I went to a second store--no hemp seeds there, either. Where did you find it?
:-), I loved reading this.....its amazing how much we've learnt from food52 and how much we all teach each other - I've grown amazingly, my vocab has expanded and my approach to experimental cooking enhanced. Thank you ALL for making food52 an experience.
Whole Foods usually has hemp seeds in their bulk foods section. Happy cooking!
Ahhh this make me long for the exotic bulk bins and grains that are very far from the Mexican staples. Can't wait to read all the great recipes.
I am so excited for this. And because you said it was okay, and I cannot figure out how otherwise to add it, I'll include my brown rice risotto here:
http://www.food52.com/recipes/7391_butternut_squash_risotto_with_brown_rice
There is already a recipe for mejadara here, so I won't add another. However, sometimes I make mejadara (AKA mujadera) with short brown rice and mung beans (instead of white rice and lentils). I season with ginger, cinnamon, and cumin (+S+P).
This is FABULOUS!!!! I went "mostly" vegetarian a few months ago and am constantly on the search for ways to work with whole grains and legumes!!! Perfect timing!
I just spent one hour at the bulk bins yesterday looking at everything they had. I was needing some mixing up for my life and palate. I'm so excited about this! Thanks, Ladies!
Another person hoping that millet is added to the list.
Also, while they are commonly referred to as a grain, I believe that Amaranth and Quinoa are seeds.
Another pseudocereal is buckwheat (not a grain or cereal).
Fun!! Interesting, I've heard of most of the items on the lists but have never seen bamboo rice. I'll have to 'shop' the bins more often.
How about gigante beans?
This is from your friendly editors at Food52.
added about 1 year agoWe'd love to see any variety of bean, grain or seed recipe you have and will consider them, but we're especially focusing on the list above -- so now's the time to widen your sights!
not seeing millet on the list and have a special love for this one- any chance you can add it?
This is from your friendly editors at Food52.
added about 1 year agoCheck out our response to healthierkitchen above.
for a rice eating individual, I must confess.. never heard of most of these varieties. would it be OK to request photographs of these varieties? wikipedia doesn't have much pictorial info..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_varieties
This is from your friendly editors at Food52.
added about 1 year agoWe don't have photos on hand of each variety but a great tool for that is Google image search: http://www.google.com/imghp
Uffdah. I have an intolerance to an enzyme in the husk of unsprouted whole grains and legumes and can't eat most of these (like, I can eat white rice but not brown, white flour but not whole wheat. It's a weird thing). But, does anyone know, are some of these varieties of rice dehusked? Maybe I should ask on food pickle.
One rice on the list is 'brown germinated.' Japanese research shows that brown rice soaked 22 hours starts the germination process, increasing some nutrients, including GABA. Since the sprouting process changes starches to sugars and involves other chemical changes with enzymes it is possible you could used this. I haven't heard of it being sold 'germinated' but soaking is a simple process. There are even rice cookers with cycles programmed for this. Try searching for "GABA rice" for more information. I believe you would have to discard the soaking water since the enzymes might be soluable to some extent and end up there. I'd love to hear what you think of this!
This is from your friendly editors at Food52.
added about 1 year agoWe just added hulled barley too! Hope that'll work for you, fiveandspice!
Awesome! And I'l have to start thinking with some earnestness about sprouted mung beans and lentils!
FUN! I have a bunch of this stuff in the pantry that needs cooking - this is a great motivator!
Must the beans be dry? I'm thinking of black soy beans which I can find canned, but not dry.
Merrill is a co-founder of food52.
added about 1 year agoWe're really looking for recipes that start from dry.
Is there a category for beans/legumes in the drop down menu? I don't see it...maybe you could add it to the grains, rice, etc category?
This is perfect! I've been wanting to increase my use of whole grains in my cooking - I don't have any recipes at the moment, but I'm looking forward to trying these!!
What about recipes of ours that are already posted on the site but that don't have the name of x or y in the title? Should we rename and resubmit?
This is from your friendly editors at Food52.
added about 1 year agoNo need -- as long as they have the name of the bean/grain in the title or ingredients list, we should be able to find them. But if you want to make it extra easy on us (and share them with everyone here) feel free to post the links in this thread.
Woo hoo!!! this sounds like FUN!
Love your surprises!
Great idea! I would love to add more whole grains and legumes into my repertoire. Can't wait to see the recipes rolling in.
Hmmm - I think I see where food52 is going with this. No kidney, cannelini, chickpea, navy, cranberry, christmas, black, pinto beans, or pigeon peas. Cause that would be too easy and ordinary. No quinoa, farro, etc... Mix it up people! OK - no bamboo rice then.
Do we post our dishes here in the comments?
This is from your friendly editors at Food52.
added about 1 year agoNope -- just go to the Recipes section of the site (www.food52.com/recipes) and click "Add New Recipe." Let us know if you run into any snags at editors@food52.com.
Thanks! I'll do that. Looking forward to sharing and seeing all the great ideas everyone else has!
Thanks for the link!
Oh, this is gonna be fun!
What a great idea. I have tons of bags of spare bulk beans that I bought for dishes and am puzzled what to do next! Super psyched.
no other grains?
This is from your friendly editors at Food52.
added about 1 year agoThis is it for now, but we'll let you know if we expand the search.
This is from your friendly editors at Food52.
added about 1 year agoWell, we just expanded it! Check out the "Other Grains" section added above.
LOVE THIS! I'm rather obsessed with the bulk bins whenever I'm grocery shopping (student budget and a love of beans!). Looking forward to sharing and trying some new recipes.
How Fun! I have some Bamboo Rice - it's a very short grain, light green rice that makes fabulous risotto. It has a slightly herbal, green tea flavor and a sticky texture. Fair game? It's really good with salmon and seafood.
I agree with Burnt Offerings. I make bamboo rice a lot and it is superb with salmon and seafood!
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