Green-bean and lentil soup

A green-bean and lentil soup like this should be regularly on the table as the legume family is high in vegetable protein and resistant starch.

Legumes are environmentally friendly too. We call it a Cyan Zone issue; good for us and the planet also. They capture nitrogen from the atmosphere and turn it into amino acids for mammals.

Legumes are the main source of protein for most of the world. They are cheap, and vegetables do not have all the consequences of too much red meat. They are also free of cholesterol. I add the green beans, first cousins to lentils, just for a variation.

I think it improves the flavour, and fresh green-beans have some advantages over the dried legumes; they are much lower in lectins. 

Green-bean and lentil soup comes in two forms. We are flexitarians so I am going to use a chicken bones bouillon today but you could just as easily make a vegetable broth.

Green bean and lentil soup

Green bean and lentil soup is dead easy to make and stays with you for hours.

One of the most rewarding things in my life is picking fresh-herbs from the garden; many of them are very easy to grow, and so much better cooked within the hour.

I could not live, I swear, without the lemon and limes in our garden; whether it is the piquant flavour they bring to a salad or soup, the heavenly scent of the flowers in spring or the bright golden-fruit making it also an ornamental tree, they are my first choice for a new home.

My lime-tree is now three years old, and has 65 fruit just waiting to be picked in a couple months. This page was written ages ago, and now we get hundreds; each one sells in the supermarket for R4.

Planting lemon and lime trees in your garden are a far better investment than the stock-exchange; the greatest benefit of course is not the money saved, but your improved wellness and the sublime taste of your food.

Make sure you use the lemon-pulp too; more than half of the nutrients are found there.

Step 1: Best chicken bone broth recipe

Throw all the bones from a carcass into a large pot, cover with boiling water and simmer for about an hour to make your chicken bones bouillon.

We collect all our chicken bones for a week or two and freeze them so that we have enough to make it worth the effort.

Since we've been working hard to build a greener world I have changed over to preparing our chicken bones bouillon using solar pressure cooking; it requires less than a third of the energy and a side benefit is that it takes only twenty-minutes instead of an hour.

Feed the remaining bones to your dogs; they are soft and pliable, and we never have a problem.

For more details you can check out this best chicken bones broth recipe.

STep 2: The veggies

 Healthy folk never forget the veggies; try to get somewhere approaching ten coloured-foods every day, but do not fuss about the amount. A couple sprigs of parsley would count.

• Toss a large lump of butter into a pot. (never saute with margarine or seed oils. Why not?)
• On low heat saute the carrots, onions and celery for a few minutes.
• Toss in the washed-lentils, the thyme, S&P.

• Strain one-cup of the chicken bones bouillon directly into the pot; add another two litres of water depending on how thick you like it. Freeze the rest of the bouillon in convenient containers, and pop them out when frozen.
• Bring to a slow-boil.

Thirty-minutes later they should be tender.

1. Add the tomatoes, garlic and green-beans.
2. Bring back to the boil and simmer for about another ten to fifteen minutes.
3. Stir in one segment of blended lemon-pulp, and if you want to be disgusting, a tablespoon of fresh cream; or yoghurt.
4. Pour a glass of red-wine, and tuck in.

Well no red wine for my granddaughter. Sigh, how do you stop a two-year old scooping out the pulp of a tomato and leaving the rest? We liquidise our green-bean and lentil soup for her. She loved it, ate the lot.

High Protein Diets

High protein diets are the rage at present in a world where more people are dying of obesity than of starvation. Either in combination with low carbohydrate, or low fat, or both; or, oddly, the high fat Banting diet. So where does the green-bean and lentil soup fit?

Science reveals that only 5% of people who diet actually lose weight, and they are not without their own dangers. Far more successful is a grasp of the meaning of glycemic index and meals like this green-bean and lentil soup; that's what gets it off permanently.

HIGH PROTEIN LOW FAT FOODS but your green-bean and lentil soup fits the bill perfectly.

Tomato Prostate

Tomato prostate is an important subject for every woman who does not want an early widowhood; and an impotent husband for the last couple years.

Still, raw or cooked, tomatoes, are excellent for the prostate. Not hers, but I have one.

I will bet that if the leukopenes in tomatoes reduce prostate disease so dramatically (proven), they have an effect on other tumours too. Eat more of the brightly coloured vegetables and fruits.

"Tomato prostate" will show you how to reduce the number-one male malignant killer by 50 percent.

Copy and paste "tomato prostate" into the Site Search in the menu-bar above for more information.

There is a considerable body of opinion, to which I do not hold, that tomatoes belong to the nightshade-family and should be avoided. They do have a lot of lectins, but that does not bother me in the context of whole foods. You be the judge.

They do give some folk gout.

Andre Agassi

On the circuit, in his early days, Andre Agassi survived on lentil soup because of its staying power; cheap too. He was poor as a church mouse in the early days.

Not as tasty and nutritious as our green-bean and lentil soup (he took it from a can) but a fairly good alternative at 80 cents for the legumes and two baked potatoes that he ate daily.

His book OPEN is inspiring read.

• OPEN Andre Agassi ...

Hydrogenated fats

Why should not you cook on high heat with seed oils? They contain polyunsaturated oils which are healthy in themselves but they are unstable on high heat; used as hydrogenated fats in margarine and cake icings such as Bettercreme they are positively dangerous. Getting back to basics like green bean and lentil soup using butter or coconut cream makes more sense.

But also, seed oils are very high in Omega-6 fatty acids (good fats, but ...) and research shows that a high Omega-6/ Omega-3 ratio causes inflammation in the body.

The long and the short of it, if you have inflammation in your joints and organs: We should eat more Omega-3 (fatty fish) and less Omega-6 (seed oils). Get that ratio right. It should be near to 1:1 and in Western diets it even reaches 60:1. No wonder we have so many inflamed joints.

And why do I eat no margarine at all? Our nerves are coated with fatty myelin sheath. Spoil that sheath and our nerves cease to conduct properly. Once fats are hydrogenated a totally foreign form, called a trans isomer is produced; it's bad stuff to coat your nerves with.

Why do we have such an epidemic of MS and Motor neuron diseases (Lou Gehrig's) and Guillain-Barre syndrome? No one's sure, but there is more and more evidence pointing out how toxic hydrogenated foods are. Start reading labels.

The healthiest oils are found in fatty fish like salmon, flax seed and nuts; olives and avocados too. I eat at least some of them every day.

Note also there is zero cholesterol in our GREEN-BEAN and LENTIL SOUP. Well, a tiny bit in the butter.

• HYDROGENATED FOODS - use that Site Search tab in the main menu above.
  

Green Beans

Growing and cooking green beans is not rocket science.

Can you beat my lunch today for a healthy delicious meal? Find a patch in your garden this spring for a few pole beans. They are so rewarding and easy to grow. Fresh green legumes from your own garden are a delight, and so nuitritious. Plant 3 seeds every few weeks through the summer.

Then for supper enjoy our green-bean and lentil soup; this all makes a perfect fit incidentally with the longevity diet. It's for those who look forward eagerly to old-age.

All legumes have the amazing symbiotic relationship with myriads of tiny bacteria that have the ability to turn atmospheric gas into usable nitrogen in the form of ammonia.

Legumes use that nitrogen to build amino acids, the building blocks of protein that we so vitally need for our own bodies. Gardeners who grow them do not need inorganic fertilisers. 

• NITROGEN FIXATION BACTERIA ...

Mexican bean beetle larvae and beetles are a serious problem for many gardeners; there are green solutions.

Definition of cutworm reveals how we have sorted these bugs out; hens.

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Newsletter

Our newsletter is entitled "create a cyan zone" at your home, preserving both yourself and Mother Earth for future generations; and the family too, of course. We promise not to spam you with daily emails promoting various products. You may get an occasional nudge to buy one of my books.

Here are the back issues.

Chickens in the garden have been a wonderful addition to our green home.

Build a Compost Pile

You do need garden space, but build a compost pile is the first step towards splendid garden veggies and better health. I cannot recommend it strongly enough, if you have the room in your garden.

Build your own compost pile, or use a compact compost tumbler if space is limited.

Suffering Succotash

If you are trying to reduce your red meat consumption then this old Indian dish, Suffering Succotash, is a delicious way to make sure you are getting enough protein. It is fun to try different recipes in any case, now and then. Generally we eat from far too narrow a range of foods.

It's high in unrefined starches and legumes, and really just a small variation of our green-beans and lentil recipe.

And if you have a small garden, plant a row of radish every couple weeks in the summer. So easy, and you are rewarded in about a month.

• HOW TO GROW RADISHES ...
  
• SUCCOTASH RECIPE ...

GIGANTES BUTTER BEANS RECIPE

The Greeks are world leaders in making delicious healthy food. This dish can be made in a jiffy once you have soaked the legumes. GIGANTES BUTTER BEANS RECIPE.

Have you got some lima and green beans left over? Either in a wok, or the oven, as a favourite soup, mixing vegetables enables me to blend and enhance their subtle flavours. They can use a little garlic and ginger and few chillies to spice them up.

This ROAST VEGETABLES RECIPE is one of our favourites, although we only enjoy it when the oven is already hot. It goes perfectly for example with a leg of mutton; or these pilchard fish cakes.

• WHAT IS MUTTON?
  

Modified Banting diet

This is probably the easiest, and best way to lose weight; because of the higher fat you do not feel hungry. I prefer this modified Banting diet because it allows and in fact encourages the use of legumes like lentils and beans; chickpeas for your hummus too.

And the extra fat where possible from olive oil and avocados; whilst there is plenty of controversy as to whether butter is back or not, simply everyone agrees that the former are tops. The ketogenic and longevity diets have this in common but thereafter they are poles apart; it's all about the starch and the legumes. Is a corn and bean dish healthy or very bad for you?

We are in fact not the slightest bit anxious about butter but that is in the context of zero refined-carb platters.

To enjoy grits like this you have to own your own mill; fresh, unrefined cornmeal is difficult to find.

Copy and paste "modified Banting diet" into Site Search in menu bar above for more information.

A Family Affair

Writing a book is sometimes an author's way of examining a puzzling topic. Getting inside the skin of Santie Veenstra and Janet Twycross has given me a new understanding of the gay lifestyle. A Family Affair took ten-years from conception to publication.

Book 1 is free on line at A FAMILY AFFAIR.

Books 2 and 3 are available as full ebooks for only $.99c each. Find out how the ladies acquire four illicit children; and the astonishment and delight when Peter's parents, quite sure their own son will have no issue, discover they have four teenage-grandchildren.

You may not agree with the gay lifestyle, but I promise you you'll read these books from cover to cover.

Why are ebooks so cheap? Because they are rubbish? Not so, do you realise that at only 99c I earn more than getting a regular book printed through a publisher? Paper books are doomed, but it's going to take a while.

Meantime, on your smartphone, tablet or Kindle you can enjoy ebooks for a fraction of the price of a book from the local store.

Did you find this page interesting? How about forwarding it to a friendly book or food junkie? Better still, a social media tick would help.

Address:

56 Groenekloof Rd,

Hilton, KZN

South Africa

Website:

https://www.bernard-preston.com

Create a Cyan Zone at your home; one which complements blue areas for longevity with green for protecting Mother Earth.