Use your bean. Eat your beans. A few words about protein.

Today Michel made a delicious double bean stew (recipe coming up).  He says it's time to post some kind of declaration about why he cooks beans so often. The reason is simple: Beans are a protein-palooza.  I don't need to write about all the health benefits of various beans because Google is filled with thousands of links to the information. Prepare to be overwhelmed with more recipes and nutrition data than you can possibly consume.  

It's fair to say that we are now about 99% vegetarian, eating fish once in a while but no red meat or poultry. Michel has created countless bean dishes over the last few years, all of them inventive and delicious. (The only bean he must avoid is the soy bean/edamame because he's highly allergic to soy.)  He stores a variety of dried beans in jars--cannellini, adzuki, fava, garbanzo, etc.--just to keep his recipe options open.  The dishes he makes will start with a bean and then he takes whatever geoculinary turn suits his fancy for the day: Vietnamese, Indian, Mexican, Italian, French, Thai--you get it. 

Here's a link to a useful chart--really--about beans and protein. Did you know there are hyacinth beans? Cowpeas?  Neither did I.  Read on.  It's a nice alternative to working on your taxes or speculating about college basketball.   

Beans and Legumes with the Most Protein 

And for my fellow word nerds who lose sleep over things like word and phrase* origins, here's a link to a fun list of food phrases we often use without considering where they come from. Upper crust? Takes the cake?  Unfortunately, this Smithsonian article does not provide a definitive origin for "use your bean."  Some believe the phrase derives from the bean-ish shape of the brain.  What's most important is mindfulness about our well-being, including the foods we choose. 

Spilling the Beans on the Origins of Food Idioms

* If you happen to know the origin of the phrase "dead giveaway" I would be most grateful if you'd share.  That one has been eluding me for years.