Simple Things: Ditching Tinned Foods

When I first became vegetarian, quite a few years ago now, and even before actually as I rarely cooked with meat at home, I was heavily reliant on buying tins of pulses - just the basics, kidney beans, lentils, cannellini beans, chickpeas. And I'm still pretty reliant on those basics, although with a few more thrown into the mix these days, but I have managed to ditch the tins. It was something I thought about so often at the time, looking at just how many resources were used in the processing and manufacture of the food (manufacture of food, it just sounds wrong) - the waste of so much aluminium, the big factory where they would have been produced, the logistics of transporting them from factory to supermarket. It's huge.

I'm not fully there with being able to grow my own everything (not even close, lets be honest) but at the very least, I now only buy dried pulses and do the preparation of them myself. I was always put off by the part about 'soak beans overnight' when I was thinking about what to make for dinner, to eat right now. Obviously soaking beans overnight was not going to be an option, but a tin of beans was quick and convenient and that's exactly what I got by on for a long time.

It really wasn't until I started doing menu planning, when I had a little baby and was trying to establish some rhythm to my days, that I got into the habit of being able to prepare beans and pulses ahead of time. And there was some experimentation about learning how to cook them just right after the soaking, which was easy enough, but still took it's time. It's all a process though, and a few more years down the track I'm very confident now in my bean soaking and cooking process. These days I tend to just make up a batch, not too big but enough for a few meals, and pop the extras in the freezer for when I need them. So I still have the convenience of having beans ready for a quick meal when I need them, but without the tins (or the factory processing, at least not for the cooking part).

It is such a very simple change, to be able to move away from buying tinned foods to preparing from scratch with dried pulses, but the place where the change is truly made is in being organised - organised with a weekly meal plan, organised with having enough dried pulses on hand for your needs, organised with actually soaking and cooking them ahead of time. For all of it's simplicity, it took me years to actually make the change.

This is my very simple way of preparing dried pulses. Soak a quantity of pulses in a saucepan with a lid, for 8 hours or overnight (usually on the bench or in the fridge if it's hot). If I'm not organised and pushed for time I will sometimes cut that down to 6 hours instead of 8. Then simply drain the soaking water, replace it with fresh water and pop it on the stove. Bring to a boil then simmer on very low heat for an hour or so, and test when you think they might be done. You might need to top up the water if it gets a little low. Then simply put into freezer-safe containers and freeze them, or use them in cooking. Done! How easy is that? I really love the very slow cooking aspect to this as well, mine always turn out nicely when cooked very slowly.

No more tins, no more super heavy shopping bags to lug around and it's easier to get a wide selection of pulses, and often organic, when they're dried (if you have a good health or whole foods shop nearby). My last area to make the change away from tins (well two actually) is tinned tomatoes, I am still caught up in that cycle but looking to make changes, and pet food. Cat food in particular. But, a step at a time when transitioning to simpler living. Changes that take time to make are often the ones that last, and every little change helps.