A younger member of famille Lunchista announced one afternoon, on arriving home from football, that she was going to go vegetarian. Nothing to do with me, Sarge, all I ever did was mention, just the once and ages ago, that I'd had a go at being vegetarian in my misspent youth, gone anaemic and given it up. The ensuing silence was deafening. Twice as much cooking! Having to find something new and at least vaguely interesting for two lots of people not just one! And all this with both of us working and one of us not even getting home til 7 pm (yes, it wasn't even as if I did most of the cooking). If I'd been one of those portly old blokes who goes to a club I'd have said "preposterous!" (in a particularly silly posh accent). But Lunchista is not an old bloke and couldn't afford a club even if we sold the house and banked the proceeds. And so evolved The Plan.
I pointed out that we could get almost as good a result, on the less-meat-eating front, if we all went vegetarian for one day a week. I also happen to think it's healthier for a growing lass to do low-meat than no-meat, at least to start with, and it's better for morale if we're all sitting down to share the same food. Sunday seemed like a good choice of day, because it was the only day of our week which afforded any spare time to pick up the pieces if anything should go wrong. So Sunday it was then, with The Cranks' Recipe book and a trip to the local Wholefood emporium for supplies and inspiration. It was there that I was reminded of the taste, variety and sheer protein-infested-ness of beans (and picked up The Suma Recipe book for nowt). Beans...they keep for ages in ordinary cupboards (and look fab). They go with absolutely everything. Their only two drawbacks as far as I can tell are that you have to remember to get them out in advance to soak them (hours or overnight) and you can't barbecue them.
Fess-up time: that was 18 months ago and we haven't managed to stick religiously to vegetarian every Sunday. But we have collected a useful repetoire of veggie recipes, and during that time a new middle-Eastern shop has opened its doors near the Uni. I wandered in just the other day and was greeted with shelf upon shelf of phenomenally cheap 5 lb packets of all sorts of beans, each type of which has a different recipe on. And as if that's not enough, the guys who run the shop have drawn up a load of recipes of their own, from their various countries of origin, and printed these out on pages which they helpfully offer to anyone who, like me, they jalouse is in need of veggie inspiration. They are also incorrigible flirts, especially with the more, erm, "traditionally-built" ladies who come into the shop: watching them in action from the safety of behind the far shelves is great fun!
On the back of a giant pack of black-eye beans we found the following simple recipe for 4 people:
Soak 200g of the beans for at least 5 hours (you will now have just over 400g, or about 1lb, of beans). Cook until soft, then strain and put aside. Put on one mugful of rice to boil then simmer. Finely chop an onion and fry it til transparent, add 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp chilli powder and a tin of the ever-useful Italian plum tomatoes. Stir for a few minutes, add the beans and cook for a few more minutes, then serve.
It tasted great. Not only that but it's cheap as chips and all the ingredients can be pulled straight from your in-case-of-Swine-Flu emergency store.
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