Having canned food at home is always a great idea. Not only is it great for food you can’t consume fresh throughout the year, but it’s also an excellent source of quick recipe ingredients! Among the most common canned foods are certainly legumes: chickpeas, peas, beans, lentils and fava beans can be found in grocery stores and supermarkets. Plus, they usually retain almost all their nutritional value when we compare them to the fresh varieties.
The difference between canned legume and fresh ones
As we said before, ready-to-eat legumes are able to almost completely preserve the nutritional value in canned form. The big difference (versus the others) is that they are already cooked and contain salt to help with preservation. For this reason, it is good practice to rinse the products well before eating them. In addition to water and salt, some products may contain sugar and monosodium glutamate to enhance taste.
The best way to store canned legumes?
The best material for canned legumes is definitely glass. Not only is glass less prone to deterioration, it also allows you to check the contents if needed. For all canned legumes, it’s always important to check that the packaging is intact, free of rust, any deformations, dents or breaks. Finally, make sure that you don’t allow any legumes to expire past 24 months.
Recipes for canned legumes
All canned foods can be used for common recipes – as long as you make sure to eliminate as much of the excess liquid in the can as possible (because it’s chock-full of sodium). For this reason, we suggest using less salt in your recipe.
Canned legumes: in the gallery how to choose (and use) them
Good canned products feature a liquid that is as clear as possible – a sign that the raw material has not crumbled or disintegrated too much while cooking. For canned chickpeas though, remember that the liquid – called ‘acquafaba’ in Italian – can actually be reused in many recipes.