Your Autumn Storecupboard: A Guide to dried beans and lentils

Food prices are the biggest food worry in the UK right now. In the Food Standards Agency's latest consumer tracker, 91% of people said they were concerned about them, and around a quarter were worried about being able to afford food in the month ahead. It's no surprise that many of us are looking for ways to make the weekly shop go further.

A cupboard stocked with dried beans and lentils is one of the simplest. They're filling, they keep well, and a single bag can turn into a week of meals. Here's how to get started.

Why dried?

Tins are convenient, and there's nothing wrong with them. But dried pulses have a few advantages.

A little goes a long way. Pulses swell as they soak and cook, so a bag of dried beans makes far more than its weight in food.

They take up less room. A bag of dried lentils fits in the space of a couple of tins and makes many more meals.

You control what goes in. Dried pulses are just pulses, with nothing added. You decide how much salt goes in, and what herbs and spices to cook them with.

If you want to stock up properly, our 1.5kg Stock & Prep bags are designed for exactly this.

Lentils or beans?

The main difference is time.

Lentils and split peas are the quickest. Lentils don't need soaking: just rinse them well and simmer. Red split lentils soften into a creamy base for soups and dhals, while green lentils keep their shape in salads and stews. Green split peas make a thick, comforting soup.

Beans and chickpeas need a little planning. Most need soaking before cooking, often overnight. Always follow the soaking and cooking instructions on the pack, as times vary from one variety to another.

Five to start with

If you're building a storecupboard from scratch, these five cover most autumn cooking.

• Organic Red Split Lentils, for soups, dhals and thickening stews
• Green Lentils, for warm salads, sides and hearty broths
• Black Beans, for chilli, burritos and smoky stews
• Butter Beans, for creamy braises and curries
• Chickpeas, for hummus, curries and roasting

Once you've got the hang of those, branch out with aduki beans, black-eyed beans or red football lentils.

How to store them

Keep dried pulses in a cool, dry place, away from direct sunlight, heat and damp. Once a bag is open, reseal it or tip the pulses into an airtight container. Check the best before date on the pack, and as a rule, use up your oldest bags first.

Cook once, eat all week

The easiest way to make dried pulses fit a busy week is to cook a big batch at the weekend and use it in different meals.

Soak and cook a large pot of beans or chickpeas, then split them into portions. Some can go into a chilli, some into a curry, and some into a pot of hummus or a salad.

The Food Standards Agency's advice on leftovers applies here:

• cool cooked food and get it into the fridge within one to two hours
• split large batches into smaller portions so they cool more quickly
• eat refrigerated leftovers within 48 hours, or freeze them if you won't get to them in time
• defrost frozen portions in the fridge and use them within 24 hours

Three autumn meals from one shop

To give you an idea of what a storecupboard can do, here are three recipes from our blog that use pulses you'll already have:

• Red Lentil & Coconut Curry Soup, ready without any soaking
• Black Bean & Coconut Chilli, perfect for Bonfire Night
• Creamy Butter Beans in Green Curry Coconut Milk, a one-pan dinner

A few bags of pulses in the cupboard won't solve rising prices on their own. But they make it much easier to put a filling, home-cooked meal on the table, even at the end of the month.