Nutritionists introduce recipes for cooking beans rich in iron, zinc

Nutritionists and researchers from the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation have developed 40 recipes for making beans.

This will encourage Kenyans to consume beans rich in iron and zinc, to fight malnutrition or hidden hunger.

Dr Beatrice Kiage, a nutrition associate with the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network said the move is aimed to appeal to the modern Kenyan.

In addition to breaking the monotony of just boiling beans and having them as githeri (a mixture of beans and maize) or bean stew, she said people should be more creative in cooking them to consume more.

“We realised beans are only eaten as githeri and normal boiled beans. But people need to get more ways of eating beans,” she said.

“We have introduced more than 40 recipes for cooking beans. Some of them include making cakes, cookies, chapati, bean balls and kebabs from beans among other recipes.” 

Kiage spoke last week during a bean cooking demonstration to farmers in Mugunda, Kieni West subcounty, in Nyeri.

This was a side event to a farmer’s field day on upscaling and adoption of beans rich in iron and zinc in the county.

The field day was organized by Kalro in partnership with FANRPAN.

Five organisations have joined through a programme known as Ziron-Pulse, to address food security and nutrition, and upscale consumption of bean varieties rich in iron and zinc. 

The project is being implemented in partnership with the James Hutton Institute, the University of Birmingham, Kalro and the University of Nairobi.

She said they carried out affirmative research in Kiambu, Meru and Nyeri to find out some of the barriers and gaps in bean consumption.

“We realised some of the things that are making people shun beans are because they make people have gas. When you have gas, you will not want to eat beans again,” Kiage said.

“It is also boring because you either eat it as githeri or just have them boiled for making stew. This can become boring and not appealing to some people, especially children.” 

She said they came up with more than 40 recipes to appeal to people who are not bean lovers.

“We want children for example who are at risk of getting micronutrient deficiency of zinc and iron to consume beans. But if we just give them boiled beans and githeri, they will not eat,” she said.

The nutritionist said making a kebab, mandazis, doughnuts, biscuits, bread or cookies out of beans will be appealing to children. 

She said they want to promote the adoption and consumption of these beans in Africa, where stunting is a big problem.

Kiage said the bean product is a food vehicle that is cheap and widely consumed and they want to ensure it is interesting and appealing to more people.  

She said they are also good for diabetic patients because they can help to stabilise blood and sugar levels.

“They are also good for our cardiovascular health because they have the kind of fibre that lowers cholesterol levels. When your cholesterol levels are alleviated, it becomes a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases,” Kiage said.

“Beans also help in dealing with weight management. We have a problem with non-communicable diseases in Kenya due to the shift in diets.”

Lydia Kirimi, a nutritionist in the department of Agriculture in Nyeri said they have been going round, teaching and demonstrating the recipes to farmers.

“We want to demonstrate to farmers something easy that they can easily adopt. We have been doing value addition because we realised that people take beans to be a poor man’s diet,” Kirimi said.

“We have come up with these recipes so that farmers can appreciate the value of beans and incorporate them into their meals.”

She encourag ed farmers to embrace this and even venture into small businesses of making some of the bean recipes and selling them for an income.

SIDEBAR 

Iron and zinc rich beans recipes 

PRECOOKED BEAN FLOUR

Ingredients

One kg of beans and three litres of water. 

Method

Sort and clean the dry beans to remove dirt, stones, and discoloured or immature grains.

Wash the grains in clean water removing any floating grains.

Put the grains in a medium-sized pan, add the water and boil for one hour.

Remove from the fire and let it cool for 30 minutes.

Drain off the water and dry the precooked beans in the sun until dry.

Mill the dried grain to prepare precooked whole grain flour or grind the grain very coarsely, then winnow to remove seed coats. Mill the grain to give precooked dehulled bean flour.

The flour can be used to make diverse products as indicated in this recipe book.

BEAN PANCAKES

Ingredients

½ cup all-purpose flour, a cup pre-cooked bean flour (whole or dehulled flour), four tablespoon sugar, two teaspoon baking powder, a pinch of salt, tablespoon cinnamon, two beaten eggs, medium-sized ripe banana, 1 ½ cups water or milk and four tablespoons cooking oil for frying. 

Method

Mix the dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl or plastic jug, beat eggs, milk and oil. Add the sliced ripe bananas and mix well.

Add the dry ingredients gradually while mixing until a uniform batter is formed.

Let the batter stand for 10 minutes.

Preheat a pan with a little oil on medium heat.

Pour a little amount of the batter into the pan depending on the desired size of the pancake and spread it with a spoon or fork.

Fry each side for about two minutes or until golden brown.

Repeat until all the batter is cooked.

BEAN PORRIDGE

Ingredients

 2 ½ tbsp pre-cooked bean flour, 2 ½ tablespoons of finger millet, three cups of water and three tablespoons of sugar

Method

Mix the dry ingredients in a big mug.

Add 1 cup water to the ingredients and stir till well mixed.

Bring the remaining water to a boil.

Pour the mixture into the boiling water little by little while stirring until it forms a sticky consistency mixture.

Let it simmer for 15 minutes then remove and serve when hot.

BEAN PIZZA

Pizza dough

Ingredients

400 grams of all-purpose flour, seven grams of dry yeast, 2 ¼, teaspoons salts, a tablespoon of sugar, 1 ½, cup warm water and cooking oil. 

Method

Mix yeast, sugar and warm water. Let stand for 10 minutes.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour and salt and rub in the oil.

Add the yeast mixture to the flour and knead to a uniform dough.

Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and let stand for 10 minutes until the dough is spongy.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth.

Return the dough to the bowl, cover it with a damp cloth and let stand it in a warm place for 30 minutes.

BEAN KEBAB

Ingredients

Two cups of boiled beans, a tablespoon of black pepper, ¾ teaspoon salt, medium-sized onion, a cup of wheat flour, 20 ml of water and four eggs. 

Method

Chop onions into the frying pan, add oil and salt then leave it to turn golden brown.

Add two cups of boiled beans with spices then mix thoroughly.

Sieve flour into the fried beans.

Add water and mould the mixture to smooth dough.

Scoop two spoonful’s of the mixture and moulds it into a rod shape.

Deep the moulded dough in the beaten egg (the process can be done repeatedly to make your kebab hairy and thus more attractive).

Deep fry in hot oil

BEANBALLS

Ingredients

Three glasses of cooked beans, 1 ½ glasses of wheat flour, 40ml of water, large tomato, medium onion, a tablespoon of black pepper and a bunch of dania (coriander). 

Method

Chop onions into the frying pan.

Add oil and salt to taste, let the onions turn golden brown then add tomato and all the spices.

Add the boiled beans.

Add 1 ½ cups of wheat flour to the fried beans and 40ml of water.

Mix the mixture to a smooth dough then mould the dough to a round shape.

Deep fry in hot oil

BEAN COOKIES

Ingredients

Cup wheat flour, ½ cup bean flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, three tablespoon sugar, three tablespoon fat, an egg, a pinch of salt and 30 ml of water. 

Method

Sieve flour and baking powder together, and add sugar and salt.

Rub in margarine.

Beat egg and mix.

Mix everything, and cut it into round shapes.

Place on a well-greased baking tray and press down with a fork.

Bake in the oven until golden brown

BEAN CHAPATI

Ingredients

¾ cup bean flour, 1 ½ cup wheat flour, two pinches of salt, a tablespoon of cooking oil and 1 ¾ cup of water. 

Method

Mix all the ingredients to make a dough.

Mould and roll it into a thin layer.

Place it in the pan and add cooking oil on both sides to turn it light brown.

BEAN SAUSAGE

Ingredients

Two cups of boiled beans, a tablespoon of black pepper, ¾ teaspoon salt, medium-sized onion, a cup of wheat flour and 20 ml water. 

Method

Chop onions into the frying pan.

Add oil and a pinch of salt, let the onions turn golden brown, and then add the spices.

Add one cup of wheat flour and water then mix to make a dough.

Mould the dough into oval shapes according to two cm diameter.

Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown.

Edited by Kiilu Damaris