Bean replacements??

[ccartee]

I plan on making a few soups during my W30.  Many call for a variety of beans, which I know isn't allowed.  Does anyone know of a good substitute that would work?  A great example is my Taco soup.  It wants kidney and black beans.  I know it will taste fine without a sub but I'd really like something in it to give it a heartiness.  

 

Thanks! 

[ShannonM816]

One thing you might try for specific recipes is to google Whole30 + that recipe and see what other people are doing -- so googling Whole30 taco soup will turn up a bunch of recipes -- you don't have to follow any one of them, just see what they put in theirs and add what sounds good. I'm assuming you're putting meat in, and tomatoes, some kind of peppers, onions. I'd probably put as many vegetables as you can come up with -- zucchini or yellow squash would be good, although if it cooks for a long time, you might wait to add them until closer to the end, cauliflower works surprisingly well in a lot of dishes, potatoes are good for giving you a little more bulk and might help give you that sort of starchy feel of the beans, carrots, mushrooms, green beans -- any vegetables that you think might be good in it. You could even increase the meat in it, especially since it can be hard with a soup to make sure you get enough protein in each serving anyway. Add diced avocado when you serve it. Also keep in mind that if you were making it with dried beans and adding a lot of water for them before, you'll need to cut back the water a bunch. If you were using canned beans before, this might not be an issue, but you still might start with less water (or broth, or whatever liquid) than usual and keep an eye on it, depending on how soupy it usually turns out -- a higher stuff-to-water ratio, as long as there's still enough liquid for it to be soup, can help make it feel more hearty.

[jmcbn]

Just to add to Shannon's great advice I find that parsnip works well as a starchy veg in a soup as it doesn't break down in the same way that potato or sweet potato might so you still get that texture/bite from it...

[MeadowLily]

How about some nuts.       Same texture.   Black walnuts for black beans  and pecans for kidney beans.   

 

It's taco soup,  so I'd  stick with finely cooked ground beef, peppers (all kinds), tomatoes and taco spices.  Garnish with black olives....bing, you could use finely chopped black olives for a black bean swap-o.   Spashes of color in your taco soup.

[ladyshanny]

I never did find a suitable replication for beans in chili or soups, personally.  I just steered away from trying to replicate old recipes into a new format because I found it, on the whole, kind of disappointing.  Branch out, there are TONNES of soups that are already Whole30 without having to sub anything.

 

http://forum.whole30.com/topic/31855-winter-soups/

[Mrs.Mathias]

Runner's World Magazine had a great recipe for chicken and sweet potato stew that called for a can of beans. I just omitted them and added a little extra sweet potato and chicken. Very delicious and compliant! It's the 3rd recipe down:

 

http://www.runnersworld.com/recipes/five-soups-for-runners

[praxisproject]

I found with most of my "old" recipes they weren't that great with subs. When I abandoned them and moved on to built-to-be-Whole30 recipes, they were fantastic.

 

My favourite soup: http://meljoulwan.com/2012/11/05/silky-gingered-zucchini-soup/

[ccartee]

Thanks everyone!!!  I've never made this recipe before, so I won't miss the beans in it.  I just know there's great veges that could be added to it not necessarily as a taste sub, but more of a way to make the soup heartier.  I will definitely give the suggestions a shot this week when I try it.  I'll post to let you know what I used and if it passed my kids-test.  I have 3 boys still at home who are participating.  Family meals only.  :-)