Interesting and inventive take on beans, a staple many Americans don't know how to prepare well. This book will help with that problem, and you will find quite a few new favorites to add to your rotation.

Thanks for the chance to review this book. I am really interested in how they got all this info about beans!

A super-excellent bean book! How to cook, prepare, and serve a myriad of beans is included in this valuable book!

Good book about beans when it comes to information and types of beans. As for the recipes, they were not that awesome. Just ordinary and somehow plain.
But beans are good for you so this book might just encourage you to incorporate them in your diet.

Lots and lots of information about working with beans but I felt the recipes were a bit .....blah? A cookbook should instantly make me want to put those recipes into action in my kitchen & these didn't do much for me.

Granted, I am not a vegetarian. So I have a hard time imagining how these recipes might taste. There is a lentil meatloaf with a garlic yogurt sauce that seemed very intriguing.

This is such a helpful book! There's a lot of really useful information on cooking beans, including an index of beans in the back of the book. I learned some great tips, and look forward to trying them out. The recipes look and sound delicious, and there are some new ways to incorporate beans into your diet that I wouldn't have thought of, plus there's the added bonus of being healthy and good for you. The book is laid out well, with lots of photographs. Definitely recommended!

#EasyBeans #NetGalley

Easy Beans is a is a tutorial guide and cookbook with recipes developed by Jackie Freeman. Released 3rd Nov 2020 by Sasquatch Books, it's 176 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.

This is a useful, basic, comprehensive, and wonderfully versatile recipe collection. Beans as a source of protein and bulk food component have been known and used in one form or another since ancient times virtually the world over. This is a nice sampling of different legumes in recipes from a wide variety of culinary styles.

The introduction (~15%) covers some of the history and "why/how to use beans" background info. There's also a really good tutorial for cooking and processing beans to get the best results and avoid mushy or uneven cooking.

The following chapters contain the recipes grouped roughly thematically: breakfasts, snacks, soups & stews (wonderful and classic recipes here), sides & salads, and main dishes. There are a huge number of recipes. Many were familiar to me, but even those had a twist which lifted them beyond the traditional: dried cherries in pilaf, squash and black-eyed peas in samosas, etc. I was surprised at the omission of pasta e fagioli soup, but there are enough other recipes to keep cooks happy here.

The recipes themselves are formatted with an introduction and background, ingredients listed bullet style in a sidebar (US standard measures only, no metric equivalents), and step by step ingredients. Alternative presentations, tips, and special definitions are provided in highlighted text bars at the end of the instructions. Nutritional info is not included. Many of the recipes are vegetarian friendly with an emphasis on plant based ingredients, but not all. The vegetarian/vegan friendly recipes are not specified or marked out. I would say that nearly all the recipes in the book can easily be adapted to be vegan friendly if desired.

Most of the ingredients are easily sourced at any moderately well stocked grocery store. Some few ingredients might be more easily found at a health food or international food grocery, but there's nothing that will be very difficult to find.

One of the standouts of this collection is the photography. The food is beautifully styled, clearly photographed, and serving suggestions are attractive and appropriate. Roughly half the recipes have pictures.

The appendices include a cross-referenced index, metric conversion chart, short author bio, and a really nice (non-photographed) "bean-cyclopedia" showing many different legumes with cooking methods, whether the pressure cooker is appropriate, and other info.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Good information about beans and cooking them. A few follow recipes recipes but lacks nutritional information which is a big minus for me. Book does have a few nice photos

I wasn't able to read the book, it being archived before I could download it and therefor have no opinion except that it looked interesting.

Excellent cookbook with good information about many beans, along with many good recipes made with ingredients found in most kitchens. I especially loved the smoothie recipe.

This was OK, but it's a pretty small book, not a large number of recipes, and most were things I already had, or things that just seem too odd for me. (smoothies?)
Thanks to NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book is an excellent resource! How to choose beans, whether fresh, frozen, dried or canned. .. Notes on the nutritional content of beans ... The best ways to soak and cook beans - whether you are using a stove, an insta-pot or the oven. The appendix includes a description of many different types of beans and how to use them in recipes.This book is also filled with a wide variety of recipes accompanied by excellent color photos. Beans for breakfast .... how about a Chocolate, Banana and Black Bean Smoothie? Beans as an appetizer ... try Lentil and Mushroom Caviar or Black-eyed Pea Samosas? Need a side ... how about Warm Potato, Apple and Edamame Slaw. Not sure what to cook for dinner ... try portobello sandwiches with herbed navy bean spread or Pinto Bean Enchiladas with Zucchini and Spinach. Recipes also include ingredient substitutions as well as vegan and gluten free alternatives. Recipe instructions are easy to read and follow. I love the inclusion of ingredient substititions. I really hate when I find a recipe that looks great, but I can't make it until I go to the grocery store. No problem with Easy Beans - if you don't have creme fraiche, just substitute sour cream or Greek yogurt. This is a cookbook that really includes all of those extras that you would love to see in every cookbook.

(NETGALLEY BOOK - I RECEIVED A COMPLIMENTARY ADVANCED READER COPY OF THIS BOOK THROUGH NETGALLEY. OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS REVIEW ARE COMPLETELY MY OWN.)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc of this cookbook in exchange for an honest review.

Cookbooks can be so hit or miss but this one is definitely a hit. A couple of pages in and I could tell the photos would be great. They're beautiful, but more than that, they make you want to try the food. I wrote a comment 11% of the way through that said, "These pictures, and this book, just make me happy." We all need a little more serotonin these days, and this book provided that for me. I mean, here I am finishing it at 1am when I definitely should be sleeping.

This isn't just a cookbook though, it's so much more. There are many tips and tricks for cooking (and making life easier), funny remarks, and even an oh-so-helpful bean-cyclopedia.

Usually while reading a cookbook I find one or two recipes I'd like to try actually making. In this one it was more than half of them! They're all pretty straightforward and the author included helpful cooking tips as well and options for making each one vegetarian or vegan or swapping out for different beans you may have on hand.

I'll be referring back to this one for a long while and I'm looking forward to making some of these recipes (even the black bean smoothie!)

Easy Beans: Simple, Satisfying Recipes That Are Good for You, Your Wallet, and the Planet by Jackie Freeman
Publisher: Sasquatch Books
Genre: Cooking, Food & Wine
Release Date: November 3, 2020

I've never been a fan of eating beans (do green beans count?), so when I saw Easy Beans by Jackie Freeman I thought I could incorporate some new recipes into our families menu options and see if we could change our ways.

The book starts off discussing the different types of beans, the differences between fresh or frozen, canned and dried beans, as well as the benefits to our health and the planet and how to properly cook beans.

The recipes are divided into the following sections: Starts and Smoothies: Recipes for Breakfast, Snacks and Spreads: Recipes for Noshing, Soups and Stews: Recipes to Keep You Warm, Sides and Salads: Recipes to Start Your Meal, and Suppers and Square Meals: Recipes for the Main Table. I look forward to trying the PB&J Smoothie, Spicy Black Bean Snack Mix, Turkey and White Bean Chili, Dried Cherry Pilaf with Chickpeas and Pistachios, and the Thai Peanut Soba Salad with Edamame and Pan-Seared Salmon.

There are beautiful pictures throughout the book and the recipes seem easy to follow. I do wish there was nutrition information included with the recipes though.

I'm so grateful to Jackie Freeman, Sasquatch Books, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this ARC ebook in exchange for my honest review.

I love beans! This book is pretty nice and it explains about each king of bean, how to cook them and how to prepare them. There are some yummy recipes and some of them has photos. I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

Easy Beans


Beans are easy to cook, they can help to prevent heart disease, lose weight, and promote healthy gut bacteria.
Beans contain a lot of protein, protein fights viruses and bacteria, and contain vitamins and even probiotics.
You will find a deluge of tasty, nutritious recipes in this book - you should read the section on how to properly cook your beans which discusses sorting, soaking and cooking your beans so that they are cooked properly.
Breakfast recipes start out the lineup - how about a Chocolate, banana and black bean smoothie made with spinach, almond milk, black beans, bananas and cocoa in a blender? You can even make your own granola with legumes, oats, coconut flakes and maple syrup that is baked and cut into bars.
There is a refried bean sandwich with eggs, cheddar cheese and avocados that will fuel you until lunchtime and give you a protein boost!
There are some creamy hummus recipes made with chickpeas, garlic and lemon that will satisfy your snack craving for quite a while!
There are mole like chilis with cocoa powder, chili and pinto beans, white chilis with turkey and white beans, and a split pea soup with bacon and split peas!
There are recipes for coleslaw using edamame, lime juice, vinegar and red and green cabbage, Bean Bourguignonne with mushrooms, navy beans, carrots and northern beans that is browned and simmered to perfection.
There are so many good recipes in this collection, that it would take you a year to try them all!

This is a fun collection of recipes that includes quite an array of different legume-based recipes ranging from salads, to heart dinner mains, to some particularly intriguing ones like the tropical white bean smoothie or its lentil and mushroom caviar. And even in the expected array of soups, stews, and curries (which is how I end up consuming most of the black beans, lentils, and their various cousins in my own diet), there were some takes that were brand new to me, like the particularly tasty-looking bean bourguignonne.

There’s just so much to enjoy and sample in this book that does fantastic work highlighting and celebrating the versatility of beans.

I thought this was a good cookbook and I found the tips for cooking beans and different types of beans really helpful! I'm pretty proficient in beans but this gave me some new ideas to utilize beans in different ways. I am grateful there will be a source to help others include more plant based protein with the powerhouse of beans in their life!

This is a great cookbook for those who are looking to add more beans to their diets and who want to know the basics of cooking beans. It's full of detailed information on kinds of beans and how to prepare them, plus lots of good info like whether to soak or not and not to add baking soda (it reduces nutrients and makes them mushy). Recipes are divided into chapters like breakfasts (even smoothies, really!), soups, etc. and the end has detailed information on all kinds of bean varieties.

Color photos are provided for about half the recipes. No nutritional information is provided, which cost the book a star for me. All in all, though, a great resource with lots of tasty sounding recipes.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.