beans beans good for the heart

beans beans good for the heart
Hot bean soup for supper on a freezing Sunday evening last night. We are eating lots of bean soup these days, and enjoying. Apparently, a serving of beans provides as much protein as a serving of meat, and as a former heart patient (??once a heart patient, always a heart patient??) my diet has shifted to very little beef. Not no beef, but very little beef. 
Linda makes the bean soup from scratch, or we buy bean soup mixes, there’s always a booth at Holly Fair offering a fine variety of soup mixes, and we buy a supply. Instead of just water per recipe, she sometimes uses chicken broth, turkey broth, or beef broth. When she makes the broth, she boils the bones, then removes the bones, lets the liquid cool, and scoops off and discards all fat. The broth makes for delicious bean soup. 
We serve our soup differently, Linda has hers in a wide, flat bowl, with a regular soup spoon, mine’s in a deep bowl, with a cream soup spoon. Our tastes differ too. To mine, add a dollop of no-fat Greek yogurt or low-fat sour cream, and a squirt of Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce or dash of Habanero Tabasco sauce. 
Until recently it was always Tabasco, but last week Dr. Oz recommended Sriracha:
Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce: This Asian-style hot sauce consists of, among other tasty ingredients, garlic and red chili peppers. Allicin, the active compound in garlic, affects the nitric oxide system, thus helping to relax blood vessels, which can help reduce blood pressure. The capsaicin in chili peppers may also have these vasorelaxant properties, helping to reduce blood pressure by relaxing blood vessels as well. *
A friend just gave me two bottles of superb homemade hot pepper vinegar sauce, which goes on vegetables, especially greens, and salads. May go well in soup too, hot and a touch of sour could be just right. 
Speaking of garlic. I wasn’t speaking of garlic, Oz was -- at the olive stand at Fresh Market, there’s always a tray of roasted garlic cloves. Being preserved in salt brine, olives are off my food list anymore, but the roasted garlic is excellent. Crushed. Whole. In soup. In spaghetti sauce. In an omelet. Cooked in many dishes. On bread. A garlic sandwich is very nice, on wheat toast. Try it, you’ll like it, Sam I Am.  
Maybe not garlic cloves in eggs for Sunday breakfast before going to church to serve Holy Communion.
Hot bean soup on a cold morning, though. 
TW+