Dried Beans and Legumes

Legumes are the seeds of the pea family and the protein of every dry food store in the world: beans, lentils, split peas, chickpeas and, botanically, peanuts. Dried, they keep for years; sealed with an absorber, for decades. The group splits in two for the cook: beans and chickpeas need an overnight soak and an hour or two of fuel, while lentils and split peas go straight into the pot and are done in half an hour. A store wants both. The beans and lentils pages have the detail.

By cooking time: lentils and split peas for the fast meals and the outage week; pinto, black, navy, kidney and chickpeas for the deep store. By fat: peanuts and soybeans carry oil and keep a year, so they are rotated, not buried. Buy from a supplier with turnover, in bulk bags, and pack the week they arrive.

Cool, dark and dry, in something airtight. The original bag or box is fine for the months you will use it in; for the years, the answer is the same as for rice: a Mylar bag with an oxygen absorber inside a food-grade bucket, which keeps out oxygen, moisture, light and every insect egg that came home from the mill. The Mylar ranking says which foods take an absorber and which do not.

All of them are dry enough for an absorber except peanuts and soybeans, which carry oil and belong in the fridge or freezer. Keep every kind in its own bucket, dated.

Mold, webbing, holes, beetles or a musty smell, and the bag goes. Lentils and peas that are dry and clean smelling are fine at any age. Beans that have faded and wrinkled will still cook, slowly; test a cup. Peanuts that smell sharp or bitter have gone rancid.

A pound of dry legumes is about 1,500 calories and 100 grams of protein; with grain it's complete. The field guide's balanced plate puts legumes with canned meat and powdered milk as the repair-and-satiety group. A pound per person per week of mixed legumes beside two pounds of grain is a sensible rotation. Lentils cook in 20 to 30 minutes with no soak; split peas in 40; beans soak overnight and simmer 1 to 2 hours, or 30 minutes in a pressure cooker. Sprouted lentils and chickpeas are a green vegetable in three days.

Lentils and split peas are the legumes for the outage week: no soak, half an hour on a camp stove, or a ten minute boil and an hour in a wrapped pot. Beans wait for the pressure cooker and the day with fuel.

Shelf-life figures are from the Survival Foods field guide; fridge, freezer and pantry times are from the USDA cold and pantry storage charts. Run the look, smell, taste check before eating anything past its date.