Plant Based Eating Tips by Dietitian Amy
Beautiful beans from Rancho Gordo
We have recently started featuring more Rancho Gordo beans in our vegetarian dishes. Rancho Gordo is a bean grower and seller in Napa, CA. Their special focus is on heirloom beans. We love sourcing from local businesses, we also love what Rancho Gordo does:
Growing heirloom beans (preserving biodiversity for the win!)
Educating about heirloom beans and how to cook them
Supporting Northern California agriculture
Not all beans that they sell are grown on their farm in Napa, but for those that aren’t they focus on finding the best quality beans grown in the Western United States (with a few products sources from South America).
Rancho Gordo beans are high quality, delicious, and help us add more diversity to our food. Recently we’ve featured Royal Corona beans and Black Eyed Peas from Rancho Gordo. Be on the look out in our upcoming menus to see what we’re featuring next!
Plant Based Eating Tip
From our partner dietitian Amy Slabaugh, RDN
Beans & Legumes
Plant based eating is a great choice for general health, prevention of certain diseases, and for the environment. One important part of plant based eating is beans (as well as the rest of the legume family: nuts, seeds, lentils and peas). Some of the key nutrients that beans offer us are fiber, iron and protein. The protein that beans offer is part of what makes them so special for those who are having more plant based meals since fruit and vegetables are relatively low in protein.
Incomplete Proteins
Animal sources of protein are considered “complete” protein - they have all of the building blocks that our bodies need, whereas plant sources of protein are considered “incomplete”. One way to take these plant proteins from “incomplete” to “complete” is by combining them. Beans and legumes are offering us part of what we need, and whole grains are there to save the day and provide the rest of the protein building blocks that we need.
Beans and Whole Grains - A Perfect Complement
To help your body get all of the plant protein it needs be sure to add plenty of beans, legumes and whole grains to your diet. You’ll find that whole grains foods can be a great complement to eat with the beans and legumes (mmmm… think chili and whole grain corn bread).
Check out the menus below and see what whole grain and plant based protein items are coming up next with The Table Catering.
Happy eating!