Bean Flour

I was perusing the Budget 101 website yesterday. They have many recipes on how to make convenience foods from scratch. One I found was for refried beans. It involves grinding your beans into flour and then cooking it like cream of wheat. I have never used bean flour before but I will be now - not only for refried beans but for thickener in white sauces and soups. It can also be used in place of up to 1/4 of your flour in bread. The bean flour combined with the wheat flour makes a complete protein. They suggest using white beans for bread as their flavor is mild.

I was a little concerned when I ground the pinto beans in my grain grinder even though the manual said you could. It sounded pretty bad. So I called the company to make sure that it wouldn't hurt the machine. The man said that it was perfectly okay and that the sound was because beans don't have any moisture or oils like grains do.

My little guy liked the refried beans and I had them for lunch on nachos. So I am happy I don't need to purchase them canned anymore AND I have learned a way to make my white sauce more nutritious.

Here is a website I came across for using bean flour.