I Made Dirt-Cheap Meals For a Week, and Here's How I Survived

Pro tip: Turn beans and lentils into soup.

One simple bean/lentil stew I crave regularly hardly requires much. Boil the beans/lentils in water, adding in some Better Than Bouillon, salting and peppering liberally, and finishing with a pat or two of butter. A small splash of vinegar also makes them taste strikingly good (a trick I learned from the famous Italian cook Marcella Hazan. If you have it available, fresh parsley is my favorite thing to wilt into a bowl of soupy beans upon serving.

Put the tip to use: bean soup recipes