I still have a rough relationship with the word “gratitude.” I described it my FLE post from last year. This year I’m wondering if gratitude is more about my eyes. Is gratitude about seeing the things around us in a more generous lens? I love food, so I’m no stranger to “quality of life foods.” We like salt, oil, savory, sour, and sweet. That much is human. It’s very easy for me to eat too many foods that are too greasy, too salty, and too sweet. It’s easy to chase foods that are more and more intense, and in the process lose the joy of more simple eating. So, to build my gratitude muscle, I challenged myself to look at simple eating with more generosity.

I made bean soup! Lentils, split peas, cow pea, onion, chicken breast, and broth along with some seasoning. It was a pretty simple and humble mix. People have survived on much more humble food, and after how much I’ve been writing about beans I realized I really ought to be eating more of them. I incorporated this soup as one of my meals for most days until it was gone. My hope was to increase my sensitivity to other foods and sharpen my gratitude skills, but it led me to other reflections as well.

While eating beans most days, I had beans on my mind a lot. I thought about beans from a lot of different angles. One of the flashiest things about beans is that they put nitrogen in the ground. This is one of my favorite metaphors in the garden because nitrogen is all around us. 78% of the atmosphere is nitrogen, but insufficient nitrogen is the main thing holding back plant growth. The nitrogen in the atmosphere is not chemically usable, beans change it into a form that is. Beans take something that is all around us and put it to good use.

That’s a part of what makes beans so exciting to use in polyculture- growing plants together at the same time, like in the three sisters! They take resources floating around in the air and turn it into a solution that helps the plants they grow with! That’s how I want to fit into community. I want to be a bean turning resources into solutions for my community.

Many people through time and to this day get a lot of their nutrition from beans. The global prevalence of beans is evident in how many cultural dishes include, if not center, black beans, chickpeas, or edamame. Beans don’t just sustain people for survival, but are nutritional powerhouses. Part of their place as nutrient powerhouses is their high amounts of plant protein and fiber. One of my reflections was being grateful to remember such an easy way to push out greasier and saltier foods, while adding more nutrition to my diet.

I was aware of nutrients and fiber in my high-minded reflections. I was also aware of the fiber with low-brow humor. “Beans, beans, the magical fruit.” Eating so much bean soup also had very predictable effects on bodily functions. And frankly, I think that’s funny. This experiment about eating a lot of beans got me laughing about farts. At some level what else is there to do besides excuse yourself and chuckle about it? It made me lighten up. It’s hard to stay preoccupied about your worries after you laugh at a fart.

Even now writing this, I’m giggling. My bean soup experiment was an act of doing what humans have always done: eat beans, then fart. To be clear, the reason I’m including this is because this was another dimension of my reflection on gratitude. Accepting things as they are and laughing about it opened up a playful view of life, the good, the bad and the stinky. After laughing about a bodily function, finding good things to be grateful for is actually super easy.

So I think this experiment worked. I became more sensitive to the soup itself. I realized that I definitely like lentils and split peas more than I like cow pea. I also became more sensitive to other foods I ate. With this simple soup becoming a base line, I was more affected by the sweet, sour, and spicy flavors of other foods.

In trying to appreciate beans more I ended up appreciating everything I ate more. Contemplating beans’ place in agriculture, human culture, and nutrition was a fun way to keep my mind occupied and a fun conversation starter. And the laughs along the way kept me lighthearted. All together, these set the tone for being moved to gratitude, and I feel ready for a great thanksgiving!

Bean soup

1 bag of lentils
1 bag of split peas
1 bag of cow pea
2-3 large chicken breasts
1 onion
paprika, to taste
red cayenne pepper, to taste
black pepper, to taste
garlic powder, to taste
turmeric, to taste
1 quart of chicken broth
1 quart of coconut milk
Instructions
1. Rinse beans, then soak with water an inch above the beans. Repeat this process.
2. Dice chicken breast
3. Dice onion.
4. Combine in a large pot.
5. Add broth. If contents are not covered, add more broth or water until contents are covered.
6. Season to taste and simmer for one hour.