The Weekly Bean Pot — One Batch, Three Suppers (No Oil)

General Fast Without Oil Published August 02, 2026

The single most useful thing you can do for a long fast is cook a pot of beans on Sunday. Not a recipe so much as a foundation: three cups of dried beans, aromatics, and time. What comes out is enough protein for most of the week and a bean broth worth more than the beans.

Cooked without oil, beans depend entirely on the aromatics and on being salted correctly — late, and generously. Bay, garlic, onion, and a dried chili go in at the start; salt goes in when the beans are nearly tender. Salting too early keeps the skins tough.

Below the master pot are three ways to eat it across the week, so you are not eating the same bowl three nights running. Keep the beans in their liquid; it is the difference between a bean and a good bean.

FASTING LEVEL: Fast Without Oil (strict days)
SERVINGS: 8-10 across three meals
TIME: 2 hours (plus overnight soak)

INGREDIENTS

For the master pot:
- 600g (3 cups) dried beans — cannellini, cranberry, pinto, or chickpeas
- 1 large onion, halved
- 1 whole head garlic, top sliced off
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 dried chili
- 1 carrot, halved
- 2 celery stalks
- A few parsley stems
- 3 teaspoons salt, added late

For supper one — brothy beans with greens:
- 1 bunch chard or kale, chopped
- Lemon juice, black pepper, red pepper flakes

For supper two — bean and tomato stew:
- 1 x 400g can crushed tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon dried oregano

For supper three — mashed bean spread:
- 2 garlic cloves, grated
- Juice of 1 lemon, cumin, parsley

METHOD

1. Soak the beans overnight in plenty of cold water. Drain and rinse. (Chickpeas want a full 12 hours; cannellini are happy with 8.)

2. Put the beans in a large heavy pot with the onion, garlic head, bay, chili, carrot, celery, and parsley stems. Cover with cold water by 3 inches.

3. Bring to a boil, then immediately drop to the barest simmer — a hard boil breaks the skins. Skim the foam that rises in the first ten minutes.

4. Cook 1.5-2 hours, checking the water level and topping up with hot water as needed. Start tasting at 75 minutes.

5. When the beans are nearly tender but not yet soft, add the salt. Cook 15-20 minutes more until creamy all the way through, with no chalk at the center.

6. Let the beans cool in their liquid. Fish out and discard the vegetables and bay; squeeze the soft garlic cloves out of their skins and back into the pot.

7. SUPPER ONE (that night): ladle beans and plenty of broth into a pot, add chopped chard, and simmer 6 minutes until tender. Finish with lemon, black pepper, and pepper flakes. Eat with bread.

8. SUPPER TWO (midweek): simmer 3 cups of drained beans with the crushed tomatoes, garlic, paprika, and oregano for 20 minutes, mashing some against the pot to thicken. Add bean broth to loosen.

9. SUPPER THREE (later in the week): mash 2 cups of drained beans with grated garlic, lemon juice, cumin, and a few spoonfuls of hot bean broth until smooth. Season hard. Spread on bread with raw vegetables.

NOTES

- On oil days, a thread of olive oil over any of the three transforms them. On strict days, lean harder on lemon, vinegar, and black pepper — acid does what fat would.
- Save every drop of the bean broth. Freeze what you will not use within four days; it is better than most vegetable stock.
- A strip of kombu in the pot softens the beans and adds minerals. Remove before serving.
- Beans keep five days refrigerated in their liquid, or three months frozen in portions.