Lara's Reviews > Cool Beans: The Ultimate Guide to Cooking with the World's Most Versatile Plant-Based Protein, with 125 Recipes

Sorry, guys, I spent the weekend finishing reading all the cookbooks I've started over the last month so I don't get in trouble at work for keeping them all out when there's a line for them--eek!

Okay, so I really liked a couple of Joe Yonan's other books, so I was very much looking forward to this one. And partly I really like this one too, just...not really to actually cook from. Pretty much at all.

So, to start with, I just really enjoy how Yonan talks about beans--it's clear that he really loves them and finds their history interesting and cares about eating them at their most delicious. And all that's pretty cool.

But the recipes! Are so long! And complicated! I love the idea of cooking dried beans all the time, I do, but in reality, I never manage to plan enough ahead to soak them overnight and then cook them for several hours on top of that. I get that they probably taste better that way. I just can't seem to figure out the timing of it. Have I mentioned that I'm real lazy? There's that, too. But Yonan makes it sound like it's a CRIME AGAINST BEANS to ever eat them out of a can or like, cook them in the Instant Pot. I mean, a couple times he's like, you can take that shortcut. If you feel good about it. Which, I don't know about you, but in my family, that was basically saying, you can do that, but we all know you're wrong and we will be over here judging you. Forever.

I would love to eat most of the things in this book, but only if someone else would put in all the time and make them for me. Because I feel like I can't make anything out of this book without being judged for taking the shortcut.

Also, I was kind of excited because I have ended up with a bunch of anasazi beans (okay, I bought them because they're cool looking and that's all) that I was hoping Joe Yonan would tell me what to do with. And he did not. They are mentioned twice, but only to say how long to cook them for and not what to actually use them for after that. So boo.

I did really enjoy reading about all the beans though!