Have you heard of resistant starch? I’ve heard about it on various sites around the web, including on Chris Kresser’s site. From what I understand the basic premise is that resistant starch is a prebiotic. It is able to survive through the stomach and small intestine and finally ends up in your colon where it feeds the bacteria in your gut. Having something to eat makes your gut bacteria happy, which should, in theory, make your body happy.
I can’t speak to any of that, but I found it interesting that the sources for this type of starch are in foods such as plantains, unripe bananas, and cooked and cooled potatoes, rice, and beans. I like all of those foods so I’m happy to have an excuse to make extra rice and an easier-to-digest pot of beans and save them for an easy meal later.
Something good for me that makes my life easier? Why in the world not?!
So, I make this Rice and Bean Salad pretty often, ya know, to fulfill my quotient of resistant starch. I also eat green bananas from time to time as well, but green bananas does not a tasty, filling salad for six make.
Rice and Bean Salad
The Players
For the Salad
- 4 cups prepared jasmine rice that has been cooled
- 3 cups prepared black beans that have been cooled (or bean variety of choice)
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 large heirloom tomatoes, diced
- 2 oz grass-fed cheddar cheese, diced (where to buy raw, grass-fed cheddar)
For the Dressing
- 1 large very ripe avocado
- 4 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar or lime juice
- 4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (yours is probably fake; where to buy real olive oil)
- 1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt, more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne, or 1/2 teaspoon for spicier
- 1/2 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
The How-To
- Combine all salad ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate, smaller bowl, mash the avocado very well. Add the vinegar, olive oil, salt, cayenne, and Mexican oregano. Mix together with a fork until evenly combined.
- Pour the dressing into the salad bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon until combined.
- Serve with lime wedges as a simple lunch.
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What do you mean by “prepared beans?”
It means that you cooked them already, then cooled them.
I embraced these foods with enthusiasm, as I have high intolerance to carbs in spite of regular use of fermented foods and soluble fiber. Constipation, gas and carb cravings were immediately relieved, and I could use moderate amounts of other carbs freely without these symptoms. However the big draawback showed up at once–severe stomach aches! This stuff is not digestible, right? Well, they’re murder on the stomach, so watch out! Using small and infrequent servings did not work, nor did using spices or digestive aids with them. As a chinese herbal practitioner I recognized the symptoms of excess cold on the stomach immediately. Maybe resistent starch as an enteric=coated supplement? These recommendations need more work!!
What does the cooling do to the starch?
Thanks, recipe looks yummy!
The foods must be cooked to make them digestible for us, but cooking breaks down the resistant starch.
Letting the foods cool reforms the resistant starch. To be clear, they don’t need to be cold, just not hot. Resistant starch starts breaking down at about 130F.
Why do they have to be cooled?
Please see my answer to Windee above! 🙂
Do you happen to know whether cooked/cooled rice/beans can retain their status of resistant starch if they are reheated?
Yes, but you’d have to cool it again.
wish you had a printer-friendly version of your recipes.
I do. Just click on the Print Friendly button above the Sharing Is Rebellious label at the end of the post. 🙂
I was wondering if the avocado dressing turns brown. I am a family of 1 and would have to eat this over the course of several days. If it turns brown it would be very unappetizing. Also would it be sacrilegious to use canned beans?
I plan on trying to make this tonight! However, I am worried my black beans will not be done cooking when I need them to be… I started them in the crock pot on high after soaking over night. It seems though my crockpot is not cooking on high 🙁
Anyway, I had a question – I bought some Jasmine Rice. I read a little bit about the traditional preparation/arsenic, etc. Could you let me know the best way to prepare the Jasmine Rice? Assuming I follow the recipe to a T.
Thanks so much!
If it is white jasmine rice, I would just cook according to package instructions. White rice doesn’t hold up well to the soaking method used for brown rice. If your jasmine rice is from Asia, the amount of arsenic in it will be minimal. It’s mostly US rice that has the high levels of arsenic.
Blah. My thoughts were backwards. I bought organic California rice. I’ll do better next time. Thank you so much!
My whole family loved it. This will definitely be a repeat meal in our home. 🙂
Would organic, rinsed, canned beans work for this recipe?
Would sprouting the beans take it to another level?
I actually took a nutrition class last semester and was really fascinated by resistant starches. As you say, beans, barely ripe bananas and cooked and then cooled, potato, pasta and rice. These foods are actually “double” classified as dietary fibers because they escape digestion in the same way as insoluable fiber. There is also a commonality between these foods in that they all contain Phytic Acid, it is unclear if it is the dietary fiber or the p.a. or both that blocks their absorption. Either way, yes, – it passes all the way through the digestive tract and has been proven to support colon health. All of this said, I do believe that the “cooked and then cooled” foods – rice, pasta and potato must then be eaten in their cooled state, it seems to me that this is a structural change that takes place in the starch that would be changed if reheated and therefore not beneficial. I could be interpreting incorrectly, but from what I know about how it happens, this seems to be the case.
With the green banana, cut both ends off and rinse the banana to remove milk….mark the banana a couple of times with a knife in a vertical direction then boil using a little sea salt until skin turns black and is easily pierced. Skin is then removed easily.
Have you tried black rice? Pricey…but very tasty!
I have to stay away from rice, pasta and potatoes these days. The simple carbs knock my blood glucose out of the park.
“I have to stay away from rice, pasta and potatoes these days. The simple carbs knock my blood glucose out of the park.”
when the starch is in the form of resistant starch, the opposite should happen to your blood sugar,it should actually improve. Try it and test your blood sugar with regular potatoes, then the next day with a cooked and cooled potato. You’ll be very surprised at the results.
Add some fat and the results will be even better.
Would this salad be good for a diabetics diet ?