We don't have many canned items in our house because they leach BPA into the food, but we do have some canned beans (in case I miss the 12-hour window of soaking time) and some tomato products (really just an excuse for not getting around to canning them last fall) on hand.
I was met with two options of garbanzo beans when I opened the pantry. I don't know the reasons, perhaps I picked up the non-organic one by accident, but I had one can of organic garbanzo beans and one that was not -- by the same grocer brand name.
I thought a bean is a bean, except one is organic, right? I was surprised by what the labels disclosed.
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| Organic Canned Garbanzo Bean Ingredients |
- Organic Garbanzo Beans
- Water
- Sea Salt
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| Traditional Canned Garbanzo Bean Ingredients |
- Prepared Garbanzo Beans (they never say what "prepared" means)
- Water
- Salt
- Calcium Chloride (Firming Agent)
- Disodium EDTA
The only other significant difference was in sodium. The organic garbanzo beans had 100 mg per serving versus a much larger 330 mg of sodium in the non-organic beans.
This helped make clear that decisions are not simply as easy as organic or not. Organic or not also affects the handling and packaging too. And organic clearly wins.
I pledge to read labels more carefully when shopping.
As for pricing, the non-sale prices were $.88 for the non-organic beans versus $1.25 for the organically grown beans.
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| Vitamix Makes Hummus in About 15 Seconds |
If your interested in making a great hummus dip, here was my recipe for today:
- 15-ounce can of organic garbanzo beans drained and rinsed and placed in blender/food processor
- 1/2 cup filtered water (more or less depending on how smooth you want the final product)
- 1 larger organic clove of garlic
- 1 Tablespoon organic lemon juice
- 2 Tablespoons of organic olive oil
- Sea salt (to taste)
- 2 small pieces of fire-roasted red pepper (optional)
*blend until smooth
Enjoy!
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| Fire-Roasted Red Pepper Hummus |
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