Tinned Vegetables

Organic tinned vegetables from Biona and Organic Kitchen.

Chickpeas, butter beans, kidney beans, cannellini, borlotti, black beans, green and puy lentils, sweetcorn, artichoke hearts and ratatouille.

Tinned pulses are already cooked, so they need warming rather than boiling — twenty minutes of simmering turns chickpeas to mush. Rinsing removes most of the added salt.

The liquid in a chickpea tin is aquafaba, and it whips like egg white. It's the standard vegan meringue substitute, so it's worth draining into a bowl rather than the sink if you bake.

Tinned pulses are nutritionally close to dried ones — the main trade-off is salt and the tin, not the food.