My Vegan MoFo theme this year is “Go Vegan with JL…In the kitchen!” in which I reply to your questions about cooking in your vegan kitchen. (I explain a bit more about my theme and plan for my October posts here.)

“I need an easy way to make grains, beans and legumes in advance from bulk and then store (freeze?) for later use. I don’t want to use canned, but don’t always have time to soak (or remember to soak!).”

Oh, this is easy! Use a pressure cooker! You don’t have to soak your beans (you can if you want to but it’s not necessary) and your beans and grains are done in minutes.

I have written a great deal about my pressure cooker, and created many recipes with one. You can browse my old posts to read more about my recipes and love for the pressure cooker. Here are a few that may be helpful to those of you new to pressure cooking:

I am often asked what kind of pressure cooker I use. I only have experience using Presto stove top pressure cookers with the “jiggly top” – specifically the 6-quart and 4-quart cookers. I turn to these two books constantly: Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure and The New Fast Food (both the print and electronic edition). Disclosure: I have affiliate relationships with each link listed.

Just yesterday I decided to reheat the lentils I made in my rice cooker earlier in the week; I wanted to add a grain to the lentils so I grabbed a box of bulgur and whipped this up in no time.