The Washington Post’s Joe Yonan takes us on a tour of the world’s best and most creative bean recipes, from navy bean pie to bean ceviche. Plus, we try to find out if somebody actually paid $99,900 for a gorilla-shaped Cheeto; we make Palestinian Upside-Down Chicken and Rice; and Dr. Aaron Carroll asks: Is diet soda bad for us?

This episode is brought to you by Ferguson.

Questions in this Episode:

“My question is whether or not you can put your kitchen knives and chef’s knives in the dishwasher.”

“I had talked to you a while back about banana bread. I tried out your advice and want to report back on the results.”

“Every year for my brother’s birthday I like to bake him a carrot cake from the Silver Palette cookbook and this year I really started to wonder how long it takes to actually cook the carrots which the recipe calls for and then puree them using a food mill which I’ve always done. Why does the recipe call for you to cook them and what would the difference be if you didn’t cook them?”

“Each month I receive grass-fed beef in the mail. It’s packaged very tightly in a little cube. I notice the meat is very dense, either because it’s so finely ground or because its packaging has compressed it. I am not a big fan of this texture, I prefer the typical texture of the ground beef you’d find in a grocery store. Any ideas about how I can add some ‘fluff’ back to the meat?”

“Is there a way to tell ahead of time if you’re going to get garlic that’s easy to peel?”

Photo reprinted with permission from Cool Beans: The Ultimate Guide to Cooking with the World's Most Versatile Plant-Based Protein, with 125 Recipes by Joe Yonan, copyright © 2020. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Photography credit: Aubrie Pick © 2020