Week 7: lentil soup

Lentil soup is a repeat for the blog but still counts for me eating beans every week goal. I really love this simple soup! A family favorite. Here's my original post about it.

http://realfoodrealgood.blogspot.com/2010/02/lentil-soup.html

Week 6: White bean purée

While many fancy restaurants sell this as a elegant base to some fancy dish it was a flop at my house. I hesitate to give the recipie as it is still in the fridge 2 weeks later uneaten. I will, but just to proven haven't given up on beans

1 cup dried white beans
Olive oil
Roasted garlic

Soak beans and cook until tender. Purée with garlic and a drizzle of olive oil as needed for consistency.

Someone needs to tell me why this is so trendy. Just not as good as hummus even though it is about the same.

Week 5: tri-color lentil and mushroom risotto

The legume of the week is tri-colored lentils. I found these in the bulk bin at Whole Food last week (Where I went to town on dried beans - they have a $1 off coupon for the packaged dried beans in the Jan/Feb whole deal. Limit one per transaction, but no limit on the number of transactions!)

Tri-color includes black, red, and yellow/white ones. The red ones looked like normal red ones - slightly smaller than the typical green/gray lentils. It also seemed like black took longest to cook, but then again, maybe they just stood out the most. Overally I would say you could use these in place of any dish which has red lentils in it and you want a more interesting color scheme.

Here's what I planned on using for the dish:


That's white rice, powdered chicken broth, tri-color lentils, white wine, mushrooms, green onions and smoked jack cheese. I ended up using onion and garlic as well (onion was already in the pot when I took the photo) and replaced the smoked jack cheese with Parmesan since I had it, although I still think the smokey flavor works well in risotto.

1. finely mince 1 small onion and 2 cloves garlic and coarsly chop 2 cups (1/2 a package) of mushrooms and saute with olive oil over medium heat until onions are translucent.
2. add 1 cup short grain white rice (aborio is the typical one for risotto, mine was unlabeled, so I'm not sure) and 3/4 cup tri-color lentils and mix well



3. add a good splash of white wine - about 2/3 cup and stir constantly over medium heat until it is absorbed.
4. gradually add chicken broth (mixed mine from the powder and water), mixing well. I add about 1/2 a cup at a time for the first 3 times, letting each get fully adsorbed. After that I added about 2 cups more and put the lid on and left it over low heat, checking on it.
5. when the rice and lentils are done (add more water and cover and cook additional 5-10 min on low as necessary) add 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese and 4-5 scallions, finely minced.

Serve with a sprinkle of Parmesan and a glass of white wine! A delicious full meal!

Week 4: sweet potato bean quesadillas

Sometimes it doesn't require specifically cooking beans for a dish to create a great bean dish. You can use any kind of beans for this. Canned blackbeans, for example, would work great. I used leftover pinto beans.

2 flour tortillas
1 sweet potato
beans, your choice
salsa or hot sauce
cheese

I cooked the sweet potato by cubing it and boiling it because it was faster than roasting, then I drained and mashed them. However you want would work fine for this dish. Simply stack up the ingredients on a tortilla and pop in the oven until crisp.

Week 3: White Bean Chicken soup

I did a basic soup with some white beans for my week 3 meal. I got the white beans from a local farmer at the Farmer's market in Falmouth this past summer. I don't have exact cost info for them but they were typical plain white beans and I'm sure any variation would work.

Chicken carcass (or broth and chicken meat)
2-3 chopped carrots
2-3 chopped stalks of celery
1 onion
thyme
1 16oz can diced tomatoes
1 cup barley

1. Cook the chicken carcass into broth and then shred the chicken bits off it (or skip this if you are using premade.
2. soak the beans in boiling water for a hour
3.saute the veggies in a frying pan with a little bit of oil until they are soft.
4. place all ingredients in a crockpot on low for about 4 hours.

Serve and enjoy

Note the barley makes it very thick, so consider using less if you want more soup/less stew-like feeling.

Week 2: Classic Maine Baked Beans

2 down, 50 to go! I had to make this classic when it got cold in the middle of the week (not a big surprise for January, I know). Having a pot of beans on just warms the whole house. I had been researching a variety of baked bean recipes, all claiming to be the best, and realized they all amounted to about the same thing. Sure were good! Here it is, partially from the back of the package of Maine (c) dry beans I bought at Hannaford. (grown nearby in Fryeburg at Green Thumb Farms!)

2 cups Maine Yellow eye beans
4 strips bacon
1/2c molasses
2 tsp dry mustard
1 small onion, minced
dash of salt

1. Soak the beans either overnight or quick soak by bringing up to boiling and allow to sit for an hour.

2. rinse with fresh water and bring to a boil in a heavy bottomed pot. Say a bean pot. Or enamel coated cast iron (I love my enamel coated cast iron!!). Boil until the skins split when you blow on them (They really do! took about an hour).

3. Leave just enough water to cover the beans and add the remaining ingredients. Now if you are a true bean person bake them in a woodstove for 6hrs. Or leave them in the crockpot for 6 hours. Or cook them down on low heat, watching carefully to make sure they don't burn until you can't stand it anymore and you have to go to work and you eat some. Let the rest sit in the crockpot. Beans get better with age. The flavors meld. These were much better leftover the next day.

Bean Stats:
Name: Yellow eye bean
Source: State of Maine brand, Hannaford
Cost: $5.69/ 2lbs
cooking method: soak, boil, and bake
final dish: Classic Maine baked beans.

I promise I will take a photo next week, now what would be a good lookin' bean to photograph?

Week 1:Fava beans- middle eastern pita lunch

The Fava beans cooked up quite nicely. Despite being a bit greenish dry then turned a dark brown when cooked. I also found the large size made them cook a bit unevenly. Some of them were already mush by the time others were soft. I kept them plain and then came up with this delicious lunch

Middle Eastern Fava pitas
1 pita
1/2 cup of cooked Fava beans
1/2 tsp cumin
Juice of half a lemon
2 tbs parsley
2 tbs chopped red onion
Cheese (optional)
Cooked Italian sausage crumbles (optional)

Mix the cumin and lemon juice into the beans and spread on a pita. Top with a generous portion of parsley, chopped onion and cheese or sausage as desired. (I happened to have some leftover sausage and I found just a crumbled added a lot of flavor.) delicious!