Two Bean Salad

Summer is the time of backyard potlucks, people dropping in unexpectedly for weekend visits, and stinking hot temperatures. The following is my recipe for my go-to quick, easy, cheap and healthy Two Bean Salad. I love it as a side with multigrain tortillas and eggs for brunch! Take liberties with it--the salad gets better the more you tweak it to your taste.

Two Bean Salad
(serves 10 as a side; four if a main course salad)

The juice of one or two limes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tsp cumin (or more, to taste)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (to taste)
1-3 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt, pepper, healthy dash of red pepper flakes
1 cup cilantro, chopped
1 can black beans, drained--rinse if you're watching sodium
1 can small white beans, drained--rinse if you're watching sodium
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 to 1 cup red onion, chopped
1 cup frozen corn (not thawed)

In a medium-large bowl, make the dressing, mixing all the ingredients from the lime juice to the cilantro. Mix well, adjust seasonings and vinegar levels to taste. Add remaining items, mix well. Let sit at least 30 minutes for flavors to develop. As the frozen corn will thaw as it sits, but will also keep the salad cool.

Bean & Cabbage Soup

I don't know any phrase that strikes more fear in my husband than "Bean and Cabbage Soup." Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but this recipe is definitely for a house stocked with Beano. Or at the very least, don't have this as a workday lunch! Nice on a lazy, rainy day.

This recipe was inspired by Mollie Katzen's White Bean & Collard Green Soup.

Bean & Cabbage Soup

One tablespoon olive oil
One large onion, diced
Three large carrots, washed and thickly sliced
Three celery stalks, chopped
Two large cloves garlic, chopped
Six cups Chicken broth (or vegetable)
One to two teaspoons fennel seeds
One can cannelini beans, drained
One small head cabbage, cored and sliced

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot, adding the onion, carrots, celery and garlic. Salt to taste, saute until fragrant. Add broth and fennel, simmer for 20 minutes. Add beans and cabbage. The cabbage will likely fill your soup pot--put the lid on and allow the cabbage to cook down, stirring occasionally. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Nice with some "cheese toasts" (french or sourdough bread topped with sharp grated cheese and toasted under broiler) and a shot of srihacha sauce.

On my way

15+ lbs gone, it's working well.

Last night I made a mango/jicama/black bean salad after seeing Daisy Martinez make it on Viva Daisy. It was the first time I prepared a jicama, and cut myself peeling it, and then didn't know how far down the "thin, fibrous layer" went that the Joy of Cooking told me to peel away.

It was okay--though next time I'll add two mangoes and cut the jicama into smaller pieces. And I'll probably add more cilantro and maybe a bit of cumin.

Black Bean Stew

I love black bean soup. And I love a thick stew. I got to thinking about bean and pea soups, and how much I love them, but that one of my friends never has even tried them because she doesn't eat pork...and almost all bean and pea soups are built around ham of some sort.

So how could I get the same rich flavor, I wondered, without using pork? Vegetarian black bean soup is really flat and dull (to my taste), and since beans aren't normally roasted, the same depth of flavor can't be built. I perused the meats in my local market, finally deciding, with a sigh, that I wasn't going to find a good replacement--at least not at the price I wanted to pay. So over I marched to the ham hocks.

And there, right next to them, was something I'd never noticed before: smoked turkey parts. Wings or drumsticks, vacuum-packed in pairs, with the drums about $6 for two. Was this the solution I was looking for? I rushed home to try it out. And here is the glorious result.

Black Bean Stew

1 pound black beans (usually one bag), picked over, rinsed and drained
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 smoked turkey drumsticks
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
water to cover--if you have chlorinated water go ahead an buy a big 2.5 gallon bottle of spring water for best flavor
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 ribs celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon ground cumin
6 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon vinegar or juice of one lime

Serving garnish: Sour cream, minced scallion, chopped cilantro, diced avocado, and/or a little shredded cheese.

Place beans, turkey drumsticks, bay leaves, oregano and baking soda in large pot, add water to cover (about 6 cups) with tight-fitting lid. Bring to boil over medium-high heat; skim scum as it rises to surface. Stir in 1 teaspoon salt, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer briskly until beans are tender, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours (if necessary, add another 1 cup water and continue to simmer until beans are tender); do not drain beans. Discard bay leaves. Remove turkey, cut into shreds or cubes, and set aside.

Now, heat oil in a soup or heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add onions, carrot, celery, and 1 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are soft and lightly browned, 12 to 15 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low and add garlic, pepper flakes, and cumin; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Stir in beans, bean cooking liquid, and chicken broth. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.

Blend until half blended with an immersion or traditional blender. If necessary, thicken with water/cornstarch. Add lime juice or vinegar to brighten the flavor, and then add the turkey meat and black pepper. Ladle into bowls and garnish as desired.

Food fiascos and other tales

Have to type fast as the Baby has just decided to wake up and get crabby.

Had leftover crusty bread and some tart apples. Made french toast with apples--had some fancy name. Looked and smelled great, but it really needed something else. Caramel? The apples should have been crisper maybe. The french toast itself was nice. I baked the whole thing in the oven and baking the toast seemed to work really well.

Made Pastitsio, which is like Greek Lasagna. Usually I do really well with it and it's a pot-luck favorite. Of course, this time I was cooking for both my In-Laws and my Parents, and somehow I overcooked it. The macaroni on top was crispy and hard and the cheese was far from melty--it was that hard, crispy overcooked cheese. Not nice. But everyone was positively lovely about it, even my father in-law, who was silent as he took the hard bits that he didn't want to eat out of his mouth.

Went to a place called Henry's in Berkeley. It's in the Hotel Durant, and I guess it's really a college bar and grill. It was pleasant and old and reeked of Cal (which is UC Berkeley). I got braised short ribs served on a bed of red beans and rice. I don't count the four asparagus spears as "Seasonal Vegetables" but "GARNISH." The food could have been seasoned better with salt and pepper, but the beef was tender and the beans and rice were cooked to perfect doneness. I wasn't impressed with what my co-diner got, but she seemed happy with her "cheap steak", so I'll go back again, given the right opportunity.

Making Steamed Clams tonight. If it goes right, I'll blog it.

Pasta e Fagioli

Fast, cheap and satisfying...Pasta e Fagioli is a perfect soup/stew for those dreary days of January. This dish was a hit with the whole family--The Bug had thirds!

It's a rustic dish, so don't worry about perfect sizes on the vegetables. Also, while it seems like a lot of ingrediants, it's really a "what's in the fridge that needs to be used" dish. Add and subtract items as you wish. I like to make this when I have some leftover crusty bread to throw in. Total cooking time should take no more than an hour. This is a fresh, fast dinner. (To make it vegetarian, skip the chicken and make with your favorite veggie stock.)

Pasta e Fagioli

2 Tablespoons olive oil
Two boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I use the flash-frozen kind, so they're fairly big)
1/2 large yellow or white onion, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 head of celery, including center stalks, diced
1 large carrot, sliced or diced
1 head cauliflower, broken into bite-sized pieces
1 large can chicken broth
1 large can skinned, diced tomatoes
1 can white or black beans, with some liquid drained
1/2 cup small pasta, like tubetini or alphabets (if you do a mixture like me, watch cooking times)
8 oz frozen chopped spinach
1/4 cup romano cheese, shredded
crushed red pepper, to taste
freshly ground black pepper
day old sourdough bread, torn into bite-sized pieces (optional)
fresh herbs (basil, thyme, or parsley work well)

Heat olive oil in large stock pot on medium high; add whole chicken breasts. After they have browned on both sides, add onion, garlic, celery and carrot. Lower heat immediately to medium/medium low, saute until fragrant. Add chicken broth, turn to high heat and bring to a boil, then turn down to med/med-low again. Add cauliflower and tomatoes. Cook for about 3 minutes, then add pasta. Stir occasionally to keep the pasta from sticking to the pot.

Halfway in the pasta cooking time, add beans; stir well. Remove chicken breasts and slice into bite-sized pieces, return to pot with any juices that have collected in the cutting process.

When pasta is cooked, add frozen spinach. After about 3 minutes, add the bread, red and black pepper, and cheese. Check for seasonings.

Ladle into bowls and top with chopped fresh herbs.

Beans, Beans, They’re Good for Your Heart

I love a good black bean burrito. The cheaper the better. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Please don’t add rice. A little cheese, a good dose of piping hot black beans…at most some onions, maybe some cilantro. Yum.

A place down the road from the FleaJuice House (aka home) serves a lovely bean burrito for only $3.95. They serve it mojado, which means it’s wet. Making a burrito mojado usually entails enchilada sauce and a smattering of cheese, but this place is smart and uses delicious tomatillo sauce, also known as salsa verde, which is green and garlicky and just the slightest bit sweet. Then they smother it with cheese (hey, I didn’t get to be fat from skipping the cheese). A kick-ass burrito, as big as my head, for under five bucks. Man. I’m making myself hungry.

I had a black bean burrito for lunch today, as pictured, and the man I was with stopped mid-sentence and blurted out, “What are you eating?” I thought it was funny because we are in the SF/Bay Area, and I’d have thought he’d have seen a black bean burrito before. Maybe the fact that he’s 66 years old makes a difference.