Tag Archive for 'beans'

Zucchini, Tomato, Cannellini Quick-Cook

Published on December 6, 2010 in Beans + Legumes and Side Dishes. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .


Yeah, that’s not the best name…it takes longer to say it than to make it. Frankly, I didn’t really know what else to call it. I didn’t want to leave out any of the three main ingredients as they really do all come together so nicely and one isn’t necessarily the star of the dish more than another (although don’t those cherry tomatoes look absolutely mouthwatering?*) And I refuse to use the word “medley” — that is reserved only for those of the musical variety and then, only those sung by Cher (Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves, Half Breed and Dark Lady being my personal favorite). But I digress.

I came up with this recipe when I was a lazy single gal. Not that all single girls are lazy; I just was. When it came to cooking, that is. Yes, cooking! What did you think I meant? Anyway. I was known, at times, to eat a yogurt for dinner or even cereal (yes, girls do this too, boys). Not always, mind you. Just some nights. Oh you know what I mean. Anyway.

One night I was feeling mildly less lazy and had some zucchini and cherry tomatoes laying around and a can of cannellini beans in the cupboard. So I tossed in a little garlic, a pinch of dried sage, a sprinkle of Parmesan and a nice big grind of black pepper, and I was golden, Pony Boy. It’s a super-easy one-pan meal, but you can also serve it as a side dish (for those really industrious types). And if you want to make it a complete protein, just serve it with rice or pasta. It’s also lovely over quinoa. And it beats cereal any old day.

Zucchini, Tomato, Cannellini Quick-Cook
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium or 2 small zucchini, cut into thin half circles (or quarters if you have a small person)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried sage (or 1 tablespoon fresh, minced)
12-15 cherry tomatoes, halved (about 1 cup)
1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
Salt
Black pepper
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated (optional)

Heat olive oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add zucchini, sauté until the pieces start browning. Add garlic and sage and stir everything around a bit. Squeeze the juice out of each cherry tomato half into the pan and then toss the tomato in. Cook for another minute or two. Add the beans and cook until heated through. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with grated Parmesan.

* Courtesy of Dan‘s garden…and all gone by this time of year…so I had to use store-bought (but still local and organic!)

Tex-Mex Pasta Salad

Published on November 3, 2010 in Beans + Legumes, Mexican, pasta, Salads and Side Dishes. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .


This is a recipe of my darling dad’s, who is sadly, heartbreakingly, no longer with us. My dad was a late bloomer in the cooking department, but once he got going, there was no stopping him! He was the mad scientist to my mom’s Betty Crocker, doctoring a recipe or just making it up as he went along. He never met a spice or condiment that he didn’t like – and I definitely take after him in that regard. I’m not exactly sure where this pasta salad recipe came from, but it’s right up my alley with lots of spices and goodies in every bite. My dad had such a zest for life and that always came across in his cooking – full of flavor, fun and gusto.


This is a great summer picnic salad; it just feels beachy and fun to me. Never mind it’s November. I’m just going to pretend I’m still in Buenos Aires, where it’s Spring, so there. And yes, you can eat it right away, but it gets better if it sits in the fridge for a few hours so the flavors get incorporated into the pasta and everything gets nice and cold.


Tex-Mex Pasta Salad

Pasta:
1 pound penne (or other pasta with nooks and crannies, e.g., fusilli, farfalle)
1 15-ounce/210 g can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup corn (about 2 ears worth of fresh)
1 cup celery, diced (about 2-3 stalks)
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/4 cup pickled pepperoncini, chopped (optional, but this is what gives it some heat)
Tabasco or other hot sauce (optional)

Dressing:
2/3 cup Italian salad dressing (bottled or homemade)
1/2 cup mayonnaise or Veganaise
1 tablespoon cumin
1/2 tablespoon chili powder
1//4 teaspoon cayenne
Salt to taste

Boil the pasta in salted water according to directions. While the pasta is cooking, chop and prep all your veggies. Make the dressing in the bowl you’re going to serve the salad in and dump the veggies in. Drain the cooked pasta and add to the bowl, mixing well. Taste for seasoning; add salt if necessary.

Veggie Enchiladas

Published on March 3, 2010 in Beans + Legumes, Main Courses and Mexican. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

You’d think that the food in Buenos Aires would be spicy, no? Well, it’s not. Like, not even the littlest bit. I don’t know why this was so shocking to me, seeing as how porteños are really a bunch of Italians that speak Spanish and think they’re English. Not really! I kid! That’s just an expression here. I guess I thought, you know, Latin America…spicy passionate people…spicy passionate food…umm, no. Fact is, Argentina is not big on the picante. I’m really not sure why that is, although a lot of the cuisine here is based on Italian food, which generally isn’t terribly spicy.

Thus, when it comes to Mexican food of the spicy variety, there’s quite the dearth of available options. I mean, Argentina is a looong way from Mexico, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that Mexican food and ingredients are not the easiest things to procure here.

The issue here is that I am a Mexican food junkie. Hello, my name is Jennifer and I am a Mexican food junkie. Say it all together now: “Hello, Jennifer.” Clearly, San Francisco is the holy grail of Mexican food in the US (fyi, I’m partial to La Taqueria on 25th & Mission). And while NYC is NOT — I repeat NOT — even close to SF in regard to its Mexican food, it has BsAs beat hands down.

So, my solution to this Mexican food dilemma is threefold:
1) Track down any and all hot sauces available in the city; Barrio Chino is the spot for this.
2) Have visiting friends and family bring hot sauce and other spicy things.
3) Make my own.

The great thing about enchiladas is that you can really throw anything in there that’s available, which is a good thing here because quite frequently, I’ll go to buy something I’ve bought for the last 9 months or so and the grocery store just doesn’t carry it anymore. Just like that. Poof. Gone. Like, peanut butter, for instance. Or black beans. I mean, really? They have 35 brands of dulce de leche, but not a single stinking jar of peanut butter lying around? Come on, people. Work with me here!

These enchiladas are freeing. So, there isn’t a black bean to be had in Buenos Aires? Never mind. I’ll throw in some alubia beans (cannellinis to Americanos). No cilantro? Pfff. I see your cilantro deficiency and raise you a handful of parsley. You really can’t screw them up. This time, I was feeling a bit time-crunched, so I found a nice little pre-chopped mix (swiss chard, celery, corn, leeks, carrots, squash and parsley), which is ostensibly for soup, but worked perfectly here.

Tortillas + veggies + cheese + red pepper sauce
+ just a little more cheese, thanks
= Pseudo-Mexican goodness

And that’s good enough for me. For now.

Veggie Enchiladas
Recipe adapted from Tamra Davis’ Cooking Show

1-2 tablespoons olive oil
3 zucchinis, chopped (or 2 cups of chopped vegetables of your choosing)
½ an onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1-1/2 teaspoons of cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder*
1 cup of corn kernels (fresh or frozen)
1 14-ounce/210 g can of beans (I like black, but as they have fallen off the face of the earth here, I used cannellinis (kidney beans would also be nice)
Salt and pepper
1-½ cup of sharp cheddar (or mozzarella, asiago, goat cheese, go crazy)
12 flour tortillas

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce:
1 red pepper, roasted and peeled (you can buy them like that, no need to burn the house down!)
1 15-ounce can of tomato sauce (they sell cubed or cubierto tomatoes in tomato sauce here; that’s what I use)
1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped (yes! Found this here)
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1 tablespoon of cumin
½ teaspoon of salt
Black pepper
2 tablespoons of cilantro, roughly chopped
Juice from one lime

Preheat oven to 350ºF/180ºC. Start by sautéing the onions in the olive oil on medium heat for a couple minutes. Add your veggies, then add the corn and spices. Cook for about 3-5 minutes; you want the veggies to soften up — not super crunchy, but still with a little bite to them. Add the beans and cook just til they’re heated through.

While that’s cooking, grate your cheese of choice (or open your package of pre-grated cheese and have a glass of wine; no judgment here).

Now it’s assembly line time. A great project for the kid or kiddies to help with. Take a tortilla, fill it with enough of the veggie bean mixture to spread out evenly across the lower-middle part of the tortilla (the tortillas here are really small, so I can only manage about ¼ cup, but if you have the big ones, you can put a lot more in). Don’t pile it too high, but don’t skimp either. You’ll work it out. Now squiggle (yes, squiggle) a nice handful of cheese over the veggies and then take the bottom of the tortilla, roll it over the top of the veggies and place seam down in your waiting 9” x 13” pan. If you have the big tortillas, after you roll the bottom over the top of the veggies, fold the two ends in and keep rolling, so your filling doesn’t fall out. My veggies often fall out and I just tuck them back in.

Once you’ve done all the filling and rolling and placing, pour the red pepper sauce over the tortillas. If you have any filling left, just add it on top of the sauce and then sprinkle liberally with the remaining cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes. Serve immediately.

It’s nice to serve with some guacamole, sour cream or plain yogurt and hot sauce. Some brown rice with a little smoked paprika or cilantro tossed in there would be lovely as well.

* They don’t have chili powder in BsAs (see what I mean? No spicy!), so I use a combination of aji molido, ground coriander, ground nutmeg, oregano and a dash of cinnamon.

Veggie Chili

Published on January 2, 2010 in Beans + Legumes, Main Courses, Mexican and Tofu + Tempeh. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .


It’s weird living in a place for a limited amount of time. We’re planning on being here for a year mas o menos, so it’s not like I’m about to outfit my kitchen with every gadget under the sun. But it was a very sad situation when we first moved into our apartment – the pots and pans were truly gross – unsafe in fact (scraped off Teflon – yuck), and there was not a SINGLE cooking utensil to be found. OK, so there was silverware, but I’m not counting that. So, believe it or not, I have been subsisting on the following items:

• Large sauté pan
• Large stock pot
• Small saucepan
• Half-sheet pan
• Rubber scraper
• Spatula
• Whisk
• Cuisinart Mini Prep (Mom brought it down and I use an adapter – could NOT live without this little baby)

And you know what? It’s kinda cool. I’m roughing it! The truth is you don’t need an egg slicer, a garlic press or ten different pans. You can actually make lots of things without a lot of stuff. I do miss my dishes and serving pieces, and I sometimes long for my pretty French blue Le Creuset enamel Dutch oven, but I’ll survive. It’s forcing me to be a more ingenious and flexible cook. And that can only be a good thing, right?

So, as a celebration of my limited kitchen contents, I’m sharing my delicious veggie chili recipe. One pot, one spoon. Works for me.

NOTES:
If you want to up the protein factor, you can add a block of tempeh (one 8 oz. package) after the red pepper is in the pan and cook for about 5 minutes. Alternatively, you can add half a bag of tofu crumbles or mycoprotein (Quorn is the brand name I use, and it’s available at Whole Foods and, clearly, not here) after you add the tomatoes and beans.

Feel free to use any combination of beans – chickpeas or cannellini beans also work nicely. I also tossed in some zapallito redondo (which as far as I can make out is a round zucchini; who knew?) because I’d never seen it before, and therefore, had to buy it.

While this is technically a one-pot meal, it’s nice to have it over brown rice and don’t forget the toppings (condiments, people, condiments!): sour cream or plain yogurt, cheese (sharp cheddar, jack, etc.), avocado, pepitas (pumpkin seeds), your favorite hot sauce, and fresh cilantro. Any or all of the above, por favor.

Veggie Chili

1 glug* olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chili powder
1-½ tablespoons ground cumin
1-½ teaspoons dried oregano
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper or 1 jalapeño, minced with seeds (hot) or without (not so hot)
28 ounce/784 g can crushed tomatoes
2-14 oz/210 g cans black beans
1-14 oz/210 g can kidney beans
½ cup fresh (about one ear’s worth) or frozen corn (optional)
¼ cup balsamic vinegar (I know it sounds weird, but it works!)
Salt

* glug = 1-2 tablespoons, 1 if you want to be healthy, 2 if you want to live on the edge

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions, sautéing until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and red pepper and cook for a minute or two. Add chili powder, cumin, oregano and cayenne (and/or jalapeño) and cook for about 5 minutes (or as long as it takes you to open the cans of tomatoes and beans). Add tomatoes, beans (with the liquid or if you’d rather rinse that business off, add a bit of water instead, ½ – 1 cup). Bring to a boil. Add salt to taste.

Cover, lower heat, and simmer for 20-30 minutes or if you have more time, then by all means, simmer away, 2-3 hours should do it. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking and if it’s looking too thick, add a little water or veggie stock if you have it. Once you’re ready to serve, turn off the heat and stir in the balsamic vinegar.

Serve with all the goodies mentioned above!