Posted on 03/31/2022 11:12:14 AM PDT by Jamestown1630
My grandmother made a wonderful navy bean soup, and my husband makes a good one, too. Beyond those - besides a very good canned black bean soup that Goya makes - I don’t have a lot of experience with beans.
But I’ve recently discovered heirloom beans, and want to broaden my bean horizons. They are supposed to be far superior to the mass-produced beans available in supermarkets, and two companies that offer many varieties are Zursun Beans in Idaho:
And Rancho Gordo in California:
I’m especially interested in the various Black Lentils offered, and the French Flageolets; and I found a couple of recipes for those:
Karen Tedesco at Family Style Food.com, has posted this Black Lentil Salad with Feta:
Black Lentil Salad with Feta and Cucumber
Dressing:
1 cup each Italian parsley and cilantro leaves loosely packed (or 2 cups of either herb)
1 jalapeño pepper chopped (leave the seeds in if you like it spicy)
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (125 ml) olive oil or avocado oil
1 tablespoon (15 ml) red wine vinegar
Salad:
1 cup black or French-style lentils
1 teaspoon salt
2 baby Persian cucumbers, cut into small dice
1/2 red onion thinly sliced (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup fresh mint or Italian parsley leaves
1/2 cup (125 g) crumbled feta or goat cheese
Make the dressing:
Combine all ingredients in a high-speed blender or small food processor until very smooth.
Make the salad:
Bring 4 cups water to a boil with the salt. Add the lentils and cook 20-25 minutes. Taste-test: They should be tender but not mushy. Drain well and allow to cool to room temperature.
Put the cucumbers, onion and lentils in a serving bowl. Add 1/3 cup of the dressing and toss gently. Sprinkle the salad with the mint or parsley leaves and goat cheese and toss again.
Serve the salad with additional dressing spooned over, if you like.
NOTES Pick through the lentils before cooking to be sure they don't contain an errant stone or twig (lentils are all-natural and plant-based and sometimes that happens) Substitute French lentils if you can't find black ones. Refrigerate leftover dressing for up to 3 days. It's delicious on any salad or as a sauce all on its own.
https://familystylefood.com/black-lentil-salad-2/
A recipe for Flageolets in Lemon Dressing is at the Rancho Gordo site:
https://www.ranchogordo.com/blogs/recipes/flageolet-beans-with-lemon-dressing
Both of the companies mentioned above have a lot of good recipes at their sites.
These days, with prices for food – and especially meat! – rising so much, beans are a good way to stretch our budgets, and they don’t have to be boring. Even the heirloom dried beans seem reasonably priced, considering their nutrition and flavor value.
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One thing I noticed during the whole Covid thing was my boredom with food – including many things I’ve always liked a lot and made routinely. I began looking for unusual and more flavorful things that I’d made in the past, and one of the first things that came to mind was a recipe for Indonesian Gado Gado.
Gado Gado is one of the national dishes of Indonesia, and consists of raw or slightly cooked vegetables in a peanut sauce. There are probably as many variations on it as there are households that make it - many contain hard-boiled eggs - but here is a good ‘beginner’ one, adapted from Alastair Hendy’s ‘Cooking for Friends’:
Gado Gado
¾ C. peanuts, salted or unsalted, and coarsely crushed
1 clove garlic
¼ to ½ tsp. Salt
1 or 2 small red chili peppers, seeded and chopped
6 tablespoons brown sugar *
1-1/2 tsps. granulated sugar
4 limes,
2 large green apples – or you can substitute green mangoes, or papayas, peeled and seeded
2 sprigs each of fresh mint, cilantro, and basil, torn into small pieces
Toast the peanuts in a skillet over medium heat, shaking the pan now and then, until the peanuts are lightly toaste/flecked. Remove from heat.
Crush the garlic and salt in a mortar and pestle until a paste is formed. Add the chilies and mash into the garlic paste. Add the brown sugar, and pound until everything is incorporated. Now add the crushed peanuts and pound them in, leaving some in little chunks. (Add a little lime juice if your mixture becomes too thick.) Scrape the mixture into a bowl, add the juice of 2 limes, stir to combine, and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the granulated sugar with the juice of 1 lime.until the sugar dissolves. Cut the apple or other fruit into julienne strips. Place the herbs and fruit in the bowl with the granulated sugar and lime, and set aside.
Cut the remaining lime into sections. Place portions of the salad on individual serving plates, spoon some of the peanut dressing on top, and serve with lime wedges.
* You can also use Palm Sugar, more authentic to the recipe, if available to you.
-JT
Save it to your Amazon list, and watch the used copies over time. I got a very expensive cookbook of an OOP edition a couple months ago for what I thought was a bargain price.
What a treat....your food post😊 I tried something with oatmeal a few months ago: I tried the, I think Quaker oatmeal high protein instant oatmeal with cranberries & pecans. I didn’t feel like heating water one morning, so I ate it with milk like cold cereal. SO delicious. It stays chewy & I love it. No more hot oatmeal for moi!
When I was a kid, I’d sometimes eat oatmeal out of the box.
Now, I like oatmeal hot, with just lots of butter and salt. I’m not a fan of putting fruit and sweet stuff in it. But I think sometimes people include it in toasted granola recipes, and I’ve liked that.
I had a friend born 200 years too late. Ran a trapline as a young teen. A farmer, wondering why he was parked near his land, found the guy gulping dry instant oatmeal packets during a break.
“Not looking to waste money on toilet paper?”, the farmer asked.
LOL.
Actually, oatmeal is supposed to have lots of soluble fiber. I’ve never found it very...salutary; but I like it.
Raw oatmeal is very good with some kefir added and some fruit and a little brown sugar. It stays in the fridge overnight and the oats are very soft.
Thanks for the link I will check it out and the tip about Amazon having a list.
You have to set up an account. It doesn’t cost anything, and after you do it you can ‘save’ things to a wish list, and watch how the price changes.
I went there and also ebay, a few copies 125.00 and up. So because you sent me that pdf link I googled the title of the book I want and added pdf, and Shazam, here it is, already downloaded it. I know almost nothing about old cookbooks, and absolutely nothing about getting a PDF of one. Thanks for the tip.
Maybe others here will enjoy this one.
https://recipereminiscing.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/vintage-cook-book-wednesday-good-housekeepings-book-of-good-meals-from-1927-in-pdf/
Great!
Happy Easter, everyone!
Thank you. I will check it out.
I may have mentioned that we planned to have Veal Oscar for Easter dinner today. I am happy to report back that, while a bit later than we expected (we had two unexpected things come up right as we were starting cooking) we had an amazing meal, just as we had hoped for. My bearnaise sauce was perfect, which is one thing I’ve had trouble with sometimes. This time I had a backup plan in place, and the bearnaise needed it, and came out splendidly. The veal with crab, asparagus, and béarnaise toppers were spot on. I feel like I learned a new cooking technique today.
I’m glad it turned out well.
We were alone, and had a ham - it’s been said that ‘Eternity is a ham and two people’; and I’ll be making lots of deviled ham, ham casserole, etc.
And we watched ‘Men who Stare at Goats’. (Funny movie, but the book was better.)
You have eclectic taste in food JT. Regarding nutritional value of legumes, there’s something in them that inhibits your body from absorbing key minerals. I prefer meat and sale prices here are pretty reasonable. But I love beans also. Not lentils. I don’t think lentils are considered beans but lentils and beans are legumes.
Have you ever made cassoulet? I just bought some brats and a cassoulet might be a good way to use them up as well as some of my canned beans. I know I could look it up but would certainly like to hear from anyone that has a proven recipe for one.
I use it along with cream and mushroom soup in pot roast. I always stock up when it’s on sale
Help me out. What do you stock up on? My brain short circuited this morning 😵💫
I have not made cassoulet, but have often been tempted to try the D’Artagnan kit:
https://www.dartagnan.com/cassoulet-recipe-kit/product/KCSLT001-1.html
But it makes a LOT, and I’m not sure beans freeze very well. Maybe for a party...
Lipton onion soup mix.
Okay : ) I now gasp when I go grocery shopping......the prices are completely insane.
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