Simplifying Dried Beans

Dried beans are frugal, a wonderful source of protein, and ultimately are more healthy/safe and tastier than those from a can. When I'm in a hurry, I still am known to use canned beans, but I love dried beans! Really though, preparing beans isn't that hard.

1) Wash your beans and pick through them to ensure there are no little stones or bad beans present. Then cover them with cold water. Six times the amount of water to beans is the best because the beans will rehydrate to almost double their size. Let the beans and water stand overnight. Then drain and rinse.

 2) Place beans in an appropriate sized saucepan and cover by at least 1/2" with cold water. Bring them to a boil. Then reduce heat a let simmer covered for about 45 min or until tender. Time will vary depending on the size and type of bean you are using. If the water goes below the top level of the beans, simply add more water and cover again.

3) While the beans are simmering, check occasionally to skim away any impurities that float to the surface. Drain your beans and rinse again before using them in your favorite bean dish.

 **All that rinsing gets rid of the starchlike compounds that cause the flatulence later. Or at least reduces the amount of flatulence anyway. :o)

Lime and Mixed Bean Fajitas

We enjoyed this recipe a lot as it was hardy and quite flavourful. To feed our family, the recipe was easily tripled. (As it is below, it serves 4.) Typically I do our beans from scratch, but to save time as we were eating quite late, we used canned beans. (I do always keep canned beans on hand for rushed evenings.)

4 tsp olive oil
1 small red onion, thinly slice
1 red pepper, cored and thinly sliced
1 (450 mL) can six bean blend
1/4 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
3/4 tsp chili powder and ground cumin
1/4 cup water
1 lime, juice and zest
2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
8 tortillas

Topping

1/4 cup shredded cheese
1 ripe avocado
1/2 cup shredded lettuce
1/4 cup lower fat sour cream or homemade yogurt cheese
1/3 cup salsa

Preheat oven to 350 F. Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and red pepper and cook, stirring, until vegetables soften, approx. 5 min. Add beans, salt, pepper, spices, and water. Simmer for 5 min. more, stirring until beans soften slightly. Add lime zest, juice and cilantro.

Meanwhile, wrap tortillas in foil and heat in the oven for 5 to 10 min. Divide filling, cheese, avocado, and lettuce evenly among the warm tortillas; top with sour cream and salsa, and serve.

Enjoy!

Salmon with Chickpea Mash

Salmon
4 skinless centre-cut salmon fillets
Pinch each salt and pepper
2 Tbsp grainy mustard
2 tsp maple syrup

Chickpea Mash
1 cup dried chickpeas
1 bay leaf
1 whole clove
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 clove garlic, grated or pressed
1/2 tsp salt
pinch cayenne pepper

Rinse chickpeas; soak overnight in 3 times their volume of water. (Or, for quick-soak method, bring chickpeas and water to boil  in medium saucepan; boil over medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Remove from heat; cover and let stand for one hour.) Drain.

In saucepan, cover chickpeas with six cups water. Add bay leaf  and clove; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until chickpeas are tender, 25-45 minutes. Drain reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid. Discard bay leaf and clove.

In a large bowl, mash together reserved liquid, lemon juice, garlic, salt and cayenne pepper to preferred consistency.

Salmon

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place salmon in oven safe baking dish. Season with salt and pepper. In a small bowl combine grainy mustard and maple syrup. Spread over individual salmon pieces and bake until salmon is tender and flaky, about 30 minutes.

Serve over bed of chick pea mash with steamed spinach or other in season vegetable. (We used Swiss chard).

The salmon was delicious and the kids agreed that if I mash the chickpeas more and add a little more seasoning, I can make them again too :o).

Beans on Leaves (aka The Everything Salad)

Once lettuce prices go down to under a dollar a head again, Beans on Leaves becomes a once a week meal here. We usually have it sometime on the weekend. We like it because you can throw pretty much anything you have in the refrigerator into it and it will still taste good. The only requirement we have is that there has to be beans in it as it is our protein for the night that gives the holding power to prevent the hungries until morning.

Yesterday's salad consisted of Romaine lettuce, carrots, celery, zucchini, tomatoes, black beans, feta cheese, mushrooms, and the dressing of one's choice. I usually just have a splash of balsamic vinegar.

We've also been know to add pineapple, leftover quinoa, barley, rice, mango chunks, almonds, hemp seed, sunflower seeds, cucumber, beet slices, egg, tuna, croutons, olives, you get the idea. Really the sky (and perhaps your tastebuds) is the limit. You could never eat the same salad twice if you didn't want to. That's why this is a very popular meal in our home because you never know what's going to be in it :o).

Hummus

I make hummus a lot. So much so that I don't follow a recipe anymore. I make it to taste and texture. I made a HUGE batch today using (originally dried) beans that I found in the freezer. Extra garlic, hot peppers. Yum! (Sorry church family!)

Anyways, I thought I'd post the recipe that I started with many years ago. It's from the Canadian Living Cooking Collection Soups and Starters.

3 cloves garlic
1 19oz can chick-peas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup tahini or peanut butter
3 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp water
1 tsp cumin
1/2 salt

In food processor, mince garlic. Add chick peas, tahini, lemon juice, oil, water, cumin, and salt; process until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Transfer to serving bowl.


*Serve with fresh vegetables and warm pita bread or pita crisps.

**You can get away with not using the tahini or peanut butter. I sometimes cheat and use Stacy's pita chips from Costco.

If I were really ambitious I would make my pitas from scratch and bake them myself, but I'll admit it I'm not that ambitious.

Here's the ingredients on the chips if you'd care to know them.

Black Bean Brownies

Bub has been rolling his eyes at the thought of me making these for days now, so I thought I had better get my act together and make them. I made them yesterday, and we all tried them. No one complained, although Bub says the texture is different. I know what he's saying. They're slightly grainy. (That is normal with many non wheat flours.) They're still moist though and very chocolately. I sprinkled some chocolate chips over the top to make it look pretty :o).

The recipe credit goes to The Frugal Farm Wife. I really like her blog as she has some great stuff on there! If you want to read a little more about the black bean brownies themselves, this is the link to her post.

A sweet young lady once told me I should always write out the recipe on my blog too just in case the source ever disappears, so here it is:

Black Bean Brownies

2 cups cooked, drained black beans
4 eggs 1/3 C. melted butter
1/4 C. cocoa powder
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 C. brown sugar

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly butter an 8x8 glass baking dish.
In blender or food processor, puree beans, eggs, butter, cocoa, salt, vanilla and sugar until smooth.  Pour batter into prepared baking dish. Bake 30 minutes or until center is set.

Writing about these little treats has made me hungry for one now, so I'm off to make a cup of Earl Grey tea and have a bit of brownie. It's my little sweet treat for today.

Chick Pea and Swiss Chard Curry

2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 onion, finely chopped
2 green chilies (or 1 jalapeno), seeded and chopped
2 tsp each finely minced ginger root and garlic
1/4 tsp each ground cumin and coriander
1/2 tsp garam masala
2 tsp tomato paste
1/4 tsp each cayenne pepper and turmeric
1 cup whole chopped canned tomatoes
1/2 tsp salt
1 (19 oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 cups chopped Swiss chard

In saucepan, heat oil over medium heat; cook cumin seeds until beginning to pop, about 1 minute. Add onion and chilies; cook until translucent, about 10 minutes.

Add ginger and garlic; cook for one minute. Add ground cumin and coriander; cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add garam masala (if using); cook for 1 minute. Add tomato paste, cayenne pepper and turmeric; cook for 1 minute.

Add tomatoes and salt; cook, stirring, until softened. Stir in 11/4 cups water; bring to boil.

Add chickpeas; reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.Stir in Swiss chard; simmer until tender, 3 to 4 minutes.

 Serve over rice or with Naan bread. This makes a hearty winter meal -- even though we ate it in the heat of summer.

Makes: 4 servings. Per serving: about 260 cal, 10 g protein, 9 g total fat, (1 g saturated fat).