Beans

Pasta e Fagioli Soup

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 cups ditalini pasta
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 pound ground spicy Italian sausage
  • 1 small yellow onion diced
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 3 carrots peeled and diced
  • 1 stalk celery diced
  • 1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 15 ounce can tomato sauce no salt added
  • 6 cups low sodium chicken broth
  • 1 15 ounce can red kidney beans drained and rinsed
  • 1 15 ounce can Great Northern beans drained and rinsed
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Place a large soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat and add olive olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add ground Italian sausage and cook without moving for about one minute. Crumble it using a wooden spoon and continue cooking until browned, about 3-5 minutes. If needed, drain excess fat.

  2. Push cooked sausage to one side of the pot, so it covers only half of the bottom of the pot or Dutch oven. Add onion and garlic to the other half and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion is tender.

  3. Stir to combine the browned sausage with the onion and garlic.

  4. Add chopped carrots, celery, diced tomatoes and tomato paste. Stir and cook until tender, for about 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  5. Add dried basil, dried Italian seasoning, dried thyme, dried rosemary and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine.

  6. Add tomato sauce, chicken broth and drained and rinsed beans. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

  7. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer, covered for about 10-15 minutes or until vegetables are tender. If needed, add more water, one cup at a time.

  8. In the meantime, add water a large pot over medium-high heat, season with salt. Bring to a boil and cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain well, toss with a bit of olive oil and set aside.

  9. Once vegetables are tender, stir in pasta until heated through.

  10. Garnish with parsley if desired, and serve immediately.

By Fudgy McFarlen, ago

Black Bean Hummus – Engineering a recipe

This recipe will work better than garbanzo beans in Brazil because they are more readily there.

I purchased a black bean hummus at the Tower Grove Park farmers market.  It was very good.   The listed ingredients where.  Cumin was not specifically listed and if it had it was at very low levels.

  • black beans
  • water
  • carrots
  • peppers
  • celery
  • onions
  • orange juice
  • lime juice
  • lemon juice
  • tahini 
  • garlic
  • salt
  • shallots
  • sugar
  • natural spices

Clues

  • There is a little burn at the end of the flavor.  Try adding a jalopeno.

Research Links

 

Experiment 1:  formula

 

  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided
  • 2 tablespoons tahini (roasted sesame seed paste)
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice 
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 (15-ounce) can no-salt-added black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 garlic clove, peeled
  • 1/2 small jalapeño pepper, seeded

Notes: Experiment #1

  • The jalopeno and cilantro is central to the recipe.  The combination with the black beans is very tasty.
  • harder to get the whip to thicken
  • When you first make this black bean hummus you will not taste a strong cilantro flavor.  However if you leave it overnight in the refrigerator the flavor of the cilantro comes on strong. Quite amazing the difference for cilantro lovers.
By Fudgy McFarlen, ago

Lemon Garlic Mayonnaise Garbanzo Bean Salad

Simple but tastes heavenly.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 Lemon
  • Garlic
  • Romaine Lettuce
  • Garbanzo beans

Instructions

  1. Chop garlic to fine chips – do in order given to increase diffusion of garlic flavor into maynnaise
  2. Dump in quantity garbanzo beans to your liking
  3. Ratio mayonnaise to the garbanzo beans
  4. Add a dose of lemon 
  5. Mix until garlic is evenly distributed in the garbanzo beans
  6. Cut lettuce to preferred size – wash and fling dry
  7. lightly salt the moist lettuce – place on your plate
  8. put the left over lemon juice on the lettuce
  9. put a light dose of olive oil on the lettuce
  10. put the bean / mayo mix in the center
  11. Eat!

You'll be surprised how good it tastes.  

By Fudgy McFarlen, ago

Brazilian Cold Bean Salad

I encountered a delicious bean salad at an "a kilo" restaurant in Brazil.  You make it as follows:

  1. cook great northern beans with a little salt, olive oil and garlic.  Drain afterwards
  2. put in a large container and add some more olive oil and mix to lightly coat the beans
  3. add chip chopped green and red bell peppers and onion
  4. add some sort of acid.  I like to use lime juice but you can also use vinegar.  Add and mix a bit at a time until it suits your taste.
By Fudgy McFarlen, ago

Hot Sweet Jalopena Beans

One of the secrets of good beans is adding acid to them. Vinagar and lime juice suit this purpose.  If you like the hot sweet combination here is a recipe for you.

  • molasses – used in the 1800's alot to make beans more zippy.
  • oregano
  • vinagar
  • red bell pepper
  • onions
  • garlic
  • tomato
  • olive oil
  • 1 red jalopena

Use the above ingredients to suit your taste. Cook in your pressure cooker.  Nothing like the sweet of the molasses beating against the hot flavor of the jalopena.

By Fudgy McFarlen, ago