Lima Bean Dip

Last weekend, some friends brought dinner over to my house and I was left with a lot of leftovers, including about 1 1/2 cups of southern style lima beans. Since dear daughter bemoaned the fact that we have absolutely NO dip left in the house last night, I decided to make a dip from the limas. Limas are really good for dips because they are quite mealy and soft, and because they firm when they are cooled. This is what I did this morning:

Lima Bean Dip

1 1/2 C cooked lima beans (or one can)
approx 1 Tbs minced onion
2 minced garlic cloves
1 tsp Tony Chacheres (or any spicy seasoning salt of your choice)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 C lemon juice
1/4 C olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

In the food processor, I first finely minced a 1/2 inch slice of a very small onion which yielded about 1 Tbs of minced onion. Add the limas, garlic, seasoning salt, cumin and lemon juice to the bowl and process till smooth. Taste for seasonings and adjust salt and pepper. With processor running, drizzle olive oil through the feeder until you reach the consistency you want. I used about 1 1/2 Tbs.

This tastes really delicious. This afternoon, after the flavors meld, I'll taste it again and post any changes I may make.

Tuscan White Bean Soup

Sometimes you just want a nice soup with some garlic bread for dinner, don't you? I love soup - I could eat it every day. I had a few yellow crookneck squash sitting in my fridge, and I wanted soup, so I decided to make a white bean soup with them. Everything is cooked al dente, so that each spoonful bursts in your mouth with flavor. I just love this soup. Its even better with some vegan parmesan sprinkled over the top.




Tuscan White Bean Soup

2 C cooked or canned white beans (try cannelini beans - they are yummy!)
2 large onions, coarsely chopped
1 Tbs minced garlic
3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil to saute
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 med zucchini or yellow squash, chopped
8 oz fresh mushrooms or 2 oz dried mushrooms, soaked
1 15 oz can of veggie broth
4 C water
2 tsp Herbes de Provence
1 bay leaf
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes in juice
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1/2 C soup pasta, pre-cooked al dente

In 5 quart dutch oven, saute onions and garlic in the olive oil until translucent. Add the celery and zucchini and saute till toasty. Season with salt and pepper and Herbes de Provence. Add mushrooms and saute till they have released their liquid, or, add dried mushrooms and reserve soaking liquid. Add the beans, tomatoes with their juice, bay leaf, and the veggie broth. Measure the mushroom soaking liquid and add water to make 4 cups. Simmer lightly for 20 minutes for flavors to develop. Taste for salt, pepper and seasoning.

You may cover and refrigerate at this point. To serve, bring to a simmer and drop in about 1 1/2 cups of pre-cooked soup pasta and heat through. Taste for seasonings. Serve with a splash of lemon juice, a sprinkle of vegan parmesan cheese and garlic toast.

Notes: This is a very forgiving soup - you can use pretty much any combination of vegetables that you have, as long as you cook them al dente and you use a white bean, such as cannellini, great northern, or even navy beans. I think small green limas would be nice also, as well as borlotti or cranberry beans.

For dessert, we had broiled pears with amaretto-apple dip. I'll post that shortly.

Time: 40 minutes in total

Serves about 8

Vegan Gaucho Beans

Sorry, no picture since I'm in the throes of unpacking after a move and my camera is..... somewhere......

Years ago, my parents fell in love with a Basque restaurant in California's Central Valley. Everytime they were within a hundred miles, they would stop and eat, and then rave about the food to me, particularly the beans. Now is a good time to tell you that my father has always been crazy about beans - any kind of beans, cooked any way. Being a good New England boy, his favorite has always been homemade Boston baked beans, but that will be another post. Anyway, they asked for the recipe of these beans many times, but never received it. I ate at that restaurant twice, and after the second time, my mother and I decided to try to duplicate the flavor. First, I went to the library to look at Basque cookbooks, or should I say, cookbook, which had one bean recipe with the interesting addition of coffee as the liquid. So, we experimented and finally came up with a recipe which is delicious and tastes pretty similar. We called it Gaucho Beans. It called for bacon and beef bouillion powder, so I veganized it here. Check out the omni version of this recipe here on my omni food blog.

I had this for dinner over rice last night, with a salad on the side and some applesauce for dessert. It was a pretty filling and delicious dinner, with plenty of leftovers for lunch this week.

Gaucho Beans

1 lb dry beans, picked over and soaked overnight (I used cranberry beans this time)
1 lg onion, quartered, then sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 tsp rosemary
1/8 tsp thyme
2 whole cloves
2 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp ground cumin
1 bay leaf
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp veggie broth powder
1/4 tsp Tabasco sauce (I used 1tsp Sriracha)
2 Tbs fruit vinegar (I used raspberry)
2 oz brandy
olive oil to saute the onion
2 C coffee (or 1tsp instant coffee powder plus 2 C water)
3 C water
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 - 1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 C or more chopped fresh cilantro
2 tsp Liquid Smoke

Saute the onions and garlic until wilted. Add the rosemary, thyme, cloves, mustard, cumin, bay leaf, chili powder and Tabasco, and saute for a minute or two to bring out the flavor without burning the spices. Add the bouillion powder, vinegar and brandy and saute another minute, then add 2 cups strong coffee, 3 cups water and the soaked and drained beans. Note that there is no salt or pepper - add salt at the end of cooking, since salt tends to toughen bean skins when added during cooking.

Crock pot: cook on low for 8 - 10 hours

Pressure cooker: cook at 15 lbs pressure for 12 minutes

Stove top: simmer gently, partially covered, for about an hour.

When beans are creamy soft, but still retain their shape and have not burst, stir in salt and pepper to taste (I used an equal amount of Tony Chachere's seasoning salt). Stir in the cilantro and Liquid Smoke just prior to serving. Lightly mash a few of the beans to give the liquid some body and serve over rice, potatoes or noodles, or even as a side dish. This would be particularly delicious over cornmeal waffles, I think.

Pasta e Fagioli (Pasta Fazool)

This is real comfort food for me. I went home last Thanksgiving, and my cousin made this one evening since her future daughter-in-law is a vegetarian. It was delicious, because Roseanne is a wonderful cook, but I had such a feeling of "home" as I ate it in that kitchen where I had eaten it so many times as a child. There are many recipes for this; you can make it with canned beans or dried, garbanzos (chick peas) or cannellini beans - they are all delicious.

One quick observation about Italian food here in America. American home cooks seem to LOVE to use something called Italian herbs. Now, just because it has the word "Italian" on the label does not mean that it is Italian in any way, you know. Italian herbs are delicious and have their uses, but they are too heavy on the oregano to be truly Italian. Real Italians use a lot of basil and lot of rosemary, but very little oregano. In fact, I think that Greek cooks use much more oregano than Italians, and so do Mexican cooks. So, refrain from using Italian herbs in this dish because it will be to heavily and sharply spiced with oregano.

Pasta e Fagioli

1 1/2 C dry beans, soaked overnight, or 2 - 15 oz cans, drained
3 Tbs olive oil
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 Tbs minced garlic
1 Tbs chopped fresh rosemary, or 1 tsp dried
1 tsp dry basil
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 - 15 oz can of diced tomatoes in juice
3 C vegetable broth
1 1/2 C pasta of your choice: try elbows, ditalini, small penne or rotini
salt and pepper to taste

To pressure cook: In pressure cooker, saute the celery, onion, carrot, and garlic in the olive oil till the onions begin to brown. Stir in the beans, herbs, tomatoes and broth. Place cover on the pressure, bring to high pressure, and cook for 15 minutes at 15 lbs. Let the pressure drop naturally. Check beans for doneness and pressure cook two or three minutes more if necessary. Don't overcook beans - they should retain their shape and still be firm, but cooked all the way through. When beans are cooked, stir in the dry pasta and cook uncovered for 6 or 7 minutes until the pasta is al dente.

To cook in a crock pot: Saute the vegetables as above and place in crock pot, along with the beans. Use only 2 1/2 C broth. Cook on hi heat and cook as follows: cannellini - 3 hours; great northern - 2 1/2 hours; navy - 3 hours, garbanzos - 4 hours. Cook the pasta separately and add to the mixture when beans are done, unless you have a metal crockpot liner that can go onto a burner as I do.

To cook on top of the stove: Proceed as for the pressure cooker, but gently simmer the beans, covered, as follows: cannellini - 60 minutes ; great northern - 45 minutes; navy - 60 minutes; garbanzos - 20 minutes.

To use canned or previously cooked beans: Saute the vegetables and proceed as for the pressure cooker, but leaving the beans out. Simmer for 10 - 15 minutes to let the flavors meld. Add the drained beans and the pasta at the same time, and simmer long enough for the pasta to be cooked al dente.

Serve garnished with a pinch of red pepper flakes and drizzle of your best cold pressed virgin olive oil. Serve a green salad and crusty bread on the side, along with a nice fruity wine. Fruit makes the perfect dessert.

Note: Occasionally when I'm too lazy to measure out three herbs, I use an equal amount of Herbes de Provence which is very yummy in this dish. You can also pressure cook beans without presoaking them, which I've done many, many times. It takes about 45 - 60 minutes for them to cook. Don't be afraid of the pressure cooker - I received one as a wedding present in 1979 and have used them ever since. Since then, I've replaced that old one with a modern Fagor, which is not only perfectly safe, but foolproof! In all these years, I've never, ever had any problems using a pressure cooker. You'll be amazed at quickly you can make dishes that used to take forever to cook, and how you can decide at the last minute to make a dish that tastes like its been simmering all day. Try it!

Serves four hungry Italians. Maybe it will serve 6, but it never has in my house.

Five stars PLUS!