Bean Dishes from Heartwood Kitchen
Beans are a wonderful source of protein and carbohydrate, but many people never master the art of cooking beans that are easily digested. Knowing that all beans and peas need to be pre-soaked for a minimum of 8 hours is part of the art.
My favorite way to cook beans is in a small crock-pot. I used to teach other methods for cooking beans, but found the crock-pot to add such an improvement in digestibility and flavor that I recommend an investment in a crock-pot for beans.
- Start by choosing organic heirloom beans (Anasazi Beans, French Navy Beans, Butterscotch Calypso Beans, Japanese Aduki Beans, to name a few).
- Soak the beans for over night or 8-12 hours. Pour off the soak water.
- Add 1 cup of beans and 3 cups of water to the crock-pot and let it cook all day (or night) along with a bay leaf and one 6 inch piece of seaweed – wakame, kelp or kombu. These last ingredients add flavor, nutrients and digestibility. When beans cook slowly over low heat, they are almost sweet and at their peak of flavor. Note that beans cannot be overcooked. If you prefer beans with a firmer texture, use less water.
Flavorful additions to your beans:
- For a tangy flavor, try adding a sun dried tomato.
- For a salty flavor, add a little tamari (soy sauce) or umeboshi paste AFTER cooking. If you add salt earlier in the cooking process, the beans will not thoroughly cook and will be tough on the outside.
- Try a sauce made with equal parts of shoyu and lemon juice. Sprinkle in a little chili and stir vigorously.
- Add steamed vegetables to the cooked beans. I especially like to add something green like broccoli.
- Make a salad. Chop some scallions, parsley, tomatoes and add one of you own condiments or sauces.
- Roast a sweet red pepper in a moderate oven until the skin blackens. Peel the skin off and dice the roasted pepper for an added distinctive flavor.
- You can also make a 5-Star-Single-Ingredient-Bean-Soup by cooking one cup of aduki beans with 3-4 cups of water. Season with a touch of shoyu or grated ginger and you have a simple and delicious soup. Top with chopped scallions.
- In the South, we like to top our beans with chopped Vidalia onions and tomatoes, marinated in a little olive oil and vinegar.
- Fast cooking beans like lentils (especially delicious are heirloom varieties like French, Beluga and Crimson Lentils), and mung beans cook well in a pot on the stove. Use a ratio of 2:1 water to beans, and add kombu, wakame or kelp and a bay leaf. Cooking time is about one hour. I still prefer my crock-pot even for these faster cooking beans. A few hours in the crock-pot, and the beans will be done.
Bean Dishes from Heartwood Kitchen
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Nyra's Family Recipe for Puerto Rican Beans
Use black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans or any other kind of beans. If possible, use freshly dried beans. They taste better and require less cooking than beans that are old. Pick over the beans and throw out cracked ones and stones. Rinse well. Soak overnight. Change water and cook beans in water, sufficient to cover beans by 1 inch. Bring to a boil and skim off foam from the top. Set flame to low, and simmer beans until tender.
A bean is cooked when you can blow on it and the skin curls off, or when you can squish it easily with your fingers. WARNING: no undercooked beans. Freshly dried beans cook within 1 ½ hours. You never know how old beans are. If they take a long time to cook, then they are old.
After cooking beans add salt and seasoning. The secret lies in the seasoning. You can make a bunch and freeze it in ice trays. To make the seasoning, use a food processor. Add 2 medium red peppers (or green ones), 1 onion, garlic, cilantro, tomatoes and a generous amount of olive oil (up to one cup). Whiz in processor until the ingredients attain the consistency of chunky applesauce.
Add one cup of seasoning to beans and salt to taste. Cook slowly for one half hour to 45 minutes. That's it!
Use pinto, aduki, pink, anazazi. Soak overnight and cook with a piece of kombu. Half way through the cooking, add a Bouquet Garni. Place contents in a pouch of cheese cloth: fennel seeds, and/or star anise, fenugreek seeds, bay leaf, chopped carrot, onion and/or garlic). Add salt towards end of cooking.
Soak 2 cups of black beans overnight. Drain off water. In a crock-pot, combine the beans, one diced onion, two minced cloves of garlic, 1 strip of kombu, spices (cumin, coriander, chili powder) and for optional "picante", minced jalepeno pepper (use gloves). Cook all day or overnight. During the last hour of cooking, add 1 tablespoon of molasses and 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
Soak basmati brown rice overnight. Cook in double the amount of water. In a little olive oil, saute diced onion, garlic, bell peppers with spices (cumin, coriander, tumeric, paprika, brown mustard seeds) until soft and browned. Add saute to cooked rice along with a touch of tamari or salt to taste. Stir in chopped tomatoes and put in a covered casserole dish. Top with cheese (optional), and bake at 350 degrees for one hour.
Combine fresh tomatoes (diced), assorted colored bell peppers (diced), red onions (diced), garlic and jalepeno pepper (minced), kalamata olives (diced) and fresh cilantro. Toss with a dressing of olive oil, sea salt, lemon/lime juice and cumin.
Mash ripe avocados with fine-minced red onion, lemon/lime juice and salt to taste. Serve immediately with blue corn chips.
Corn Tortillas: Toast over flame.
Garnish: Green onions, thinly and diagonally sliced.