Bean Recipes

[madison]

In another thread, there was a request for bean recipes.  So, post 'em here!

I admit that I don't use recipes, I just cook.  So, take the amounts and times with a grain of salt and cook until it tastes good

Baked Beans
 Red beans of some sort (cranberry beans, red beans) - soak overnight and then boil until soft
Mild molasses
Brown sugar
Onions
Garlic
Smidge of salt
olive oil

Soak the beans overnight.  Boil until soft in new water.  In a cast iron fry pan, saute chopped onions and garlic in olive oil until translucent.  Add the soft beans.  Add salt, brown sugar and molasses until it tastes good. 


Cannellini Bean Salad
cooked and cool cannellini beans
olive oil
chopped raw garlic
chopped onion
Italian seasoning herbs
salt & pepper to taste

Combine all until it tastes good.  Serve with bread and salad.

[Grower]

There are TONS of bean recipe books on Amazon (go through Matt's link!). I think everybody should have one or two recipe books for beans, since they'll be such a staple. Easy to grow, easy to store longterm, easy to prepare.

[lene]

I usually don't follow a recipe, either, but do have a couple good recipes that have become family favorites. One is for beans (and uses canned beans, for convenience, although I usually cook with dried beans.)  The other is a recipe for Le Puy green lentils, which are the lentils we like best.

CALICO BEANS


½ lb diced bacon

1 lb. ground beef

1 c. diced onion

1 ts. salt

2 Tb. cider vinegar

½ c. ketchup

¾ c. brown sugar

30 oz. (approx.) canned baked beans

32 oz. (approx.) canned kidney beans, rinsed and drained

30 oz. (approx.) canned butter beans, rinsed and drained

1 can lima beans, rinsed and drained


Brown the meats in a little olive oil. Mix everything and bake 1 ½ hours at
 350*. Let cool 20 minutes before serving. Great with hunks of rye bread slathered with real butter.

GOOD LENTILS 

2 c. tiny French green lentils
6 c. water or broth (I prefer borth)
5 - 6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 box (8 oz.) fresh mushrooms, chopped
2 boxes frozen chopped spinach
salt and pepper
2 onions, finely chopped
3 - 4 Tb. olive oil
juice of one lemon

Sort, wash and rinse lentils. Put in next-to-biggest pot along with the water
or broth, garlic, bay leaf, mushrooms, spinach, salt and pepper. Cook 'til
the lentils are tender, about an hour. Remove from heat. Now chop the onions
and fry them in the olive oil and juice of half the lemon 'til they are
browned, stirring frequently. You want them to be really brown and almost crisped, for the most flavour. When nicely browned, dump this mixture into the
pot of lentils and mix. Then squeeze in the juice of the other half of the
lemon and stir to blend. This is delicious!

Hope these will be tasty for some of you.

[justanouveaufarmer]

I've already posted my bean recipes on here but it would be really smart to get a couple of bean cookbooks too, like:  www.amazon.com/Easy-Beans-Delicious-Lentil-Recipes/dp/0969816235/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259186604&sr=8-1

www.amazon.com/Daily-Bean-Creative-Breakfast-Dinner/dp/0895260719/ref=pd_sim_b_4

and:  www.amazon.com/Delicious-Ways-Cook-Beans-Grains/dp/0452276543/ref=pd_cp_b_1

Or you can go to recipe sites that feature "rated" recipes, like www.recipezaar.com or www.allrecipes.com/ and do a search for beans.  Then rank them by reviews and print out the ones you like.