breathless brunch beans! May 4, 2009

there is something so great about digging into a tasty bowl of beans at brunch. not those pathetic “baked beans” they sell in over priced chat cafes, but really tasty, flavour-full, melt-in-your-mouth beans.

this is also a great way to use up some slightly tired looking veggies in the fridge. for me: corn, rocket, chilies and tomatoes.

i have a ridiculous collection of jars filled with dried beans, and i only cook with them once a week. in an endeavour to clear these jars out i soaked some tasty black eyed peas overnight. soaking overnight really does help bring down cooking time! i put the beans in a plastic container, cover with boiling water and leave to sit overnight. you can’t really put too much water in there as these babies soak it up. an equal height of water above the height of the beans is good (ie if there is 2cm of beans in the container, fill with water so there is at least 2cm of water above the beans). make sense?

you could always just use canned beans, but i have a feeling that this is more energy intensive and carbon emitting. does drastically reduce cooking time though.

a note on onions:

please cook your onions thoroughly! be patient and wait until the bits are transparent! these are NOT translucent onions:

brunch beans

ingredients:

• 1 cup black eyed peas (soaked overnight and then rinsed); also great are butter beans and fava beans.
• 1 can tomatoes
• two green chilies (more or less depending on taste)
• 1 brown onion
• 5 cloves garlic
• a handful of cherry tomatoes, chopped
• some chopped rocket
• a cob of corn, shucked
• 3 cups veggie stock
• paprika, cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper to taste
• juice of one lemon (lime is good too!)
• vegetable oil (a spoonful?)

how to:

1. dice the onion and saute in oil for a couple of minutes.
2. finely chop the chilies and garlic. add to the onion and saute the whole lot until the onions are see through. be patient!
3. stir the spices into the onion mix (approx 1 teaspoon of each, except cayenne paper. just a little of that.). don’t be afraid of spices*!
4. stir in the beans, veggie stock and can of tomatoes. bring the mixture to a boil.
5. continue to simmer and add the remaining veggies – corn, cherry tomatoes and rocket. allow to simmer for at least 20 minutes.
6. when most of the liquid has evaporated off, taste a bean. is it crunchy? add more water and simmer for longer. does it melt in your mouth? proceed to step 7.
7. take off the heat and stir in lemon juice.
8. serve in an over-sized soup mug. these are handy devices, as you don’t burnt your little hands on the sides of a hot bowl. genius!

variations / additions:

• you can add any sort of veggies that take your fancy – small bits of potato or kumera would be ace, as would capsicum, and mushrooms.
• a mix of beans can add variety, and variety is the spice of life!
• soy cheese crumbled on top is delectible!
• a side serving of warm bread, particularly corn bread.
• tasty guacamole on top!

* do be wary of adding the correct spices. do these two look the same to you?

they did to me! as a result i got a bit excited with the cayenne pepper (thinking it was paprika) and made the whole thing rather spicy! yeow! hence the breathless-ness…

new leaf! April 27, 2009

hhmmm, seems i am always planning on making more regular posts! this time i shall MO DEF try my best to become a regular blogger!

i’ve recently been receiving the jura books organic food co-op box of veggies – a fabbo decision! for $10 i get pretty much all the veggies i need for the week, plus a few bits of fruit. gives me an excuse to head down to addison road markets on a sunday and indulge in the best satay burgers you will ever taste!

these veggie boxes are also giving me a greater understanding of seasonal produce and expanding my recipe repertoire. i seem to be left with random collections of veggies by about wednesday. last week i had a nice colourful bunch:

people are constantly on at me about the health effects of a vegan diet – mostly on the negative side. i generally don’t worry too much about the ‘healthiness’ of my diet (cupcakes at 3am, anyone???) but one issue that does concern me is vitamin b12. if one become deficient in b12, irreparable damage is done to the nervous system. i think we need b12 for cell reformation, in particular blood making (so not enough leads to anemia).

i did a little research, and it seems we humans need about 2.4 micrograms of b12 each day – not too much! our bodies can store between 2 and 5 micrograms each day, so it’s possible to build up stores of the stuff. people (such as myself) generally have good stores from their meat eating days, but it’s a good idea to keep an eye on it.

(here is some great info from the vegan society)

some things i eat to get vit b12:

• marmite
• fortified soy milk
• seaweed (especially seaweed crackers)
• nutritional yeast flakes

something i do NOT usually eat is tempeh*. for some reason i just can’t get into it. i think it has to do with the texture. in the name of good health (and in an attempt to use the cookbook tempting tempeh which i haven’t cooked from in the 8 months i’ve had…), i decided to give it a crack!

creamy tahini tempeh and veggie leftovers

(* indicates modified according to what i had)

• a splash of vegetable oil
• 1 red onion*, diced
• 1 medium yellow capsicum , diced
• some green beans*, chopped
• wilting week-old mushrooms*, chopped
• 2 tablespoons white miso paste
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• 1 packet of tempeh (300g?)
• 4 tablespoons tahini
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

to make:

1. saute onions in the oil. i really hate crunchy onions, so whenever they look ‘translucent’, i leave them for 2 minutes more to ensure mushy goodness.
2. add capsicum and beans. cook until warmed (only a minute or two).
3. add miso, veggie stock and cubed tempeh, then simmer for 30 minutes. if you are anything like me (greedy and impatient) this will make you very hungry.
4. combine the tahini and soy sauce in a bowl, then mix into the pan.
5. serve hot!

i ate mine with quinoa (pronounced keen-wah), the super grain! yummo!

quinoa is really easy to cook, kinda like rise. just make sure you rinse it first! otherwise you get all these little white bits in it – looks like maggots. gross! speaking of which, the final meal kinda looked a little off-putting. and the texture of tempeh still gave me shivers. yummy sauce though:

* even though everyone says the only way to get b12 in an absorbable form is with fortified foods, i think it can’t hurt to eat things that have “natural” b12, eg seaweed, miso and tempeh.