Potato and Bean Open-Faced Sandwich

This tasty, rustic sandwich would be good for breakfast, lunch, or anytime. It is great with a nice salad.

2 or 3 small potatoes, sliced
2 to 4 cloves garlic, crushed
olive oil
butter
1 sprig of fresh rosemary
1 sprig of fresh sage
salt and pepper
1 cup cooked cannellini beans or other beans
slices of bread, toasted
minced parsley

In a hot skillet, heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil and add a pat of butter. Add the potatoes, 2 cloves of the garlic, rosemary and sage. Salt and pepper to taste. When the potatoes and garlic are browned and cooked, remove. Add more olive oil to skillet if necessary, then add the beans and 1 or 2 more cloves of garlic and saute until heated and flavored. Add the potatoes back and stir everything together. Serve on toasted bread, drizzle with more olive oil if desired, and garnish with parsley.

Anasazi Bean Cassoulita

I found this recipe on a few sites when looking for anasazi bean recipes. It is called Cassoulita with Pasilla Braising Sauce. The recipe is rather lengthy, both in the number of ingredients and the amount of time it takes to prepare. But it was worth it! Absolutely delicious.

I was supposed to top the entire dish with cheese before baking it, but I only put cheese in the middle, for fear it would get too greasy. But the cheese got so nice and crusty, that I suppose it would have been OK to follow the recipe. Also, the recipe called for the vegetables to be minced, but I cut them in chunks to give them more focus. I also added zucchini along with the other vegetables.

I ate my cassoulita with sliced avocado and my leftover polenta. But, I think the beans would be even better eaten as tacos. So tomorrow I will make tacos using fresh corn tortillas, the bean mixture, and avocado slices with lime juice and chopped cilantro. The recipe called for serving it with sour cream, but I didn't think it was needed.

Black Bean Rice

When making black beans from scratch, the broth that results is very rich. This morning I made a pot of black beans and pureed the beans in my food processor to make refried black beans, first straining out the liquid they cooked in. Pictured above are the resulting refried black beans and a portion of the reserved liquid. I like to use that liquid to make Black Bean Rice, pictured below. If you look at the photo larger, you may note a few whole beans in the rice. That's because not all of the beans made it into the food processor. It wasn't on purpose, but it turned out nicely having a few beans incorporated into the rice.

Black Bean Rice

1 Tablespoon oil (olive oil is fine)
2 cloves garlic, mashed, papery skin removed
1/2 of a small white onion, minced (optional)
1 cup of brown rice
3 cups of black bean broth

Heat the oil in a pot, add the onion if using onion and saute for about five minutes. Add the garlic and saute several more minutes, or until the onion is transparent and the garlic flavor has infused into the oil. Add the cup of rice and stir for a couple of minutes, letting the rice coat nicely with the oil. Add the black bean broth. Once it starts boiling, reduce the heat, cover and simmer until the liquid has absorbed and the rice is tender. Remove from heat and let sit covered for at least five minutes. Brown rice generally takes at least 40 minutes to cook.

Quinoa Pilaf, Black Beans and Cucumber Tomato Salad with Dill Vinaigrette

Above is the Quinoa Pilaf we made in one of my classes at Conscious Gourmet. It has organic quinoa, carrots, celery, peppers, shallots, and green peas. At home, I decided to add even more color to this already colorful dish by making half regular quinoa and half Inca Red quinoa. The other ingredients I used were the same. I served it with thick and creamy black beans and garnished both with chopped cilantro. In Yucatan, they would call the way I made the beans k'abax -they are half pureed and half whole. The salad has tomatoes and cucumbers with a vinaigrette containing fresh dill, lemon, balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Curried Split Peas with Millet Bread

In a class at Conscious Gourmet we learned a recipe for Curried Split Pea Soup. But today I decided to make a thicker version, instead of a soup, as I love thick bean dishes. I basically used as little water to simmer the beans as I could. Then when everything was cooked and tender, I pureed in my blender a good portion of the batch. I topped my beans with slices of green onions and a few splashes of ume plum vinegar. And I toasted some millet bread to eat with it. This millet bread is really great. It's made at Deland Bakery in Florida, and I am able to buy it at my local natural foods markets. Here is the list of ingredients for the bread: organic millet flour, brown rice flour, water, sea salt. That's it!

Wet Burritos

I grew up eating wet burritos in Michigan thinking that they were true Mexican food. But, of course they aren't! Pedro had his first American-style burritos and his first wet burritos in Michigan too. In Florida restaurants, I don't often find burritos served the way I used to eat them in Michigan. So, I make my own. We both like them a lot. They are very versatile. Basically a wet burrito is a flour tortilla wrapped around your chosen filling, then lined up in a baking pan, covered with a tomato-based mildly spicy sauce, sprinkled with cheese (often cheddar or a mix including cheddar) and then baked in the oven.

I made a vegetarian bean filling by sauteeing the following ingredients: 3 green onions, 1 zucchini, and 2 chopped tomatoes with cumin. Then I stirred in a can of refried pinto beans,1 steamed & cubed sweet potato, fresh lime juice, and cilantro. There is enough filling leftover to make many more wet burritos. When I assembled the burritos, I used whole wheat flour tortillas and folded them around steamed fresh spinach and my bean mixture.

Here is a recipe my family has traditionally used for

Wet Burrito Sauce:

• 1 16oz can tomatoes, chopped
• 1 12 oz can tomato paste
• 1 cup of water
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce or soy sauce

I didn't have a whole can of tomato paste, or a small can of tomatoes in my pantry. Plus I had some leftover chipolte chile in adobo sauce that I wanted to use before it got bad, so I made this variation: one 28oz can roasted tomatoes, 2 heaping tablespoons tomato paste, 2 cloves of garlic and my leftover chipolte chile in adobo sauce. It was spicier than normal, but we loved it. It could have been improved by putting it in the blender or food processor, but I didn't feel like getting extra dishes dirty.

Truffled Wild Mushrooms over Whipped White Beans

This fabulous dish is featured on page 69 of the April 2007 Vegetarian Times. [Note added 4/10: Vegetarian Times just published this as their Recipe of the Week, click here to see the recipe.] I used shitake mushrooms and black truffle oil. Wow. It was so easy to make, but the flavors are surprisingly gourmet. I can't wait to try the truffle oil on other dishes. We found this is good with fresh bread.

Black Beans & Greens with Masa Dumplings

This bean dish is featured in the cookbook Rick Bayless' Mexican Kitchen, under the name "Veracruz-Style Greens and Beans with Red Chile and Dumplings." Click on this link to see my photo album where I show the process I used in making this dish. It alters a bit from the original recipe, but it is essentially the same dish. The way I show making the beans is the process I use each time I cook beans. When I'm making a different version of beans, such as refried beans, I'll add different ingredients or alter my process at the stage where I show the addition of the chipotle chiles. Lacto-vegetarian with the cream, otherwise vegan.

Huevos Motuleños

Huevos Motuleños is a dish served for breakfast in the Yucatan. It is so delicious.

Assemble as follows: corn tostada, refried black beans, a fried egg, salsa de jitomate, peas, and queso fresco. Yucatecans who eat meat will also add chopped ham to the top. Lacto-ovo vegetarian.

White Bean Dip with Pita

My friend Tess makes this homemade pita type bread. When she does, I make a double batch of a dip, such as Ful Medames, hummus, or the such. Then I trade some of my dip for some of her bread. Today I used cannellini beans to make this White Bean Dip, using this recipe by Giada de Laurentiis posted on the Food Network website. Vegan.

Esquites, Beans and Guacamole

This meal is refried black beans, guacamole and my own version of esquites. The beans have lime added to them for extra zing. The guacamole has avocado, roma tomato, cilantro, lime, salt and blanched red onion. These esquites have fresh corn, roasted poblano, roasted tomatoes, purple potatoes, red onion, roasted garlic, cilantro, lime, salt and olive oil. My esquites always have corn, lime and chile, but the other ingredients I add to them will depend on what I have on hand. Served with a side of broken tostadas. Vegan.