Category: Vegan

My cooking seems to go through “periods”. I had my High Mexican period, my Italian phase, my Hippy Love Child has never quite left but now I seem to be in super simple mode. I keep wanting to strip things down to see how basic they can be, which might be a reaction to the news or popular culture. Books like Cucina Povera and An Everlasting Meal are certainly inspiration. My hunch is that becoming a better cook and making better friends with good ingredients are the main reason and I apologize in advance if that sounds a little pretentious.

This was a favorite dish this week.

I cooked the Royal Coronas with just a little salt and a bay leaf.

In my mortar, I smashed half a clove of garlic with some salt to make a paste. You could use more garlic but you might want to roast it first and plan on spending a lot of time alone. Then I added chopped parsely and sage (3:1 ratio) and then drizzled in enough olive oil to make a sauce. A spoonful of lemon juice was the kicker.

I drizzled the sauce over the cooked beans. The beans were big and creamy and the sauce was sharp and intense and I thought it was good enough to do again and again.

When we made our own tortillas with heirloom corn, we used to laugh at the customers who complained that a dozen tortillas was too many. I didn’t laugh hard but it made me really realize how different we all are. A dozen tortillas is not a problem in my home.

Once in a while, even at my house, there are too many tortillas. Throwing them out would be a sin but as they get older, a great way to use them is to fry them and use them as croutons. Traditionally, this is a topping for Tortilla Soup and Sopa Azteca but try them over a bowl of beans with lots and lots of broth. Or a green salad.

I like to slice them thin. Others like little squares and some prefer triangles. Life is all about the choices you make. This one isn’t worth fretting over. Most Mexican friends would use corn oil but my understanding is that it’s not the healthiest stuff at this point. Please correct me if I’m wrong. I use sunflower oil from Trader Joe’s. It’s not traditional but it’s neutral. After frying in a small skillet, I pour the strained oil into a beer bottle for later use. I believe three times is the maximum for frying and then it’s time to splurge on some fresh oil.

Remember that this is best with older tortillas. When they’re fresh, it’s said that they absorb more oil and take longer to get crisp.

I hear that you can keep them for several days in an airtight tin but I’ve never had them last for several days. If it’s not me, it’s someone else who picks at them until they’ve vanished.

My love of cassoulet let me to this quick, delicious dish.

Flageolet are known for their delicate, mild flavor. This shouldn’t be confused with them being bland. They’re anything but! They do soak up whatever you cook them with so make sure you have quality ingredients. Here at Rancho Gordo, we like to keep it simple with just some chopped onion, garlic, bay leaf and a little olive oil, all cooked in water.

I’ve experimented a lot with bean casseroles and gratins and I’ve come to the conclusion that 100% beans is fair. The sauteed onion and fennel added to the beans make for a much more interesting texture and flavor.

For me, this and a salad makes for a great meal.

Recipe: Flageolet Gratin

2 cups cooked Rancho Gordo Flageolet beans, strained, liquid reserved
5 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium fennel bulbs, outer layers removed, cored and thinly sliced
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 teaspoon dried thyme

In a frying pan over medium heat, warm 3 tablespoons of the olive oil. Add the fennel, onion and garlic and saute until soft and well-cooked, 15 to 20 minutes. Gently stir in the beans and remove from the heat.

Preheat the oven to 375F.

In a small bowl, mix thoroughly the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, the bread crumbs and the thyme.

In a 9-inch gratin dish, first add the onion-bean mixture. Add enough of the reserved bean-cooking liquid so that the liquid goes just under halfway below the top of the beans.

Top off with the bread-crumb mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the bread crumbs are browned and the liquid is bubbling.

There is no shame in accepting a little help now and again. For me lately, this means indulging in jars of roasted red pepper. In the summer, when bell peppers are plentiful and a fair price, I actually enjoy roasting them, peeling them and then resting them in olive oil with some garlic. In the meantime, pulling one out of a jar works for me. They are a natural partner with beans and this salad is easy to like.

This salad works at cold or at room temperature. I used brined capers but well rinsed salt-packed capers would be ideal. Soak them in clean cold water for an hour or so, changing the water once or twice. Gently squeeze dry and add them to the salad. Or you could indulge and deep fry them. You deserve it.

Heirloom Flageolet Bean Salad with Roasted Peppers and Capers

1 cup Rancho Gordo Flageolet beans, cooked and drained (reserve the broth for another dish)
1 cup roasted red peppers
1 tablespoon capers, drained

Pineapple Vinegar Salad Dressing
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Rancho Gordo Oregano Indio
2 tablespoons Rancho Gordo Pineapple Vinegar
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

To make the dressing, in your salad bowl, make a paste with the salt and garlic. Add the mustard, oregano and vinegar. Mix well. Whisk in the olive oil slowly.

In a serving bowl or platter, gently toss the beans, peppers, and capers together with the dressing.

I am in love with Flageolet. The French bred them from New World bean stock and they did a bang up job by all accounts.

I remember at first thinking they were rather bland but now I realize they’re mild. They love to suck up whatever flavors you throw their way, so be creative and be bold.

If you have flageolet cooked, you can be creative, elaborate or just simple. My favorite tomato sauce involves pan-roasting soft cinnamon (canela). Don’t try this with the more available hard-barked cinnamon or with cinnamon powder. It’s too harsh and you’ll end up disliking me for wasting your time. Canela is warm and when teamed with tomatoes, irresistible.

2 cups cooked Rancho Gordo Flageolet beans
3 white (or yellow) onion slices (skins can be left on)
2 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 stick Rancho Gordo Canela (true cinnamon)
3 or 4 whole peeled tomatoes, canned, and about 1/4 cup of their juice
1 teaspoon Rancho Gordo Oregano Indio
Chicken or vegetable stock, if needed
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt to taste
Fresh flat-leaf parsley
Optional: olive oil and lemon wedges for serving

Roast the onion slices and garlic until soft, over medium heat, for about 10 minutes, using a comal or cast iron skillet. Remove from heat and allow to cool to the touch. Roast the canela stick, turning often, for about 2 minutes. The stick should give off its aroma. Peel the onions and garlic skins.

In a blender, add the tomatoes, tomato juice, Oregano Indio, onion and garlic. Add a little chicken or vegetable stock if the blades get stuck. Blend until smooth.

In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium heat and then “fry” the tomato mixture with the canela, stirring constantly. Raise heat to medium-high for a gentle simmer and keep stirring until the mixture is a thick sauce, about 15 minutes. Season with salt. Remove the canela stick. You can add a little stock or water if the sauce is too thick.

For each serving, pour some sauce into a bowl and gently ladle the cooked Flageolet into the center. Top with chopped flat-leaf parsley.

Serve as is, or allow guests to drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and cut lemons.

Download low-ink printable PDF file of this recipe.

I get a lot of really nice emails. Thomas Leming wrote as a native about his experiences with classic Red Beans and Rice and I just had to share his thoughts. His vegetarian version sounds great, no matter how you eat.

I grew up in South Louisiana where beans are taken pretty seriously. One of my favorite memories from back then is going to LeBlanc’s Drive In with my grandfather once or twice a week to get red beans and rice plate lunches. Years later, my wife and I moved to Delaware and I quickly became nostalgic for home. I wanted the RB&R from my youth, but there was a complication: my wife and I had become vegetarians. So, we weren’t going to have pork for the beans and the sweet, smoky flavor that imparts is a pretty essential background flavor in good red beans. I’ve spent the following 15 years tinkering around to get everything just right and my recipe has gone unchanged for the last five or so years. So, I think it’s done.

My “final” recipe is built on the classic ingredients (with a non-traditional red bell pepper added for flavor and a little color). I’ve seen RB&R recipes that call for fresh marjoram, tomatoes (TOMATOES!?), carrots (I nearly fainted) and other stuff that has no place in the dish. I mean, sure, those recipes probably produce delicious beans and rice but they aren’t RB&R. Anyway, the ingredients are important to getting things right, but the real trick is the cooking method. I had the ingredients figured out a long time ago, but I couldn’t get that background flavor of the pork. Shortly after I got my first Rancho Gordo order years ago, I experimented with the Russ Parsons bean cooking method described in the Heirloom Beans cookbook. I’ve cooked a whole lot of beans that way since then and it’s always pretty amazing. (Marcella’s cooked for at least five hours in a dutch oven at 250° with sautéed shallots, garlic, sage and olive oil are mind blowing. Bean soups made this way are also spectacular.) I started cooking my basic RB&R recipe this way out of sheer laziness and magic happened. The low, slow, long cook does something inside the beans, completely melts the vegetables and pulls everything together. Even my pork loving family members want seconds and thirds of these.

1 lb red beans*
2 large yellow onions (finely diced, about 3 1/2 cups)
1 red bell pepper (finely diced, about 1 cup)
1 green bell pepper (finely diced, about 1 cup)
2 stalks celery (finely diced, about 1 cup)
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1 ½ teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
salt
pepper
oil (olive oil works well)

Sauté the onion, celery and peppers in a dutch oven with few tablespoons of oil over medium heat until they have started to brown. Add the garlic, thyme and bay leaf and sauté for a minute or two longer. Add the beans and enough water to cover by a few inches. Bring to a boil, cover and then put it in the oven. I go with 250° if I have a lot of time available, 350° if I want them done (but not perfect) in a few hours. Check the water level every 30-45 minutes to make sure that the beans are covered. As they cook, the level should go down but they should still remain wet. We’re not making a soup, but we don’t want them dry. Add salt once the beans are tender and check the seasoning each time thereafter when you check the water. The beans are almost done when they are falling apart and the liquid is creamy. Seriously, give this some time to happen. Get these to the desired consistency on the stovetop by adding water and/or while you make the other parts of the meal. I like mine to be saucy but not soupy.

I serve these with a good hot sauce rather than throwing spice in during cooking. I prefer the contrasting acidic heat from the sauce over a background burn from slow cooked cayenne. These are excellent with Deborah Madison’s slow cooked collards (with onion, brown butter and some smoked paprika; in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone) and some cornbread (Deborah Madison’s “Northern Cornbread”, also in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, gets my Southern Boy approval).

*”Red beans.” Where I come from, almost everyone uses Camelia Red Kidneys for RB&R. I’ve used these for years despite being a die-hard Rancho Gordo superfan. But, recently, I experimented with Domingo Rojo and the results were spectacularly good. It was a bit different from the Camelias in structure (smaller bean, slightly thicker skin, slightly different texture) but the final sauce was superior in taste. I’ll probably alternate between Camelias and Domingo Rojo from now on because I can’t decide which is better. I also have a hunch that Rio Zapes would work well for RB&R. I haven’t tried them yet, but I will soon.

I really appreciated his thoughtful response but I had to ask, where’s the smoke? The pork is so smoky. “Would you consider adding some Spanish smoked paprika? or smoked salt? Or are you in the no smoke camp?”

The beans that I grew up with weren’t super smoky, but I do like that flavor. I use smoked paprika pretty liberally when I’m cooking southern but I haven’t tried it in these beans. The deep flavor that comes from the long cooking gives it a nice rounded flavor so I haven’t felt the need to smoke it up. Also, I always serves red beans with collards and I use a lot of smoked paprika in those. I mix it all together on my plate so maybe that’s why I don’t miss it. I don’t think adding some to the beans would hurt at all.

And the rest of the story, dear reader, is up to you!