Italian sausage and white bean stew

 

When I’m making sausages from seitan, I like to make enough for more than one meal. They keep well without a fridge, so that you can, for example, have them with potatoes and greens on Monday and then make something quite different with them on Wednesday. They are also delicious for breakfast and if you split and heat them, they make a great sandwich, especially in the end of a French stick. You can spread the bread with butter, but tahini also goes well with them, as does a little sun-dried tomato pesto. However, one of my favourite ways of cooking them is with white beans and tomatoes in this stew. Cannellini or butter beans are probably the best, because they are more floury than other white beans, but as both appear to be unobtainable in NZ at the moment, except in tins, I use haricot beans.

Serves 2

Ingredients

1/2 cup of white beans (any kind) soaked and cooked in the usual way

1/2 green pepper

6 Italian sausages (seitan)

olive oil

I medium onion, chopped

1 large clove of garlic, chopped

4 medium tomatoes, diced or 1, 14oz/400g can crushed tomatoes

1 tbsp sundried tomato purée

1 tsp Annie's Italian herbs

Method:

• Remove the seeds from the pepper and cut it into thin strips.
• Cut the sausages into chunky pieces, big, or small, according to your preference.
• Pour the oil into a pan and heat it, then add the onion, garlic and green pepper. Cook over a medium heat until the onion has softened.
• Add the tomatoes to the pan and mix them in. Heat to a gentle simmer. If using fresh tomatoes, simmer until they have softened into a sauce.
• Add the tomato purée, beans and sausages. Once the mixture is simmering, turn to down to cook until the sauce is the consistency that you want.

Serve hot, with bread or smashed potatoes and a green vegetable or salad.

Notes:

• If you don’t have sun-dried tomato purée, use the ordinary stuff. If you’re using fresh tomatoes, the sun-dried purée adds a richer flavour.
• If you’re can’t get crushed canned tomatoes, use diced, but try and find some in tomato purée. It’s worth buying a more expensive brand because cheap diced tomatoes tend to have very thin juice with them, which leads to a watery stew.

 

 

 

You will find many more recipes like this here and here

White bean chilli with winter vegetables

As someone who really enjoys food with a dash of chilli in it, particularly in cold weather, this is one of my favourite dishes. If you make the recipe as shown, you will have sufficient for two hearty appetites. If you want to feed more people, serve with kumara or sweet potatoes or baked potatoes. 

 

The original recipe just used the lower part of the leeks, and this is what I’m following. I usually use the whole thing, because I find the green part is rarely tough or stringy. Besides, it’s going to be cooked in the pressure cooker! Split the leeks in four lengthways as far as the root, and rinse thoroughly in plenty of clean (sea)water, if they are full or soil or grit, before preparing them. One is always told to remove the ‘woody centre’ from parsnips: I have yet to find one. But if yours have a woody centre, then by all means remove it.

 

Serves 2

 

Ingredients

 

olive oil

1 medium leek, white and 1 inch of pale green part, diced

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 large carrot, peeled if necessary, chopped

1 large or 2 medium parsnips, peeled if necessary and diced

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp oregano

chilli flakes to taste (at least 1/4 tsp)

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup of dried white beans, soaked

1 avocado

fresh parsley 

 

Method:

• Heat the oil in a pressure cooker. Add the leek, garlic and 2 tbsp water. Cook until the leeks are softened: about 5 minutes
• Add carrots and parsnips; stir to coat. Cook, stirring often, until just beginning to soften: about 2 minutes.
• Add chilli flakes, cumin, oregano and salt. Stir until fragrant: about 1 minute.
• Add the beans, together with 11/2 cups of water. Bring up to pressure and cook for 10 – 15 minutes depending on the type of bean used. Let the pressure reduce naturally.
• Remove the lid from the pressure cooker. Check seasoning.
• Garnish with parsley and chopped avocado, if available.

Serve immediately. Any leftovers make a fine foundation for soup.

 

Variations:

• Use the entire leek. 
• If leeks are unavailable, use 1 large onion
• You can add other root vegetables, such as turnip, swede and sweet potato. In that case, the chilli is great served with bread.
• Add a tin of tomatoes and 1/2 cup less water.
• Use a fresh red chilli. 
• Try it with red kidney or black beans. 

 

 

You will find many more recipeslike this in Main-course dishes, vegetable-based

Swiss chard with white beans

 

 

It is often difficult to lay hands on the actual beans called for in a recipe, so I'm trying to remember  to use the phrase 'white beans' in the title, while suggesting what would be ideal, in the text.

This recipe is quick to make and when eaten with bread as intended, would make a substantial starter for four, or a good lunch or light dinner for two. If you use canned beans, which speeds the whole process up substantially, it would also make a good snack with something like large crackers or Melba toast, to give to visitors who have lingered until sundowners.  The combination of bread, beans and Swiss chard make for a pretty well-rounded meal nutritionally.

 

I first made this when I had no appetite and little enthusiasm for cooking, but had a large bunch of chard looking at me.  As it soon yellows, it had be to be eaten up!  I slightly altered the recipe to what is shown below, and ate it on the previous day's naan bread (= ½ cup flour), reheated on the toaster, rather than the recommended sourdough.  It was still was surprisingly good; indeed, I ate more of it than I'd anticipated.  Although the original called for cannelini beans, I can only buy them canned and as I prefer to cook my own legumes, I used haricot beans. However, using canned beans would make this meal almost ‘instant’.

 

Although the stems are a little more sturdy, the leaves of chard tend to disappear like spinach, when heated, so you will want at least six large leaves of chard and possibly more.

 

Serves 4 as a substantial starter or two for lunch or a light dinner.

 

Ingredients

 

1/2 cup haricot beans, soaked and cooked in the usual way.

1 large bunch of chard (any type) 

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

5 large cloves of garlic, sliced

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp sage

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp wine vinegar 

generous grind of pepper

Method

• Cook the beans and set aside.
• Cut off the stems from the chard and chop them into smallish pieces.  Set aside.
• Cut the leaves into strips lengthways and then across into manageable-sized strips - remember you're going to be piling this on bread!
• Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add  the chopped garlic and cook for 2 minutes, making sure it doesn't burn.
• Add the chopped chard stems and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently until they start to soften.  Sprinkle over the salt.
• Add the leaves, toss well and cook until they start to wilt. 
• Season with sage and red pepper flakes.
• Tip in in the cooked, drained beans. Gently mix together and continue to cook for 4-5 minutes, until the beans are hot.
• Add the vinegar.  Mix gently to ensure the flavours are all spread around and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes.  Grind over plenty of black pepper.
• Serve hot over thick slices of sourdough bread, or home-made bread, or even flat bread if that’s all you have. Put it on a big plate as most of the topping will try to fall off! 

It truly tastes much better than you might anticipate from the few ingredients, used.

 

Note:

• I really recommend the vinegar, it adds a je ne sais quoi that you wouldn't get from lemon juice.

Variations:

• If you retain the liquid from the can, or use a little stock to moisten the mix, it would make a more filling meal over polenta, short pasta or mixed in with rice, pilau-style.
• Spinach could be used instead of chard, as could any sort of softer green, such as mustard greens or spring cabbage.