LUCY BURDETTE: I have a bean problem. I don’t believe there is a 12 step program specifically for that, but my pal Hallie suggested that I should blog about it, so I am! Here’s the background: we tease my brother-in-law sometimes, because if anyone asks him what he wants for dinner, for a special occasion, or every day, it’s always greens and beans. I know he’s right when he says that people – including us – should be eating more beans and vegetables and less meat. It’s better for the world, ecologically speaking and it’s better for our bodies as well. Especially during the pandemic, I bought beans and other products from Rancho Gordo, a producer and distributor of heirloom beans, grains, and other delicious products. So I signed up to be on the waiting list of the Rancho Gordo bean club.
For members of this club, Rancho Gordo sends out a quarterly box of various specialty beans and usually an extra bonus like bay leaves or paprika. The club is very popular and hard to get into, so I figured I would have a wait. Therefore, I wasn’t too worried about using the proceeds. But then six months ago, I was admitted – hooray! Except gulp, that means I receive a new box of dried beans every three months. The photo above is what things look like in my bean drawer, and that is after I’d given away several packages for various birthday gifts and cooked bean this and that. John is already making noise about how maybe I should quit the club, so I know I better get cracking!
I have made some dishes, including escarole and bean soup made with giant white beans, barbecued beans, which were extremely popular at a recent dinner party, chickpeas to add to salads, and the lentil soup for which I will post the recipe below. One problem with beans is you can’t start an hour ahead of dinner, and expect them to be ready. A lot of them need to be soaked, some of them overnight. (The lentils are an exception.) A second problem is that they make a huge amount. There are only so many beans that two people can eat. (Bean recipe suggestions welcome!)
For this lentil soup, we happened to have some gorgeous leeks left in the garden, but if you don’t have that or prefer onions, feel free to substitute.
Ingredients
One cup brown lentils (Rancho Gordo, of course!)
2 to 3 leeks, well washed.
Three stalks celery
Three carrots
Four or five small potatoes
1 to 3 cloves of garlic, depending on your audience
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
14 ounces chopped tomatoes.
One box beef broth (could sub chicken or vegetable)
1 teaspoon chili in adobo sauce or to taste
One lemon
Fresh parsley
Wash the leeks well. Chop the leeks, carrots, celery, and potatoes and sauté them in a couple tablespoons of olive oil. While they cook, sort and wash the lentils. Add chopped garlic to the pan with the lentils and saute for a moment with the smoked paprika. Add the broth and tomatoes, and simmer for about 45 minutes until everything is soft. (You may need to add a little water.)
Add up to a teaspoon of chili in adobe sauce. (I would have added more but John thought it spicy enough for the people who would be eating it.) Squeeze half a lemon over the soup and simmer a bit more.
Sprinkle with fresh parsley and serve with biscuits!
Your turn now Reds, how do you feel about beans? Have you ever lost control of a subscription? Any fabulous recipes to share? (You know how people drop giant zucchini bats on neighbors' stoops during the height of that season? If you find a bag of beans on your steps, you will know the culprit.)
Oh, dear . . . the lentil soup looks delicious . . . thanks for sharing the recipe.
ReplyDeleteWe like beans, but we don't have nearly as many packages in our pantry as you have there . . .
How about white chili to use up some of your beans? Or you could make three bean salad . . . or maybe navy bean soup?
I'm laughing Joan, thinking about how much 3-bean salad there would be if I used 3 different packages of beans!
DeleteYes, but you'd have the perfect dish for a potluck!
DeleteWhat a great idea. Thanks
DeleteHad navy bean soup today. We eat lots of beans. I’m going to try that lentil soup.
ReplyDeleteIt was yummy!
DeleteWow!! I knew Rancho Gordo beans are popular when I saw them on sale in FM & stores in San Francisco. Living alone, I would never buy any food subscription, not even for chocolate!
ReplyDeleteI am not a bean lover like you. I make lots of hummus in warmer weather with canned chickpeas. And I occasionally add beans to soups & chili. I even have a black bean brownie recipe that's really good.
P.S. I browsed the Rancho Gordo gift boxes. I am sad. NO SHIPPING ALLOWED TO CANADA!
DeleteOh darn on the shipping Grace. I have to say these beans are head and shoulders above a bag of beans you'd buy in the grocery store!
DeleteYes, heirloom beans would definitely taste better. It's so odd that Rancho Gordo won't ship to Canada! FYI. I buy plenty of online food products from the USA, (e.g. World Spice spices) & they always provide an int'l shipping option. Oh well, I guess I will just have to go in person to California to buy some ;-)
DeleteGood for you! You've spoken about Rancho Gordo before but have never tried them. I would never keep up with subscription like that, though. I shared a yummy Indian spiced chickpea salad over on Mystery Lovers' Kitchen last month (https://www.mysteryloverskitchen.com/2023/09/crispy-chickpea-salad-from.html), and sometimes I make a chickpea and rosemary soup (good olive oil is a must) that's really nice. Plus chiles all winter. At least bean stews tend to freeze well!
ReplyDeleteMake that, "but I have never tried them."
DeleteYou would like these beans Edith. I think chickpeas are the easiest for me as they are the most familiar!
DeleteI must confess that my dried beans do not get used nearly as much as the canned beans in the cupboard. It isn't just laziness, nor planning ahead. They never come out as well as certain canned ones do.
ReplyDeleteI am chuckling over your subscription excess, however. We eat chili often and any bean works in chili although I prefer black beans. The Moosewood Cookbook has several wonderful soups including Brazilian Black Bean Soup (which Hallie has also mentioned here), White Bean and Black Olive Soup, and Minestrone. There are probably 50 other recipes using beans in that cookbook but I love it for their soups.
There is a possibility that John is right and you may have to quit your subscription. Maybe give it one more shipment and then decide if you have too much of a good thing.
I go lazy and use canned beans a lot, too, Judy.
Deletethe trick seems to be to make a pot and then freeze them in sections. then they're just as easy as canned beans and much tastier.
DeleteRobrrta, freezing them that way makes sense. Frozen beans don't loose texture or anything important. We only have the freezer in our refrigerator, however and that is always pretty full.
DeleteWe got all excited about making beans from scratch (SO easy with an Instant Pot) and nothing tasted like my late MIL's food so I talked to one of my SILs who informed me that, as long as she'd been alive, her mother used canned beans! We're back to canned beans for most things.
DeleteP.S. Does anyone have a recipe for Turkish red/orange lentil soup?
This was our favorite soup last year. Also goes well served over rice - or greens.
ReplyDeleteCURRIED LENTIL CHICKEN SOUP
Serves 6
INGREDIENTS
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 yellow onion
* 3 carrots , chopped
* 3 celery stalks , chopped
* 1 clove garlic , minced
* 1 tablespoon freshly minced ginger
* 4 teaspoons curry powder
* 4 cups vegetable broth
* 1 cup red lentils
* 1 pound boneless & skinless chicken thighs
* Fine sea salt
* 1/2 cup full-fat coconut milk
* Freshly ground black pepper
* Squeeze of fresh lemon juice
INSTRUCTIONS
* Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat, and saute the onion, carrot, and celery until they start to soften, about 5 minutes.
* Add in the garlic, ginger, and curry powder, and stir unti fragrant, about one more minute.
* Add in the broth and lentils, and give the pot a stir, then place the chicken thighs directly into the broth. Season with 1 teaspoon of salt, and bring the soup to a boil.
* Once boiling, lower the heat to a simmer and cover the pot, letting the soup cook until the lentils are tender and the chicken is cooked-through, about 30 minutes.
* Use tongs to remove the chicken thighs, transfer them to a cutting board, and use two forks to shred them into bite-sized pieces. Return the chicken to the pot, and stir in the coconut milk. Adjust seasoning to taste, adding more salt, if needed.
* Serve with freshly ground black pepper and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, if desired.
Looks wonderful, thanks!
DeleteDeborah, I too make a curried lentil soup, but it's a little different--no chicken, carrots, celery or coconut milk, but it does have sweet potatoes and a can of diced tomatoes. Your version sounds really tasty.
DeleteThat recipe sounds good. I'll buy the chicken thighs today.
DeleteYum!
DeleteThis is so interesting Lucy. I love beans and plan to check the recipe from my Moosewood Cookbook (thanks for mentioning it Judy as I haven't used it for quite some time), and try both recipes here. Yours and Deborah's both sound delicious and I'll check out Edith's suggestion as well. I've never heard of Rancho Gordo beans so I'm excited to try them.
ReplyDeleteLucy I wonder if you get pinto beans if you like refried beans for burritos or for other Mexican recipes.
No pinto beans so far, but lots of varieties I haven't heard of and will have to try!
DeleteI haven't cooked much with the lentils in your recipe, but they are very available here in Europe. We do eat a lot of beans and Indian lentils. The Indian lentils don't require as much soaking as the beans you mentioned, but I don't think they would come in your subscription; and for our black bean or garbanzo recipes, we used canned beans, so the recipes I have probably wouldn't solve your bean problem, either. Best of luck. Meanwhile, thanks for the soup recipe above, It looks delicious, and soup weather is definitely coming!
ReplyDeleteYes it's going to be cold in CT next week!
DeleteYou are hilarious! This is so funny… And the reason you don’t quit is… What?
ReplyDeleteI don’t really like beans, not at all, and so this whole thing is baffling to me. But I know they are beloved subscriptions? We once had a subscription for coffee, and just like the beans, it got completely out of hand. We had so much coffee! SO MUCH COFFEE! And when we tried to quit, they didn’t seem to understand that we needed to quit. And the coffee kept coming. It was pretty funny.
Hank, I can't quit because it's hard to get in LOL. And I know this will push me to cook more beans and that's good for us! I looked at a coffee subscription, but John said NO!
DeleteWhy is it hard to get in a bean club? That’s so funny!
DeleteAnd John is very wise about the coffee subscription. We have so much coffee. So much coffee!
HANK: Hmmm. how many bags of coffee do you get with each subscription & how often do they ship?
DeleteI am lucky, my coffee farm subscription in Hawaii has made it very easy to skip and adjust shipments on their website. But in earlier years I would end up with a backlog. Particularly when I would go on a binge of reading British mysteries because that normally triggers a switch to drinking tea.
DeleteYou can buy the subscription beans at Trader Joes, at least in California.
DeleteYou are hilarious! This is so funny… And the reason you don’t quit is… What?
ReplyDeleteI don’t really like beans, not at all, and so this whole thing is baffling to me. But I know they are beloved.
Subscriptions? We once had a subscription for coffee, and just like the beans, it got completely out of hand. We had so much coffee! SO MUCH COFFEE! And when we tried to quit, they didn’t seem to understand that we needed to quit. And the coffee kept coming. It was pretty funny.
Reply
We are trying to learn to like beans because they're really healthy and environmentally friendly and my husband is Puerto Rican.
DeleteI bet your hub's family has some great bean recipes!
DeleteNo subscriptions here--we would be eating one box for a very loooong time. That said, I do love beans and would make them more often if I were cooking just for myself. I mostly use canned beans these days. The recipes sound great--I'm always looking for new soups to try.
ReplyDeletethese beans are definitely better than anything I've had from a can!
DeleteRunning late. Time for one suggestion. Donate beans to local food pantry every 80 days. You will then start with a fresh supply each quarter. May the bean grow happily with others.
ReplyDeletethat's not a bad idea!
DeleteBring on the beans! You don't even need to be stealthy about it, Lucy. We love beans, almost any variety.
ReplyDeleteWe once had a wine club membership, and it was the same. It got completely out of hand--six to twelve bottles delivered at a time--and I was running out of room to store bottles! We gave all three daughters memberships for Christmas one year, and all but one had to stop after a few months. The one who kept it up had what amounted to a wine cellar in her basement, but when she moved there was still SO much wine. I think I still have three or four bottles of it, three years later.
Since I like to add black beans, especially, to soups and stews and Mexican dishes, I try to keep cooked beans in the freezer. They are cooked in a big batch in the slow cooker, drained and cooled, then frozen in quart portions. If they're drained they are easier to use by smaller amounts, although that is an extra step.
My favorite four-bean recipe is super easy, once most of the beans are cooked. I use about the same amount of each ingredient. 1/2 cup to 1 cup, depending on what this dish is for.
Frozen soybeans, cooked to just al dente. Mix with any three other kinds of beans, but mixing colors is most pleasing. I like black beans, garbanzos, and cannelini together, and if I need to stretch the recipe I'll also add kidney beans. Add a whole package of curly parsley, chopped (1/2-1 cup). Italian dressing to coat, plus salt to taste and liberal amounts of fresh ground pepper.
I've made this as a salad, with drained beans, or as a topping for rice using some of the bean juice. It's always a big hit.
sounds good, and easy too!
DeleteI must admit beans and I have a dicey relationship. Too many of them make me feel bloated. So unfortunately, no recipes.
ReplyDeleteI remember subscribing to the Columbia Record Club as a teenager. My mother did warn me. LOL
Yes, hilarious! The Columbia record club! Where are you could get 1 million records for 10 cents and then the high priced records would never stop coming for the rest of your life .
DeleteYes! I did enjoy getting the Springsteen back catalogue so frugally, but then the constant vigilance required to reject most of the monthly selections!
Deletethis is sounding so so familiar...
DeleteAs a fellow Bean Club member, the best thing I've learned is that I don't have to cook a whole bag at a time. Seems obvious but mentally it was a game-changer!
ReplyDeletethanks for the tip and so glad you stopped by!
DeleteI grew up with beans every Monday, which was wash day. My Texas grandmother made the best beans ever, usually with fresh pork hocks. These days we have them most frequently in summer, with greens. Sometimes I add a bit of itslian
ReplyDeleteOops— Italian sausage or ham. Pinto beans for chili, cannellini for beans and greens, garbanzos for salads or Ellie Krieger’s Chick pea stew. French lentil soup, and of course baked beans, black beans, kidney beans, red beans and rice, and black eyed peas for Nee Years Day.
Deleteglad you clarified that Ann! I was a little confused, my final guess was insulin which didn't make sense. hahaha
DeleteYou are a perfect bean club person Ann!
DeleteAnn, do you have a recipe for Cannellini beans and greens or do you just know a handful of this and that?
DeleteI was in the same situation. He never said it, but I think my husband was on the verge of suggesting I withdraw from the club. I found that it works better for me to take away the overwhelming choice of all the bean varieties. I have sorted by date, and choose what I will cook from the oldest 2 or three varieties. There are only two of us, but we mostly get through an entire pound by using them in more than one recipe. Occasionally I use an entire pound in something like a big batch of chili and freeze it in portions for quick meals. And we finish a batch and cook a different variety within a few days. We have had great momentum for a while now. Why not set a bean goal? plan to use or give away X pounds in 3 months. See what happens!
ReplyDeleteThat's a good suggestion, just use what comes up in the bean lottery! Bean momentum, yes! So glad you stopped by:)
DeleteLucy, I'm firmly in the "beans can save the world" camp, and I love Rancho Gordo. One of the shops on our town square used to stock them and I would buy whatever variety they had on hand. Alas, the shop stopped carrying them. I've looked into the club, but think I was deterred by the waiting list. I will check it out again.
ReplyDeleteI try to make a big pot of some kind of beans every week, and I use canned beans in things all the time. (Last night it was a cauliflower curry with white beans, yum.) I have found that the brand of canned beans makes a big difference, and I always prefer Bush's although they are a bit more expensive. Same with dried beans, and I highly recommend Camelia's over most bulk or grocery store brands. (Also you can order from Amazon.)
One more bean note: the Instant Pot is fabulous for any kind of dried bean or chickpeas. Not necessary to soak, and you can have delicious beans in about an hour.
Yes yes, join the club Debs:)
DeleteLucy, I love beans, and I buy them dried, too (though not by subscription!) For years, we had New England Baked Beans every Saturday, with corny-corn bread muffins and slaw on the side.
ReplyDeleteNo recipes to suggest, but I do have a prep suggestion - when you're making dinner, set a pot of beans on to boil. Then let them sit overnight. They'll be ready for whatever you want to cook the next evening, and if you've changed your mind, drain them and they'll stay good in the fridge for a day or two.
The trick is to just soak them, even if you don't have a recipe in mind; I promise, when you see that pot o' beans the next day, you'll come up with something!
the New England baked beans and corny corn muffins sound divine!!
DeleteThat looks yummy!
ReplyDeleteI grew up with something called Manast - It's sort of an Italian free for all soup. Ours contained three pounds of Italian sausage links, browned until the outside was crisp. My dad always added sliced cloves of garlic when the sausage began releasing its fat so it didn't get burned and bitter. Add three cans of cannellini beans into the undrained sausage skillet and allowed it to get soupy/thick. While that's going on, wash, rinse, tear, and put three pounds of escarole into a large pot with water to just cover the leaves when pressed. When the escarole is cooked, drain it over a bowl and hold out three cans of broth. (I keep it all). The escarole, three cans of broth, and sausage mixture go back into the pot for a bit to mix the flavors. Serve with loaves of crusty Italian bread to sop up the "juice." Which explains why you really need to keep all the broth and add it back in as the level gets low!
Delicious Kait!
DeleteLucy, I am checking now to see if any local grocery or specialty stores carry Rancho Gordo dried beans.
ReplyDeleteI am a bean club member and a family of two. I cook a pound of beans each week and use it for one or two diners and lunches. The trick is to make the basic pot of beans, and then turn it into different things... something perhaps curried, something Italian, tacos, etc. so you aren't eating the same thing every night. Others cook a pound and freeze 2 cup portions. So they have different bean dishes durning the week, adding to their freezer stash as they pull out earlier frozen beans to use. And most of the beans are so fresh you don't need to soak them. I only soak the Royal Coronas. There are a variety of strategies: Cook a pot of beans on the weekend to use throughout the week. Use the instant pot to quickly cook the beans within an hour. I use a slow cooker and start them in the morning to have cooked beans at night. They usually cook in 3 hours, start to finish.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with you! I live alone, but still go through at least a pound of beans a week. Although soaking is not always necessary with our RG beans, I like brining mine, even if it's only for a short time. Brining for me is adding about 2 T salt to the soak water, dumping the water before cooking, adding fresh water in the pot. I, too, use a multi-cooker for the convenience - and ensuring good results if I forget to check on the pot! Summer beans often become salads with the addition of diced onion, jalapeño peppers, a clove or 2 of minced garlic, then dressed with a good olive oil and lemon of sherry vinegar. And I really enjoy almost any bean dish for breakfast topped with a jammy egg. Although I have a stash of 20+ bags of beans, I don't think I would entertain quitting the bean club. I share with friends - packages of the dried beans and/or prepared dishes.
DeleteYay, thanks for the tips Bean Club members! I feel better already:)
DeleteEvil subscriptions! When I retired, some coworkers got me a craft beer subscription. Seems like a great idea, except I live in Southern California, one of the craft beer meccas of the world, so it was bit like coals to Newcastle. Our fridge was already full of tasty local selections. And my husband and I generally prefer to drink at local brewpubs and tasting rooms and enjoy the community feel and chatting with other patrons.
ReplyDeleteThere was an option to skip shipments - great! Except the notifying email telling me what beers were upcoming and giving me 24 hours to change or stop them always went into the promotions folder, which I didn’t look at regularly. I strung the 6 month subscription out over one year, with the beers that I couldn’t fit in the fridge tucked into cool dark closets.
Phew! I survived! And then the next month I got a notice saying my new shipment was on the way. Turns out when I signed up to activate the subscription, I had to provide a credit card in case I swapped out for more expensive beers, so they kept going even though my initial paid subscript was complete.
Wow, it sounds like these food/drink subscriptions can be pretty tricky to de-activate or cancel. And I agree, you folks living in Southern California are flush with plenty of craft beer brewpubs and tasting rooms. I found that San Diego had several good ones & I am not a huge beer drinker. It was nice that the Bottlecraft store at Liberty Station had 100s of craft beers from all over to choose from, and you could just buy single cans to try different ones.
DeleteHere's another subscription problem--if you live part of the year somewhere different, the package can be sent where you are not! Last year my Thanksgiving turkey arrived in CT but we were in Key West.
DeleteA bean club! Now I've heard it all! I can't say I have a bean addiction. I enjoy red beans and rice from my New Orleans years. Black eyed peas, black beans, and pintos. All satisfying on occasion. But no beans in the chili!
ReplyDeletePat D, My father was from the Deep South and growing up we always had black eyed peas every New Years Day for good luck and in keeping with southern tradition.
DeleteAbsolutely! I need the luck!
Deletewe always have black eyed peas too! But no beans in the chili? that's different!
DeleteQuestion Lucy,
ReplyDeletecan green beans be substituted in your recipe for red lentils? The only store nearby that carries Rancho Gordo only carries the green lentils.
oppps substituted for brown lentils...
ReplyDeleteYes green lentils would be fine!
Deletehttps://eatwithclarity.com/chickpea-chocolate-chip-cookies/ these cookies are a new favorite of mine--I've also added some dried fruit and pecans, to pretend they're breakfast cookies! - Melanie
ReplyDeleteOh, that actually sounds pretty good.....xxx
DeleteI like beans, but I don't eat them as much as I probably should.
ReplyDeleteI am amazed by how many of us are into beans! One of my favorite recipes is a black bean soup with oranges/juice in it... from the Moosewood Cookbook. So delicious. And I'd love a good recipe for a lentil salad.
ReplyDeletecheck out the Rancho Gordo website - they have some great recipes. Club members have been raving about the Lentil & Carrot salad.
DeleteLentil and carrot sounds good. I once had a roast chicken in Paris over a bed of French lentils. It will live on forever in my memory!
DeleteI love beans and am trying to eat more of them. Great recipe-thanks for sharing. aprilbluetx at yahoo dot com
ReplyDeleteEnjoy April!
DeleteI think you are going to need some alternative uses. I don’t see how two people can eat them all! Perhaps you can sew up some bean bags to use for corn hole (bean bag toss) games or maybe put them in a white tube sock to heat in the microwave to use on aches and pains or warm your bed at night (although rice may work better for that) Use them for pie weights.
ReplyDeleteLOL on the corn hole game Brenda! But I could use the older ones for pie weights...
DeleteI laughed because I just ordered 3 new bags of Gordo's to go with the 3 open bags I have in my kitchen. They are so much better than the ones in plastic in the grocery store, and you're right: pre-planning is necessary...unless you make up a whole pot on day one and then make different recipes for the next few days. Tuscan white bean soup, pureed beans under a pork chop, salad with marinated white beans. You get the idea.
ReplyDeleteGlad to know you're another bean addict!!
DeleteOh, late to the bean party today (sorry, deadline!), but now I have bean envy. I actually love beans. Roasted chick peas with buffalo wing sauce - so good for snacking. I used to make them all the time for the Hooligans. And now I have a hankering...and I want to be in the club. LOL. Thanks for the recipe, Roberta, it looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteI'll share Jenn, don't worry!
DeleteI can’t stop laughing at this conversation! I was just about to climb into bed and now l’ll be dream-counting beans. I love any kind of beans but monthly shipments?! This sounds like an official Bean Fetish. Call out the Calvery!
ReplyDeleteLOL Judy, you can tell from the comments of the Beaniacs that they (we) are very serious about their beans!
Delete