Beating the Heat with a Summery Mixed Bean Salad

 

Dear Friends, Reach into your pantry, hunt down that tin of Mixed Beans, and whip up this simple bean salad. This salad serves 4-6 people. If you are doubling the quantities, use a red and a green capsicum, as the two colours look attractive and give a nice contrast in flavours. I just love the tang of this salad in Summer. I originally made this just with white Cannellini beans and it was delicious, so it is versatile regardless of what type of beans you choose. I have also lightly blanched some green beans, and added them chopped to the mix as well. Whilst I love a healthy grain salad at the best of times, this bean salad requires no cooking at all, such a bonus at this time of year.

Happy New Year to you all. We are just back from our Summer holidays at the Gold Coast and I am gradually easing back into cooking, blogging and everything really. January is such a transition period, don't you think? Did I say cooking? Up until yesterday, we were experiencing maximum temperatures here at home of 35 deg. C. with high humidity, so salads and easily prepared meals involving little to no cooking were my preference. That's how this recipe came about, as during the heatwave I was craving something really tasty, a little bit sweet, sour and tart that required no cooking. However, thank goodness the heavens have opened up and the heat has been followed by very heavy rain today, over 100 mm, which we just love. Hopefully there won't be any serious flooding. It's predicted to continue over the next few days.  The heat and humidity came as a bit of a shock to us after a cool beach holiday at the beautiful Gold Coast, and Gold Coast hinterland in Southern Queensland. 

These are photos of Tugun beach on the Gold Coast, with the Life Guard Tower on the right, complete with cute Christmas decorations and solar panels. We found this to be the best swimming beach, and whilst our holiday accommodation wasn't at this beach, Mr. HRK swam here during family holidays as a child. The rule is to always swim between the flags. The Life Savers (Guards) do a wonderful job looking after swimmers and surfers on the beaches at this time of year.

This is how I make my Mixed Bean Salad.

Ingredients:

Serves 4-6

400g (1-16oz) can Mixed Beans (or any white bean such as Cannellini if you prefer)

1 red or green capsicum, or use half of each for colour

2 spring onions, finely chopped or 1/2 medium very fresh brown onion 

1 large tomato, deseeded and finely chopped

6 tbsp. good quality red wine vinegar (I used Jamie Oliver)

1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

salt to taste

1 clove garlic finely chopped(optional)

(Preparation time 10 minutes)

Preparation:

1. Rinse and drain the can of beans
2. Chop the capsicum and spring onions very finely and place into a medium size mixing bowl. Add the beans and any other fresh salad ingredients that you choose and mix it all together.
3. Mix together the red wine vinegar, the olive oil, and whisk with a small whisk to emulsify.  Add the salt, a light grinding of black pepper, and pour into the beans. Taste it and adjust the seasoning if necessary, although the flavours will develop so you could do this closer to serving the salad.
4. If you have some very fresh garlic and you love it, peel and mince 1 clove of garlic, and add it to the mixture and stir. 
5. There is plenty of dressing for this salad so if you wish to add a few extra salad ingredients, see my notes below for ideas, then there will be plenty of dressing for a larger salad.
6. Add a teaspoon of mustard and a little sugar to the dressing if that is more to your taste for a vinaigrette dressing.
7. If you are entertaining dinner guests, the whole recipe can also be mixed together early on the day of serving and kept in the refrigerator, so that is one less thing to do close to the event. 

Cook's notes:

• Omit the tomato if you wish, it wasn't in my original recipe, but I like tomato in this salad.
• This salad is perfect just with the ingredients listed above. I am always careful not to add to many ingredients to recipes however with salads, which are so versatile, it is generally quite simple to add extra ingredients that you have on hand. Add 2 celery sticks for some extra crunch, and if you intend to serve all of this in one sitting, add some finely chopped cucumber just before serving if you wish.  However, the cucumber won't last well in the salad if refrigerated.
• Add some herbs such as chopped fresh tarragon and chopped fresh parsley for extra flavour.
• The quantities can easily be doubled to serve more people. A tin of extra chickpeas can be added, and another chopped capsicum of a different colour, green or yellow.
• Leftovers will keep well covered in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, and even improve in flavour. Unlike some fresh salads which wilt after adding a dressing and being refrigerated, this one will last beautifully.

We ate this salad last night with my delicious Rustic Greek Halloumi and Spinach Pie that I love to make and eat. It's very easy to bring together and it had started raining so the kitchen was cool, bliss.

 I needed to use up some frozen spinach and halloumi so it was a perfect match, and ideal for a vegetarian meat free Monday, even though it wasn't Monday. This salad also contrasts perfectly served with Spanish chicken and chorizo casserole. However, it can stand on it's own just served with a green salad.  I would also happily serve it with any Mexican style meals.

Thanks for dropping by,

Have a great weekend, 

Pauline

I'm adding a little p.s. to my post today, as I'm having trouble replying to your comments but I am reading them, and trying to catch up on your lovely comments on previous posts. Hopefully Blogger will rectify this problem . After all it is Friday the 13th. Take care everyone.

Pasta Liguria with pesto, new potatoes, and green beans

With this recipe we are travelling in the kitchen to Liguria, in northwestern Italy, where it's Mediterranean coastline is known as the Italian Riviera. Liguria's most famous specialities are pesto and focaccia, which can be served plain, or with tasty variations like onion, olives, sage, cheese etc. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall of River Cottage fame in his veg everyday cookbook, says that this is a traditional pasta dish from Liguria using a delicious homemade pesto. Making your own pesto takes this dish to a whole new level. I am still to find a bought one that I like, but they must be available somewhere I suppose. 

For this recipe I used Hugh's recipe for pesto and combined basil and parsley, however just basil or just parsley would be fine. If you are fortunate enough to have access to a lot of fresh coriander, use that for an equally delicious pesto. This recipe can be prepared in two stages which saves a lot of time at the time of cooking. I made the pesto a few days ago and kept it in the refrigerator, and if you missed the recipe on my In My Kitchen November post here it is. If the pesto is already made, this recipe is cooked up in a jiffy. Another good thing is that this is a one pot dish after the pesto is made. I should also add that I only used the bowtie pasta for this recipe because that is what I had in the pantry. It's a fun pasta to use though.

It also makes a delicious meat free Monday dish that the whole family will love.

Pesto recipe:

Basil Pesto ingredients:

50 g pine nuts or walnuts, lightly toasted (I used pine nuts this time)

A large bunch of basil (about 30 g), leaves only

1 large bunch of parsley (about 30 g), leaves only

A few mint leaves (optional)

1 garlic clove, chopped

50 g Parmesan, hard goats cheese, or other well flavoured hard cheese, finely grated

 (I use parmesan)

 Finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon

100-150 ml extra virgin olive oil

A good squeeze of lemon juice

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To Serve:

Extra virgin olive oil, to trickle over the top (optional)

Method:

Put the toasted pine nuts into the food processor along with the herbs, garlic, grated cheese and lemon zest. Blitz to a paste, then, with the motor running, slowly pour in the olive oil until you have a thick, sloppy puree. Scrape the pesto into a bowl and season with salt, pepper and a good squeeze of lemon juice. This will keep in the refrigerator for a few days. Sometimes I make a  pasta dish using this pesto with new potatoes, and green beans. Delicious!

Lets cook some Pasta. 

Serves 4 generously

Pasta with Pesto, New Potatoes and Green beans Ingredients:

300g new potatoes, I used "baby spud lite" potatoes from Woolworths (no promo intended)

300g pasta, such as farfalle (bowtie shape) or any pasta shape,  or penne, trofie, orecchiette 

200g green or French beans

50g stoned green olives, roughly sliced or chopped

Salt

Method:

Put a very large pan of well salted water onto the boil. Salting the water heavily (2 tablespoons), is believed to help maintain the bright colour of the beans, and keep the potatoes firm. Meanwhile, cut the potatoes into thick matchsticks (like thin chips).

Add the potatoes and pasta to the pan and cook until the pasta is al dente - Probably 10-12 minutes. This should be the right amount of time for the potatoes as well, however I wasn't quite sure and so I added the pasta, cooked it for 2 minutes, then added the potatoes, cooked it all for 5 minutes and then added the green beans for 4 minutes. Perfect timing! The most important thing here is to keep the integrity of the potatoes so that they don't cook too long and break up. If the pasta is the type that cooks very quickly, put the potatoes in a few minutes before you add the pasta. 

Carefully drain off the pasta and vegetables, and let them steam off for a minute or two, then add the pesto and mix thoroughly but gently. Check to see if more salt or pepper is needed, I added a good grinding of pepper.

(If you are worried about the timing though, cook each element separately in the same pot of boiling water.  First the potatoes, when almost done take them out, then the green beans, take them out when almost done, keep the water going and add the pasta until done. Then gently mix everything together.)

Divide between 4 serving bowls, and scatter over the green olives. Grate some parmesan cheese over each bowl and add  an extra trickle of olive oil if you like. Serve with an extra bowl of grated cheese on the table. Mr. HRK and I are having leftovers for lunch today. Yum, can't wait.

I really hope you try this recipe as it is absolutely delicious and so simple to make.

As always your comments will make my day, so please let me know what you think in the comments box.

Happy eating,

 Pauline

GIGANTES or Giant Beans

Greece is on my travel list for the future, however if I can't go there right now, the next best thing is to cook a very typical dish that is eaten in Greece. This is a variation of a recipe from Epirus in Northern Greece where they grow plenty of the giant butter beans called Gigantes, which over there they cook with fresh tomatoes and all kinds of wild greens, and of course lots of olive oil. Sometimes sausages are also added which sounds like a great idea to me, the dish becomes a meal in one. Gigantes means Giants, which gives the name to this dish of giant Greek Lima Beans, and is pronounced yee-gahn-dess. So that is my first Greek word that I have learnt before we travel to Greece. Most of the Greek words I learn will probably centre around food and eating out at restaurants. Isn't that generally the way though?

This dish will feed a crowd and more, and is also a great way of using up fresh tomatoes if you have an abundance. The tinned variety can easily be substituted with fresh tomatoes and I added some fresh oregano from my garden to the tomato sauce as well. Lots of fresh Italian parsley came from the morning Farmer's Market as mine hasn't matured yet.

I would also suggest with this recipe that if you like lots of tomato sauce just double the quantity and use less chicken stock as there will be lots of beans.

GIGANTES

Ingredients:

½ kg dried lima or butter beans, or Gigantes if you can find them

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 cups celery, finely chopped

1 red capsicum, finely chopped

1 medium carrot, cut into cubes

1 410g can of crushed tomatoes

2 onions, finely sliced

2 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp. tomato paste

2 bay leaves

Fresh oregano

1 pinch of chilli flakes (optional)

1 tsp. Hungarian sweet paprika

1 cup Italian parsley, chopped

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 Litre chicken stock (you may not need all of this)

 Feta cheese

Method:

1. Soak the beans overnight covered well in water which will plump them up. Drain the beans and rinse them again.
2. Fill a large saucepan with cold water, and add the beans. Don’t add any salt to the water the beans are boiled in or it will toughen them up. Bring the beans to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes then discard the water. Rinse the beans again.
3. Put the beans back into the same saucepan, and fill with cold water again. The water should be about 2 inches above the beans. Add the bay leaves, celery, capsicum, and carrot, then bring to the boil. When it is bubbling, turn down the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
4. Whilst the beans and vegetables are cooking, cook the tomato sauce. Sauté the onion and garlic in a deep frypan. Add the chilli flakes, tomato paste and crushed tomatoes and paprika. Cook for 5 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 180 deg. C. Using a ladle, pour the beans into a baking dish and then add the tomato sauce, salt, pepper and sugar. Mix carefully and thoroughly. Add the chicken stock. The mixture should not be like soup but should not be dry either. Bake for 35 minutes, making sure the beans are cooked.
6. Crumble feta cheese over the top.
7. Sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley, noting that the amount of the parsley depends on the quantity of the beans.
8. Then pour a little bit of extra virgin olive oil over the top.

 Do you enjoy Greek food, and if so what is your favourite dish? Do you enjoy cooking with beans?

Make a simple salad with White Cannellini Beans and a Vinaigrette dressing

This Cannellini bean recipe serves 4. I doubled the quantities as I was serving it as a side for 13 at dinner and there was plenty. If you are doubling the quantities, use a red and a green capsicum, as the two colours look attractive and give a nice contrast in flavours. The whole recipe can also be mixed  together early on the day of serving and kept in the frig, so that is one less thing to do close to the event. 

Ingredients:

400g (1-16oz) can White Cannellini Beans (or any other white bean you may prefer)

1 red or green capsicum, or use half of each for colour

1/2 medium very fresh brown onion

6 tbsp good quality red wine vinegar (I used Jamie Oliver)

1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

salt to taste

1 clove garlic (optional)

(Preparation time 10 minutes)

Preparation:

1. Rinse and drain the can of beans
2. Chop the capsicum and onion very finely and place into a medium size mixing bowl. Add the beans and mix it all together.
3. Mix together the red wine vinegar, the olive oil, and the salt and pour into the beans. Taste it and adjust the seasoning if necessary, although the flavours will develop so you could do this closer to serving the salad.
4. If you have some very fresh garlic and you love it, peel and mince 1 clove of garlic, and add it to the mixture and stir. 

This salad contrasts perfectly served with a hot Spanish chicken and chorizo casserole. However it can stand on it's own just served with a green salad. Click on this link for the recipe of the Spanish chicken casserole.