This recipe was originally published over 10 years ago, but I still make it all the time and have given the photos a makeover!
We are a football-watching family. On any given Sunday during the season, we are hunkered down for a good part of the day at home with the likely chance of random family and friends dropping by. I like to prepare hearty, comfort food that can be left on the stove for everyone to help themselves whenever hunger strikes.Continue reading
As I type this, my slow cooker has been on for 36 hours straight. Is that allowed? I am officially obsessed and I completely understand why you all have been too while I was under a little rock. Wow! I made this awesome sweet potato chili the other night, then washed out the insert and put in some beef bones to make beef stock while I slept. Then the next morning strained the beef stock and made a grass-fed beef brisket with veggies that I turned into a delicious sauce for pasta. I’m on fire!
Are you gearing up for Super Bowl Sunday? I love football, so I am always excited for the big day. What I’d really like to know though, is why does everyone make chili for the Super Bowl? Or a lot of Tex-Mex food? I take that back. My family in NY will be eating sausage and peppers and a baked pasta of some sort. Maybe it’s just Southern California, but everyone I know is ripening their avocados for guacamole to go on top of their tacos or nachos or what have you. Just curious since I am one of these people too and I’m not quite sure how I got to be.
I do try and mix it up a little every year, but somehow chili makes it onto the menu in some way. I have been alternating between Vegetable Chili (my favorite) and Deer Valley Turkey and Black Bean Chili, which I serve alongside a baked potato bar, corn bread and Mexican Chopped Salad which I have a feeling doesn’t resemble anything you’d get in Mexico but sure is the perfect salad to go along with everything else Tex-Mex-y. I’m in a bit of a conundrum this year with only two days to go until Super Bowl Sunday because I have no menu yet! There are too many things I would love to make, including this fabulous chili as well as Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos or even this terrific-looking vegetarian tortilla soup recipe I spotted on Foodily. Alas, I have a mere one slow cooker.
Fear not, good people. I will share with you how to make this recipe on the stove in case you either do not have a slow cooker (yet) or you only have one slow cooker and you are planning on making my slow cooker chicken tacos. I like to have a good balance of different food groups even on Super Bowl Sunday so that it’s not just chips and animal protein all day long. Personally, I think chili is an easy dish to do vegetarian. All those beans are super high in fiber and protein so they’re really filling and it’s the spices that make everything taste delicious, not the meat. This chili is really interesting because it includes a bit of sweet potato, one of my most favorite foods. There’s a touch of cinnamon and cocoa powder which you can’t really taste, but pairs great with the chili powder. I didn’t add any leafy greens, but in retrospect I think a few chopped leaves of chard, spinach or kale would have been a nice addition at the end. This Super Bowl I’m rooting for you to eat something healthful!
This is the time of year when I start to make more bean-based soups and chilis. And as soon as it stops being 80 degrees around here, I’ll get right on that. Actually, regardless of the season, we are a bunch of bean eaters in this house. Besides chili, I use beans in Mexican dishes, salads, pastas, veggie burgers, with braised greens or in dips. There are many varieties of beans that we eat — from garbanzos to black to pinto to Cannellini and more.
Beans are incredibly versatile and they happen to be a great low-fat source of fiber and protein. Beans are one of those low-glycemic foods that gives you long-lasting energy without spiking your blood sugar. Hooray! No insulin surge! And what’s more is that several types of beans including kidney, pinto and black are off the charts in antioxidants, as in a whole heck of a lot.
Beans are quite affordable, especially if you make them from scratch. A pound of dried beans can cost anywhere from $1 to $1.50 and that will yield the equivalent of 3-4 15-ounces cans. If you buy high-quality organic beans from a company like Eden Organic, which doesn’t line their cans with BPA, one can costs approximately $2.30. You can do the math here and realize that you would save a lot of money buy cooking your beans from scratch. Not only that, most cans are lined with BPA, which is a carcinogen that is not easily detoxified. And wouldn’t you feel better about not throwing all those cans into a landfill? Yes indeed. 
I am teaching a black bean and pumpkin soup recipe this month in my classes and I have noticed my students furiously scribbling my instructions for how to cook dried beans. I realized this would be a good thing to post, so here are a few of my tips for preparing beans from scratch.
Who invented the idea of “Meatless Monday?” The U.S. Food Administration did during World War I and urged families to conserve key staples to aid the war effort, but the idea was revived in 2003 by an ad exec-turned health advocate for dietary and environmental reasons. Ironically, the Food Administration also tried to promote “Wheatless Wednesday” during WWI, which I would love to see make a comeback. But I have a feeling you won’t see the US government advocating abstaining from any big political donors major food industries anymore. However if you ask my sisters and me who invented “Meatless Monday,” we would tell you with conviction that it was our mother. Vegetarian dinners on Mondays were a part of my life growing up. I loved them since I was a vegetarian from about the age of 10 to 18. But believe me, my mother was not trying to cater to me at all. Her thought was that we tended to indulge over the weekend with heavy meals, usually centered on lots of pasta, meat and cheese and that we needed a break. My sisters, who were most definitely NOT vegetarians called it “Low Budget Night,” since Monday’s dinners tended to be less expensive and less fancy.
Beans or lentils were almost always the star of the show on Mondays and they usually found their way into a soup. This potato and white bean soup is just a take on a traditional pasta and bean soup or “pasta e fagioli,” as you might see it on a menu. I love that potatoes, a whole food, take the place of pasta, which is a (processed) food I eat very occasionally. The recipe requires so few ingredients, many of which you probably have in your pantry. And if you make your beans from scratch, this soup will cost you practically nothing. The potatoes and beans both add a rich creaminess to the soup, as well as work together to form a complete protein. Even though beans are typically bland, this soup has a nice, almost smoky flavor and feels very satisfying despite the lack of fat. A typical Monday dinner would be a nice big bowl of this soup with a side of sauteed greens or a salad and some crusty bread. Sometimes my parents would also add a wedge of good cheese (that my father smuggled in his suitcase from Italy) to the table and that was that.
My husband grew up with neither Meatless Mondays nor Meatless Any Days, so getting him to buy into a dinner of potato and bean soup took some time. Now he loves it and especially how it makes him feel afterwards (“not gross”). Lest anyone feel cheated, I happily serve both a salad and some roasted vegetables on the side. All my kids, Mr. Picky included, love this soup. It’s white! What kids don’t like white food? Of course, I can’t help but stir in some escarole in at the end. You know me and my greens. They’re going to save your life, so I’ll find anyway to include them that I can. If your local market doesn’t carry escarole, feel free to add some spinach, arugula or chard. I always plan to have extra soup for thermoses in the next day’s lunch boxes, which works out perfectly for “Trash-free Tuesday” at our school!
Have you made any new year’s resolutions? I’ve been contemplating a few, but what tends to work better for me are measurable resolutions, such as “cook dinner five nights a week” or “do yoga every Sunday.” I’ve never had luck with “eat better” or “exercise more.” Most people tend to come up with resolutions about diet and health, but they’re usually about short term weight loss or feeling better after 6 weeks of holiday overindulgence. I think “Meatless Mondays” is an easy one to try and it doesn’t mean you’re becoming a vegetarian or a vegan, not that there’s anything wrong with that. It just means a commitment to eating more plant-based foods and acknowledging the heavy environmental footprint of raising animals in this country. Just a thought.
Talk to me here — am I the only one who grew up with Meatless Mondays? Does your family currently partake? I need some inspiration for my new year’s resolutions — feed me! Or just make this soup. Here’s to a happy and healthy 2012!
Happy summer! I really can’t believe it’s here, but I am just thrilled to bits. Even though I still teach during the summer, I find that my schedule with the kids is a little easier and frees me up to spend a bit more time cooking. The ironic thing is that during the summer, we don’t need to “cook” as much. The weather is warmer and our bodies can tolerate more raw or lightly cooked foods. But this has to be my favorite season for just the sheer bounty of vegetables and fruits available. You can find me literally bouncing around the farmer’s markets in the summer overbuying berries and stone fruits, corn, eggplant, greens and tomatoes. This past Saturday I bought a bushel of mint that was so gorgeous and fragrant, I couldn’t resist. But I should have since already I GROW mint on my patio.
I also love summer since we entertain much more frequently and it’s a wonderful chance to catch up with friends. I enjoyed a little quiet time this morning planning some weekend meals with guests in mind. I have several new recipes I’ll be trying out, like chicken and vegetable kabobs with chimichurri sauce, black bean burgers with a smoky red pepper spread, and cantaloupe and cucumber salad. I’m hoping they get the thumbs-up and I’ll post them before the end of the season. Also, the kids and I have been having fun dipping big chunks of peeled ripe bananas into melted dark chocolate and freezing them. But in as much as I get excited about experimenting, I also love my favorite stand-bys.
One of my regular dishes in the summer is this white bean, celery and mint salad. By now you know I have a thing for creamy and crunchy together and I clearly have no self-control when a healthy bunch of mint seduces me. On a beach day, I like to put the fixings out for a make-your-own sandwich bar. Whether we choose to eat a quick bite at home or pack the sandwiches to go, this bean salad is always the perfect side to chicken salad, grilled vegetables or a humble turkey on wheat. It is a great salad to bring on a picnic since the beans and celery don’t suffer after sitting in dressing for hours. But the recipe is so easy that you might find yourself at home for lunch one day and decide that you can pull a beautiful healthful salad together with that can of white beans in your pantry and a simple vinaigrette.
Beans are a great source of inexpensive, low-fat protein and contain a ton of soluble fiber — so great for helping balance the LDL and HDL levels. I am pretty good about planning meals in advance, so I will usually soak dried beans and make them from scratch, but opening up a can of Eden Organic beans is just fine, although a tad more expensive. Sometimes I add canned tuna to this salad and you really need nothing more, although my girls love to take crusty bread and scoop up the salad and eat it that way. Now would be a good time to mention that I dread BPA, which is a plastic and resin ingredient found in the linings of most cans, as well as water bottles and is associated with several health problems including breast cancer and infertility. Thankfully, Eden Organics and Vital Choice Seafood do not use BPA in their can liners.
Please stop in again for more fresh, healthful and seasonal recipes to share with family and friends. I’m looking forward to a great summer!
serves 8
1 pound dried Great Northern or cannellini beans*
1 medium onion, quartered
1 stalk celery, quartered
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 2-inch piece kombu (if you have it)**
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
Dressing:
¾ cup unrefined, cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup raw apple cider vinegar, preferably unpasteurized
½ teaspoon raw honey
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 ½ cups chopped celery
1 shallot, cut into thin half-moon slices ar ½ red onion, small dice
1 ½ cups loosely packed mint leaves, chopped
1 7-ounces can albacore tuna packed in oil or water (optional), flaked
*Or you can use 6 cups drained and rinsed canned beans, approximately 3 or 4 cans.
** Kombu is a seaweed which helps tenderize the beans and make them more digestible. If you also cook the beans with the kombu, it adds alkalinity. I buy Eden kombu at Whole Foods or from amazon.com
When I am coming up with a menu for entertaining mixed company, e.g. kids and adults or carnivores and vegans, I steer most often towards Mexican food. It is always a crowd pleaser, easy to prepare and I can very often employ a topping bar of sorts. It is no surprise to me that my Mexican-themed cooking classes are my most popular of the year. I always teach them in April so that my students have some fun, healthful recipes to use for Cinco de Mayo (May 5th.) You know I am a sucker for themed family dinners on “holidays.” That and I just don’t enjoy taking the kids to crowded, greasy Mexican restaurants on one of the busiest and most inebriated nights of the year for something I can easily make at home.
These versatile black beans are a staple in our house all year long. They’re close to Frijoles Refritos, meaning “well-cooked beans” (as opposed to “twice-cooked beans,” which is what I thought it meant for years.) But I’m not frying anything in lard or vegetable oil, instead cooking the beans with some onion, garlic, jalapeno and cilantro for great flavor. We eat them simply over rice, wrapped in a burrito, as a side with fajitas or tacos, or with huevos rancheros. Daughter #1 and her friends like to toast corn tortillas over the gas flame on the stove (they’re 14 years-old) and eat the beans like a dip. They are a must with any Mexican meal. The good news is that I can tell you how to easily make them from scratch (soaking dried beans) or from a can. Even though I avoid canned food like the plague, you have a great option with Eden Foods which does not use BPA in its can liners.
Beans are an incredible source of low-fat protein and fiber, especially soluble fiber which has been shown to help lower cholesterol and stabilize blood sugar levels. Black, red and pinto beans are crazy high in anti-oxidants, too. Another bonus is that they are rather inexpensive, especially if you buy them dried and cook them yourself. 1 pound of dried beans might cost you about $1.00. One pound dried equates to approximately 3 15-ounce cans of black beans at about $2.19 per can for Eden Organic in my natural foods store (other brands are much less, but you’re also getting that pesky BPA.) You can also buy the cans by the case from Amazon and save some money (12 cans for $16.60 at the time of this post.) Making beans from scratch is as easy as boiling water, but you need to plan at least 6 hours in advance to soak them and an hour and a half to cook them. Or just make a ton over the weekend and freeze them. Love that!
Over the next week and a half, I’ll be posting some of my favorite Mexican-inspired dishes to wow your family and friends without letting your healthful eating take a siesta!
