EatLocal365 » beans

How to Make Tuscan White Bean “Hummus” Sandwiches

Erik — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:44:13 +0000

This was part of the fantastic picnic that we brought to Governor’s Island. This is a great recipe straight out of The Candle Cafe Cookbook,which is from a great vegan restaurant in NYC. They call it white bean “pate”, but to me “hummus” is a better term. That’s essentially what it is only with another type of beans substituted for the chick peas / garbonzo beans.

Tuscan White Bean “Hummus” Sandwiches with Tomato and Arugula

Makes 2-4 servings

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Sq. Greenmarket)
2 cups	Cooked white beans	We used Yellow Eye beans because we couldn’t get white beans that week	Cayuga Pure Organics *
1 tsp	Tahini
2	Cloves garlic
2	Whole dates	Pits removed, chopped
2 tsp	Lemon juice	Fresh is preferred to bottled
1 tsp	Ume plum vinegar	a.k.a. umeboshi vinegar
1	Fresh baguette		Our Daily Bread *
1 cup or more	Fresh arugula		Lani’s Farm *
1	Tomato	Sliced thinly	Lani’s Farm *
0.33 cup	Water or liquid from cooking the beans	Start with a little less and add more to get the texture you want

Directions

Make the “hummus”: combine the beans, tahini, garlic, dates, lemon juice, ume plum vinegar, and water in a food processor or blender, and combine until smooth. This will keep for up to one week in the fridge if covered.

Assemble your sandwiches: spread the hummus onto the sliced baguette and top with arugula and tomato.

We served the sandwiches with a side of roasted brocolli and Lindsay’s rollout cookies. Since we wrapped them up and had them sit for a few hours in our pack, the crunchy bread had nicely absorbed some of the moisture from the hummus and tomato. If you plan to do the same, be sure to buy a crisp, firm loaf.

Kale and White Bean Salad

Lindsay — Tue, 24 May 2011 02:35:04 +0000

Yes, another salad post. Sorry… I’m seriously craving salads lately. I think that’s part of the joy of eating locally. We don’t eat salads much in the winter, so it’s exciting and new when the markets start to fill with greens. This recipe is based on one from Choosing Raw, but modified for what we tend to have on hand. Gena is a great inspiration for healthy, but not Spartan, living, so take a look through her blog, if you have a minute. Plus, she makes outstanding salads!

Sorry also, for the long time between posts. We went to Flying Pigs Farm with some friends for the weekend and had the most amazing time. More on that later, but we were too busy having fun, cooking, and relaxing to get any posts up.

On to the recipe! This salad has great contrasting flavors. The dressing is a little tart and sweet. The tomatoes are sweet little bites. The beans are soft and smooth and the kale is hearty, but not tough. It will keep nicely overnight in the refrigerator, so this is a good recipe for dinner + lunch the next day.

It does use a few unique ingredients. Nutritional yeast sort of tastes like cheese, but it’s vegan and keeps well in the refrigerator, making this a good dressing to whip up from the pantry. Dulse flakes add a little saltiness and sea flavor to dishes, but you can omit it, if you don’t have it on hand and don’t want to buy it. Both are tasty on popcorn.

Kale and White Bean Salad
Makes 4 to 5 large servings

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Sq. Greenmarket)
2 bunches	Kale	We like dinosaur/lacinato or red Russian kale for salads.	Lani’s Farm *
2 large handfuls	Oven-dried tomatoes	We oven-dried a bunch of cherry tomatoes last summer, but you could substitute a jar of sun-dried tomatoes in oil.	Keith’s Farm *
2 cups	Navy beans	Cooked	Cayuga Pure Organics *
3/4 cups	Cashews	Soaked for 6-8 hours, if you think of it
1/4 cups	Nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp	Salt
2	Lemons	Juiced (substitute 1/4 cup bottled)
A few grinds	Black pepper
1 tsp	Dulse granules	Optional, but gives it a little “sea” taste
1/2 cup	Water

Directions

Blend all dressing ingredients (cashews through water) in a blender or food processor until smooth.
Slice the kale into 1/2- to 1-inch ribbons (see directions here) and place in your largest bowl.
Pour most of the dressing over the kale, reserving 1/4 to 1/2 cup. Use your hands to rub the dressing all over the kale. This massage will help the kale soften and ensure that the dressing is evenly distributed. Let the kale sit for 10-15 minutes to soften further.
Slice the dried tomatoes into bite-sized pieces. Our tomatoes are pretty small, so we just cut them in half. If you use jarred sun-dried tomatoes, you should cut each tomato half into 4 or 5 strips.
Add the tomatoes and white beans to the kale along with the rest of the dressing. Use your hands again to combine everything. Enjoy!

Support Cayuga Pure Organics!

Erik — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 18:22:07 +0000

[UPDATE] We received a response from the GrowNYC; Cayuga stays!

Hello Erik.

Thank you for your email. I am happy to inform you that Cayuga Pure
Organic will remain at Union Square on Saturday.
This Saturday, look for them in the same location as last Saturday. You
will be able to find them on the northeast side of Union Square Park
beginning Saturday, April 16th.
They will also be at Union Square on Wednesday and Friday year round.

Thank you for shopping at Greenmarket.

Hooray!

——————————————————————–

The NYC Greenmarket (a program of GrowNYC) is taking away Cayuga Pure Organics’ spot at the Saturday Union Square market!

The Union Square Greenmarket has begun to expand again over the past two weeks after its winter hibernation, and the stated rationale is that they need to make room for sellers of fresh produce now that the weather is warming up. Cayuga will be welcomed back in the fall as the market shrinks again.

While we appreciate the fact that space is limited, and that sometimes tough decisions need to be made, we could NOT DISAGREE MORE with this decision. While we support their desire to offer as much fresh produce as possible, Cayuga is a truly unique vendor at the Greenmarket. They are one of only two vendors that sell locally grown and milled flour (of all types). They are the ONLY vendor that sells local beans and grains (again, a huge variety), as well as local oil that can be swapped in for olive oil, in the form of local sunflower oil. These local products can and should be made available year-round.

If you read EatLocal365 on a regular basis, you know that we frequently use products from Cayuga Pure Organics. In fact, if you search our site for “Cayuga”, two-thirds of our recipes show up in the results!

When they are available, we should all eat more leafy greens, fresh tomatoes, and all of the other great things that will be coming into season soon. However, that doesn’t mean that we won’t ever want to bake bread with local ingredients or sauté those leafy greens using local oil. If GrowNYC needs to find space for the summer months, there are better choices than sidelining the sole vendor of these types of products. Worst of all, Cayuga has one of the smallest footprints at the entire market, with a tiny stand and a small truck. GrowNYC could work with some of the larger vendors to carve out a small spot for them.

As of now, Cayuga will still be at the Union Square market on Wednesdays and Fridays, so they won’t be completely gone from the neighborhood. However, many people cannot make it to the market on weekdays, and for that reason Saturday is the most lucrative market day for vendors. Cayuga will no doubt take a hit in their business. For a business that is pretty much single-handedly trying to bring back local flour, grains, and beans to the NY area, that would be a shame. They need our support!

Call to Action:

Please send GrowNYC a message through their contact page (or call!). Feel free to use this text if you like:

Please reconsider the decision to take away Cayuga Pure Organic’s spot at the Saturday Union Square Greenmarket. As the only purveyors of local flour, grain, beans, and oil, they are a unique asset and we want their products to remain widely available through the Saturday market, year-round. While we understand the need to make decisions to allocate space at the market, please find an alternate solution!

Holy Mole Chili

Lindsay — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 01:50:59 +0000

This is definitely the best vegetarian chili I’ve ever had…at home or a restaurant. Thank you, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, for the great recipe. I’m usually a little disappointed in vegetarian chili. I eat it and feel virtuous for having a Meatless Monday, or whatever, but it’s nothing I get excited about. But this is amazing!! I swear you won’t miss the meat. The cocoa gives it incredible richness, but the chocolate flavor is very subtle. The heat level is perfect for us, but you might want to cut down on the dried chiles if you’re sensitive.

I’ve been traveling a lot for work, so we’ve fallen into a little pattern. Erik and I cook a couple of times over the weekend and then he finishes any leftovers while I’m gone. It didn’t seem fair that I had to eat room service junk while he got to eat this, though, so I made him promise to save me a bowl.

If you can’t eat gluten or if you prefer meat in your chili, see the notes at the end of the recipe.

Holy Mole Chile
Makes a big pot, but it reheats well

Ingredients

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Sq. Greenmarket)
1/4 cup	Sunflower oil		Stolor Organics *
1/2 pounds	Onion	About 1 large, chopped	Paffenroth Gardens *
3 small	Dried chiles	Snipped into small pieces with a pair of scissors	Northshire Farms *
5 ounces	Frozen chopped bell peppers	Substitute 1 large fresh bell pepper	Migliorelli Farm *
3 cloves	Garlic	Smashed using the heel of your hand on the flat part of a knife or a large spoon	Keith’s Farm *
1 pound	Seitan	Ripped into bite-sized pieces	Homemade using Cayuga Pure Organics flour *
2 TBsp	Chile powder
1 tsp	Ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp	Ground cumin
28 oz can	Whole tomatoes		Canned this summer from Cherry Hill Orchards *
3 TBsp	Cocoa powder
3 TBsp	Blackstrap molasses	Blackstrap is much less sweet than regular molasses.
1 3/4 cups	Dried beans	Soaked for 6-10 hours	We used a combination of pinto and Jacob’s cattle beans from Cayuga Pure Organics *
2 1/2 cups	Vegetable broth		Homemade using veggies from various farmers *

Directions:

Add the oil to a large pot, preferably a Dutch oven, and warm over medium-high heat.
Once you feel heat in the pot, add the onions and both types of peppers. Sauté until the onion is translucent, 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the garlic and seitan and cook for 6 to 8 minutes. The seitan will stick to the bottom of the pan, so stir occasionally.
While the seitan is cooking, prep the rest of the ingredients in two groups.
Group 1 = chile powder, cinnamon, and cumin

Group 2 = tomatoes (open the can, but don’t drain), cocoa powder, and molasses. Note: The molasses will be much easier to measure if you use the oily measuring cup and just fill it 3/4 of the way. (4 tablespoons = 1/4 cup)

Once the seitan has cooked, add the spices in Group 1 and stir for a minute or so until you start to smell them.
Add the Group 2 ingredients (tomatoes, cocoa powder, and molasses). Stir, breaking up the tomatoes with the spoon.
Add the beans and vegetable broth.
Cover and bring to a simmer. Cook for about an hour or until the beans are tender.
Once the chili is done, try to wait 15-20 minutes before eating it, so that it can cool down and thicken up

Possible substitutions:

I think you could subsitute a pound of any sort of protein for the seitan, as long as you’re mindful of the fat content. If you use ground beef, for example, it might be a good idea to decrease the oil to a few teaspoons.
You could also use pre-cooked or canned beans and cut the cooking time to 30 minutes or so.

Yum!

Dark Days (Super Bowl Edition): Three Layer Bean Dip

Lindsay — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 19:50:13 +0000

I barely know who’s playing this year. I’m just not a huge sports fan…but I do like the food tradition! if you want to speed things up, you can make this recipe from store-bought beans, sour cream, and salsa verde. Honestly,though, even making it all from scratch, most of the time it was hands-off. It just took a bit of planning to know to start the day before.

This recipe is adapted from Gena at Choosing Raw. Since our food focus is local and Gena’s is vegan, it’s a little different, but the inspiration and bean dip were all her.

Three Layer Dip

Ingredients:

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (* Union Square Greenmarket)
1 3/4 cup	Black beans	Cooked yourself or 1 can, drained and rinsed	Cayuga Pure Organics *
1 package (12 oz)	Mixed bell peppers	Or 2 peppers, chopped	Migliorelli Farm *
8 halves	Oven-dried cherry tomatoes	Soaked in hot water for 5 minutes and chopped	Hodgson Farm *
2 or 3 cloves	Garlic	The number depends on size. In the winter, ours are pretty small.	Keith’s Farm *
3/4 tsp	Cumin
1/2 tsp	Salt	If you use canned beans with salt, reduce this to 1/4 tsp.
1/4 tsp	Black pepper	Freshly ground
1 cup	Sour cream		Homemade
1 cup	Salsa verde		Homemade

Directions:

Layer One:

Heat the oven to 450.
Spread the bell peppers on a lightly oiled baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes, stiring halfway through. They should smell delicious and be browned in spots. Note: I regretted putting these directly on the pan, because it required a LOT of elbow grease to clean up. I’d recommend lining the pan with foil first.
While the peppers are roasting, blend the rest of the ingredients in a food processor until smooth, like refried beans. You might need to add a tablespoon of the bean cooking water (or regular water) to get things moving.
Let the peppers cool briefly and then add to the food processor with the beans.
Process until smooth. Taste to judge if you should add more salt and pepper and add if needed.
Spread in an even layer on the bottom of a 4 cup ( = 1 quart = 32 ounce) container.

Layer Two:
Spread 1 cup of sour cream (store-bought or homemade) on top of the beans. We used cream from Milk Thistle Farm and buttermilk from Tonjes Family Dairy.

Layer Three:
Spread 1 cup of salsa verde (store-bought or homemade, again) on top of the sour cream. We used salsa verde we canned this fall using green tomatoes from our friends’ garden (Thanks, Brian and Mary!) and peppers from Oak Grove Plantation.

Serve with chips and veggies. We used yellow, orange, and purple carrots (from Paffenroth Gardens), watermelon radishes, and gilfeather rutabagas (both from Windfall Farms).

How to Cook Dried Beans

Lindsay — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 19:30:34 +0000

Yes, canned beans are handy, but they’re full of sodium. And they’re more expensive than even the fancy ones we get at the farmers’ market. A can of organic black beans is $1.39 at our grocery store. We bought a pound of organic local black beans from Cayuga Pure Organics this weekend for $4. After cooking, we got the equivalent of 4 cans of beans, which is $1 a can. Who says it’s more expensive to buy local?

Here’s my standard slow cooker process, which I have borrowed from Cook for Good. Keep in mind that it takes almost a full day to cook the beans. You won’t be doing much at all during that day, but you do need to think ahead. If you don’t have a slow cooker, cook them on the stove for 2 hours in step 2.

The first thing you should always do with dried beans is to quickly sort through them. Some beans are much smaller and less developed, and these can be like pebbles. You want to get rid of them. There is also the possibility of finding actual rocks in with your beans. These can slip through the various sorting mechanisms at the packaging facility. They tend to be more common with small-batch producers (like ours), but it can happen no matter what the source. Here is a picture of our most recent rejects:
Next, cover 1 pound of beans in water by at least a few inches. Every single time, I think I’ve used enough water, only to peak at them a few hours later to find them dry. Better to use more than you think you’ll need. Let them soak overnight (8-12 hours).
After the soak, drain the beans, rinse them, and dump them in your slow cooker. Add 6 cups of cold water and cook on low for about 7 hours.7 hours works well for us, but the exact time will depend on how fresh the beans are, how long they’ve soaked, and the variety. If they’re a little undercooked, turn the slow cooker up to high and taste every 30 minutes until they’re done. If they’re overcooked, make a dip and write yourself a note to try 6 hours next time. Our slow cooker is programmed for 8 or 10 hours on low, so we use a light timer to make sure the beans don’t get mushy. Once they’re cooked and the heat is turned off, they can sit in the liquid without much damage, so don’t worry if you can’t get home on time or don’t want to wake up at 5 am to drain the beans.
I don’t usually need a whole pound of beans at once, so I separate the leftovers in zip-top bags and freeze them. 1 3/4 cup beans + about 1/2 cup of cooking liquid makes the equivalent of a can. Once they’re cooked and stored in the freezer, it’s hardly more convenient to open a can!