Beans | The Wannabe Chef

Tag Archive: Beans

5-Ingredient 3-Bean Salad

Written on March 22, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Side Dish

Bean salad is a great side dish for outdoor parties now that the weather is getting warmer(or so they say), or for dinner when I don’t really feel like cooking anything. Lucky for me this makes a lot so I can ~~eat a lot~~ spread it across meals! Now before you go and think I can’t count, yes, I know this has more than 5-ingredients. But only 5 of the ingredients are key players and you’ll never be a comfortable chef if you can’t get used to eyeballing olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper into every dish you make. There’s just no two ways about it with those ingredients. Oh, and the name is more appealing that “9-Ingredient 3-Bean salad”.

5-Ingredient 3-Bean Salad

Ingredients(Makes 4-6 servings):

1 can chickpeas, drained
1 can cannellini beans, drained
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 large cucumber, diced
1 can of pitted olives, drained and halved
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon white vinegar
3/4 teaspoon salt(omit if your beans are already salted)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Start by mixing together all of the beans. If you haven’t already, prepare the olives and cucumber.

Add in the olives, cucumber, salt, pepper, olive oil, and vinegar.

Toss the salad until it’s all mixed thoroughly. Serve cold or at room temperature.

I love how simple but flavorful this is. The cucumber is refreshing and the olives are deep in flavor, but the beans are the star of the show all the way through. It’s great as a side dish but also on its own from a bowl.

10 Comments - Leave a comment!

Irish Green Beans

Written on March 17, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Holiday, Side Dish

March 13th 043

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I thought long and hard about what green recipe to make for today. By luck, I also had a bunch of green beans to cook with and this dish sort of came together itself. You may ask yourself what makes this Irish, to which I would answer the butter, potatoes, and simple seasoning. If that’s not stereotypical enough for you, I apologize that I couldn’t somehow work Baileys into the recipe; know that it’s there in spirit.

Irish Green Beans

Ingredients(Makes 4 servings):

2 Tablespoons butter
2 medium sized potatoes, diced and cooked
1/2lb green beans
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

March 13th 028

Prepare your ingredients by dicing and cooking the potatoes through. You can boil, bake, or microwave them.

March 13th 036

Heat the butter in a large pan over medium heat until melted.

March 13th 038

Add in the green beans and potatoes and sauté lightly for about 10 minutes until the butter has coated everything and starts to brown.

Season the pan with the salt and pepper and toss. Serve hot.

March 13th 047

Just when I thought I’ve eaten potatoes every way, there’s a new way to cook them. The butter and black pepper really help to make all the ingredients come together. It’s a hearty side dish that stacks up well against any main. So break out the lamb with steamed cabbage and start celebrating St. Patrick’s Day(or more likely just these and a beer).

March 13th 052

11 Comments - Leave a comment!

Cannellini Beans With Kale And Walnuts

Written on March 14, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

I’ve been trying to eat very healthily to prepare for my marathon in a few weeks; I’d like to think that that could make up for a full season of laziness and daily desserts. And so I’ve been eating lots of beans, vegetables, and nuts. This dish has all of that. It’s a flavorful mix that’s perfect for a hearty vegan entrée or a side dish to some fish. I use walnuts in place of pine nuts for some added omega-3’s(also, if you’ve ever shopped for pine nuts you might notice that they cost more per pound than some precious metals). Beans, beans, the magical fruit; the more you eat… let’s just say you should be eating them.

Cannellini Beans With Kale And Walnuts

Ingredients(Makes 4-6 side servings or 2-3 entrees):

4 cups chopped kale
2 cans cannellini beans, drained of water
2 Tablespoons olive oil plus more for finishing
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Heat a large pan with 2 Tablespoons of olive oil over a burner set to medium.

Add in the kale and sauté until it has reduced to about half of its volume.

Mix in the 2 cans of beans and leave on the heat until they’re warmed.

Turn off the heat. Add in the walnuts, lemon juice, salt, and pepper and stir the contents of the pan until fully mixed. Serve hot and drizzle on top some of the good extra virgin olive oil(the kind you would serve Ina Garten).

This is my idea of hearty Italian comfort food. The only thing that might make it better would be sautéing some garlic into the oil in the beginning, but my breath really doesn’t need any more garlic.

26 Comments - Leave a comment!

How To Make Food Tastier With Just 1 Ingredient

Written on January 21, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Highlights, How To, Recipe Round-Up

There are certain secrets to cooking. Seasoning is one of them.

My favorite way to think of seasoning is that it shouldn’t flavor the dish; instead, it should make the dish taste more like itself. Certain ingredients are really good at that, especially in the right recipes. Here’s my quick list of “secret” ingredients that you can add to any dish to make the flavor pop. Look out because the cat’s coming out of the bag.

Salt is probably the most common seasoning. It’s also one of our taste sensations. We all salt our dinner plates but do you salt your desserts? A little bit of salt in sweets makes the flavor irresistible.

Example:

Banana Chocolate Chip Blondies with Peanut Butter Frosting

We all know a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down. But we don’t all know how good it works in savory foods. Most of the time when we’re cooking dinner, we don’t think to use sugar. Even if the flavors you’re working at aren’t sweet, a little sugar—just like a little salt—can go a long way in making savory flavors pop.

Example:

Vegged-Out Quinoa and The Best Quinoa Dressing

I’m always(OK, once) asked what’s the secret to making brownies taste good? Well, here’s one of them: instant coffee. The bitterness in coffee pairs really well with the bitterness in cacao and helps to make the flavor richer and deeper. Add a teaspoon of instant coffee to any brownie mix to boost the flavor.

Example:

Outrageous Triple Chocolate Brownies

January 16th 037

Most of the time, none of us think of nutmeg. We use it in pies and pumpkin bread in the Fall and that’s about it. But a pinch of nutmeg with any earth flavor like chicken, potato, or greens can enhance the overall dish.

Example:

Sautéed Spinach With Silken Tofu

Bay Leaves are the unsung hero of great tasting beans and marinades. You never see them because they’re not edible and need to be discarded after cooking. But adding a bay leaf when cooking beans or lentils, or when marinating chicken adds a strong earthy flavor that only enhances everything that’s there.

Example:

Mediterranean Chicken Marinade

Now I’ll open it to you: Do you have any secret ingredients that make people say “This is so good! What did you do to it?” that you’re willing to share?

39 Comments - Leave a comment!