4 easy, comforting bean dishes for fall

Gretchen McKay | (TNS) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Beans are benignant of similar the your champion person from precocious schoolhouse — astir forgotten but ever acceptable to measurement backmost into the limelight and assistance retired an aged pal erstwhile needed.

As gorgeously (and tantalizingly) demonstrated successful Rancho Gordo’s caller cookbook, “The Bean Book: 100 Recipes for Cooking with All Kinds of Beans” (Ten Speed, $35), beans are so a magical fruit, though not successful the mode you heard arsenic a kid.

Classified arsenic some a rootlike and a plant-based macromolecule successful the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans, beans and different legumes tin beryllium the constituent you physique an full vegetarian oregon veggie-forward repast around. Or, they tin assistance an economical navigator agelong a crockery doubly arsenic acold with nutritious calories.

A healthful and shelf-staple works nutrient — they past for years erstwhile dried — beans person been among a location cook’s astir reliable pantry items for a precise agelong time. (Common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) are thought to person been grown successful Mexico much than 7,000 years ago.)

That’s why, for some, they’re often thing of an afterthought, particularly if the lone clip you ate them arsenic a kid was erstwhile your ma tossed kidney beans into a cookware of beef chili oregon made baked beans (with brownish sweetener and bacon, please!) for a household cookout.

Vegetarians person ever appreciated their versatility and nutritional punch, and due to the fact that they’re cheap, they besides were rather fashionable during the Great Depression and World War II arsenic C rations. Sales besides peaked during the coronavirus pandemic, erstwhile shoppers stockpiled long-lasting pantry essentials.

It wasn’t until Rancho Gordo, a California-based legume company, trotted retired its branded packages of colorful heirloom beans that the works began to instrumentality connected cult presumption among immoderate shoppers.

Unlike the legume varieties commonly recovered successful adjacent the smallest market stores, heirloom beans are mostly forgotten varieties that were developed connected a tiny standard for definite characteristics, with seeds from the champion crops passed down done the generations.

The effect is beans that are fresher and much colorful than mass-produced beans, and travel successful antithetic shapes and sizes. They besides person a much analyzable and aggravated flavor, fans say.

“The Bean Book” dishes up dozens of antithetic ways to navigator Rancho Gordo’s 50 heirloom legume varieties, which see red-streaked cranberry beans, mint-green flageolets, achromatic and classical garbanzos and (my favorite) vaquero — which deterioration the aforesaid black-and-white spots arsenic a Holstein cow.

Other gotta-try varieties (if conscionable for the name) see oculus of the goat, European Soldier, Jacob’s Cattle and Good Mother Stallard, a purple legume with cream-colored flecks.

“The precise bully quality is that you person to enactment other hard to messiness up a cookware of beans, and it’s not hard to marque an fantabulous pot,” Steve Sando writes successful the book’s foreword. “The adjacent amended quality is that you go a amended navigator with each cookware you make.”

Not convinced? Here are 5 reasons to leap connected the legume bandwagon:

They’re casual to find

Even the smallest market store volition person a enactment of dried and canned beans. Common varieties see black, cannellini (white kidney), Great Northern, pinto, navy, kidney, Lima and garbanzo (chickpea) beans.

They’re affordable

Even erstwhile they’re not connected sale, beans are a bargain astatine the supermarket. Many varieties outgo little than $1 a can, and dried beans are an economical mode to physique a menu. I paid $1.25 for a one-pound container of cranberry beans, a creaseless and velvety legume with a somewhat nutty flavor, astatine my section market store.

Rancho Gordo’s heirloom beans outgo substantially more. (They tally $6.25-$7.50 for a one-pound bag, with escaped shipping connected orders implicit $50.) But they are sold wrong a twelvemonth of harvest, which makes them much flavorful and tender. A container besides comes with cooking instructions and look suggestions, and the prime is outstanding.

Plus, aft cooking their beans with aromatics, “you are near with fundamentally escaped soup,” Sando writes successful the cookbook. “If you drain decently cooked and seasoned beans, the liquid you are near with is delicious.”

They’re nutritious

Beans are a large root of plant-based macromolecule and some soluble and insoluble fiber, and they see indispensable minerals similar iron, magnesium and potassium. If you’re watching your value oregon pursuing a peculiar diet, beans are people escaped of fat, sodium and cholesterin and are affluent successful analyzable carbohydrates. They besides incorporate antioxidants and folate. And if you’re vegan oregon vegetarian, astir types of adust beans are affluent sources of iron.

The U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends eating 1-3 cups of legumes, including beans, per week

They’re a cinch to cook

Dry beans person to beryllium soaked overnight, but cooking them is easy. They tin beryllium cooked connected the stovetop, successful a dilatory cooker, successful the unit cooker and successful the oven. Canned beans are adjacent easier — conscionable rinse and drain, and they’re acceptable to go.

They’re versatile

Beans tin beryllium utilized successful truthful galore antithetic dishes. They tin beryllium made into soup, crockery oregon dips, apical nachos, adhd immoderate heft to a casserole oregon beryllium mashed into the makings of a veggie burger. You besides tin adhd them to brownies and different baked goods, flip them with pasta, adhd them to chili oregon a atom vessel oregon worldly them into a taco oregon burrito.

Check retired these 4 recipes:

White Bean Soup with Shiitake Bacon

This vegetarian legume crockery gets a salty crunch from shiitake mushroom “bacon” strips.(Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

PG tested

This airy and creamy vegetarian crockery benefits from a astonishing garnish, roasted shiitake mushrooms, which sensation precisely similar bacon.

For soup

1/4 cupful olive oil

1 mean yellowish onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 mean carrot, scrubbed and chopped

6 ail cloves, finely grated oregon pressed

2 sprigs caller thyme, positive much for garnish

1/2 spoon oversea salt

1/4 spoon pepper

4 cups rootlike broth

2 15-ounce cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

For bacon

8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, caps chopped into 1/8 -inch slices

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 teaspoons good oversea salt

To finish

Plant-based milk

Chili oil, for drizzling

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Make soup: In ample pot, vigor lipid implicit mean vigor until it shimmers. Add onion, celery, carrot, garlic, thyme, brackish and pepper.

Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are fragrant and tender, 8-10 minutes.

Add rootlike banal and beans, summation vigor to precocious and bring substance to a boil. Reduce vigor to mean and simmer until thickened, 12-14 minutes.

Meanwhile, marque the bacon: Spread shiitake mushrooms into a azygous furniture connected a expanse pan, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with brackish and capsicum and flip to combine. Bake until browned and crispy, 18-20 minutes, rotating cookware beforehand to backmost and tossing mushrooms with a spatula halfway through. Let chill successful pan; mushrooms volition proceed to crisp arsenic they cool.

To finish, adhd immoderate beverage to the crockery and usage an immersion blender to puree it successful the pot, oregon puree successful a blender. (Cover lid with a cleanable room towel.) Taste and play with much brackish and capsicum if needed.

Divide crockery among bowls and apical with shiitake bacon. Garnish with thyme sprigs and a drizzle of chili oil.

Serves 4-6.

— “Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking” by Joe Yonan

Polenta with Cranberry Beans and Tomato Sauce

Cranberry beans simmered with herb are a cleanable lucifer for a brushed furniture of cheesy polenta. (Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

PG tested

Velvety cranberry beans simmered with herb and the punch of reddish vino vinegar are a cleanable lucifer for a brushed furniture of cheesy polenta. This is simply a filling, stick-to-your-ribs crockery cleanable for fall.

1/4 cupful olive oil

1 tiny onion, finely chopped

2 ail cloves, minced

2 cups canned chopped tomatoes, foodstuff reserved

1 tablespoonful reddish vino vinegar

2 tablespoons herb paste

1 cupful chickenhearted oregon rootlike broth

4 caller sage leaves

Salt and pepper

4 cups cooked Lamon oregon cranberry beans

2 cups uncooked polenta

6 ounces pancetta, diced

Chopped caller basil oregon parsley, for garnish

Grated Parmesan cheese, for serving

In ample pan, vigor olive lipid implicit mean heat. Add bulb and ail and cook, stirring, until bulb begins to soften, astir 3 minutes.

Stir successful tomatoes and reddish vino vinegar.

In a tiny bowl, dissolve herb paste successful the broth and adhd to pan. Stir successful sage and play with brackish and pepper. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the condiment has thickened, 15-20 minutes.

Add beans to herb sauce. Cook, stirring frequently, until heated through, astir 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, hole polenta according to bundle instructions.

Place pancetta successful a tiny saucepan implicit debased heat.

Cook, stirring frequently, until the pancetta is brownish and crisp, astir 15 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transportation pancetta to a insubstantial towel to drain.

To serve, spoon polenta into serving dishes. Ladle the beans implicit the polenta and apical with the pancetta. Garnish with caller basil and service with grated Parmesan.

Serves 6.

— “The Bean Book: 100 Recipes for Cooking with All Kinds of Beans” by Steve Sando

White Beans with Clams and Chorizo

PG tested

Beans and seafood mightiness seen similar an antithetic pairing, but successful this recipe, mild achromatic beans instrumentality connected a batch of spirit from clams. Spanish chorizo adds a bully contrast.

4 cups cooked achromatic beans, legume broth reserved

1/4 cupful extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 achromatic onion, chopped

2 ail cloves, chopped

1 spoon salt, oregon to taste

1/2 cupful finely chopped Spanish-style cured chorizo

2 plum tomatoes, chopped

1/2 cupful adust achromatic wine

2 pounds tiny clams, scrubbed well

Chopped caller parsley, for garnish

Country-style breadstuff and butter, for serving

In ample pot, vigor beans successful their broth implicit medium-low heat.

In ample lidded saucepan, lukewarm olive lipid implicit medium-low heat. Add onion, ail and brackish and navigator until soft, astir 5 minutes.

Add chorizo and navigator mildly until immoderate of the abdominous has rendered, astir 5 minutes.

Add tomatoes and vino and navigator to let the flavors to mingle, 5-6 minutes.

Increase vigor to mean and adhd clams. Cover and navigator for astir 5 minutes, shaking the cookware occasionally.

Uncover the cookware and navigator until each of the clams open, different fewer minutes. Remove cookware from heat, past region and discard immoderate clams that failed to open.

Add clam substance to the legume cookware and disturbance precise mildly until good mixed. Simmer for a fewer minutes to let the flavors to mingle but not get mushy.

Ladle into large, shallow bowls and sprinkle with parsley. Set retired a ample vessel for discarded shells and promote guests to devour with their fingers.

Pass plentifulness of bully breadstuff and creamy food astatine the table

Serves 4-6.

— “The Bean Book: 100 Recipes for Cooking with All Kinds of Beans, from the Rancho Gordo Kitchen” by Steve Sando with Julia Newberry

White Bean Dip

Kissed with lemon, this achromatic legume dip comes unneurotic successful a blender successful astir 60 seconds.(Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

PG tested

So casual to propulsion unneurotic for your adjacent party!

1 1/2 cups cooked cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

1 tiny ail clove, minced

Generous pinch of salt

Freshly crushed achromatic pepper

2 oregon 3 tablespoons water, if needed

2 caller basil leaves, chopped, optional

1 sprig caller rosemary, leaves chopped, optional

In a nutrient processor, pulse cannellini beans, olive oil, citrus foodstuff and zest, garlic, brackish and respective grinds of capsicum until combined.

If it’s excessively thick, dilatory adhd the h2o with the nutrient processor moving until it is creaseless and creamy. Blend successful the basil and/or rosemary, if using

Serve with veggies, pita oregon bruschetta.

Makes 1 1/2 cups

— Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette

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