Beans
235 recipes found
Roasted Cauliflower, Paneer and Lentil Salad
The Indian cheese paneer doesn’t typically show up in salads, but this one from food writer Nik Sharma’s cookbook, “Season,” involves cutting paneer into cubes and roasting it alongside cauliflower for about 25 minutes (though doing so for longer wouldn’t hurt). Paneer maintains its structure in heat, so its skin will come out of the oven charred, its insides still soft. You’ll stir the paneer and cauliflower with green and black lentils, cooked and drained, and scallions, resulting in a pleasing jumble of textures. Drizzle it with a cilantro-lime dressing, which gives the salad a tart kick.
Grilled Summer Beans With Garlic and Herbs
Green beans don’t number among the vegetables we normally grill — eggplants, onions, peppers, zucchini — but there’s something about the high, dry heat of the fire and the gentle scent of smoke that heightens their snap and natural sweetness. But how do you grill a vegetable so slender it seems doomed to fall between the bars of the grate? The secret is to use a meshed grill basket, which lets enough fire through to char the beans and enough smoke through to perfume them. The New York chef Missy Robbins grills Romano beans (a.k.a. flat or pole beans), whose shape maximizes the surface area exposed to the fire. If unavailable, substitute conventional green beans or haricots verts. The Italian inspiration for this dish is evident in the garlic, basil, mint and extra-virgin olive oil, but grilling the beans over a wood fire, instead of boiling, is uniquely and distinctly American. If necessary, you can use charcoal rather than wood; a gas grill is fine if that's what you have.
White Bean Salad With Roasted Cauliflower
This is the kind of substantial salad that’s nice to have on hand, no matter the occasion. If you have time, it’s best made with large dried white beans, such as cannellini, simmered at home. (It’s great to have a pot of cooked beans in the fridge all summer long, for deploying in salads and soups.) But using canned beans is absolutely OK. The recipe calls for roasting the cauliflower, but it could also be cooked on a grill to impart some pleasant smokiness.
Lemony White Beans With Anchovy and Parmesan
These white beans, adapted from Alison Roman's cookbook "Nothing Fancy" (Clarkson Potter, 2019), could potentially be a whole meal, but they are also great alongside another protein since they pull double duty as both starch and salad. While this dish is beautifully seasonally agnostic, it is a summery dream with grilled whole trout or lamb shoulder, and lots of cold red or white wine, preferably in the sunny outdoors.
Gonzalo Guzmán’s Pork-Braised Butter Beans With Eggs
Gonzalo Guzmán is the chef at Nopalito, a Mexican restaurant with two locations in San Francisco. His bright take on frijoles puercos, or pork and beans, is inspired by a version he once tasted in northern Mexico. It involves butter beans simmered with chile and onion until tender and plump, mixed up with crumbled chorizo and scrambled eggs. The result is a delicious, one-pot meal with a fresh garnish of cheese and herbs, and it makes for an ideal breakfast, lunch or dinner, ideally with a stack of warm tortillas on the side.
Crunchy Chickpeas With Aleppo Pepper and Lemon Zest
Zippy lemon zest and mildly spicy Aleppo pepper are tossed together with warm roasted chickpeas for a satisfying snack, which pairs well with everything from a gin and tonic to a cold beer. Tossing the dried, toasted beans in oil after they roast helps gives the pepper and lemon something to adhere to. If you’re not having cocktails, these can be used in a salad in place of croutons or anywhere you want some crunch. If you don't have Aleppo pepper, red-pepper flakes make a fine substitute.
Lentil Salad With Dried Lime
Cassoulet-Style Lamb Shanks and Beans
This is not a full-blown cassoulet, chock-full of sausages and duck confit, but it is so satisfying nonetheless. It takes a couple of days to put together because you have to cook the lamb and cook the beans, combine them, and bake them twice. The result is a dish of enchanting deep flavor. (Simmering the seasoned lamb results in a delicious broth.)
Red Bean Salad With Walnuts and Fresh Herbs
This is inspired by a number of red bean recipes from Georgia (the country, not the state). Walnuts, herbs, garlic and pomegranate juice show up in many Georgian dishes. I used pomegranate molasses, which is more of a Middle Eastern ingredient, in the dressing, and I love the sweet and sour tang it introduces to the dish. I prefer using small red beans that I’ve cooked myself, but in a pinch you can make this with canned red kidney beans.
Turkish Bean and Herb Salad
The authentic version of this sweet, fragrant bean salad requires about three times as much olive oil. In Turkey, borlotti beans or red beans would be used; I prefer pink beans, available in many supermarkets. The salad is adapted from a recipe by the cookbook author Clifford Wright.
Cannellini Bean Salad With Shaved Spring Vegetables
Like pasta, cannellini beans are a good staple to have on hand in a city kitchen pantry, and an hour of gentle simmering is usually all it takes. Obviously, they take a little advance planning. You can’t hurry a pot of beans, but you can cook them the day or even the morning before you need them. This a good habit to get into, as a small batch of freshly cooked beans is well worth the little effort it takes to get them cooked. (And by all means, use a real stovetop if you have one.) Don’t cave and go the canned-bean route — save those for emergencies or camping trips.
Rosemary White Beans With Frizzled Onions and Tomato
A speedy, pantry-friendly dish, canned white beans braised in olive oil and tomatoes become stewlike and creamy. Pinches of fresh or dried rosemary, chile flakes and lemon zest add complexity to the mix, while a topping of frizzled, browned onions lends sweetness and a chewy-crisp texture. Serve this with toasted country bread drizzled with olive oil, or over a bowl of rice or farro for an easy, satisfying weeknight meal.
Caribbean Black Bean Salad
Warm Lentil Salad With Goat Cheese
Even people who swear they don’t abide beans find pleasure in the distinctive, profound flavor of lentils. They also cook quickly, and you want them on the al dente side for this salad. That means they’ll be ready in 25 minutes, still a long enough simmering time to yield a savory broth. Goat cheese and lentils make a particularly good pairing; the little earthy-sweet legumes love a salty-umami complement (that’s why you so often see them paired with sausage and other cured pork products), and goat cheese fits the bill. Here the combination is especially cozy, as the cheese melts into the warm lentils, bathing them in a creamy dressing. Lentils and vinegar also marry well. The key here is to add the dressing while the lentils are still warm, even if you don’t plan on serving the salad warm. I spoon the mixture onto a bed of wild arugula, though regular will do if you can’t find the sharper tasting, wispy wild variety.
Frijoles Borrachos (Drunken Beans)
The method of cooking beans with beer originated in northern Mexico (Monterrey is the country’s brewery capital), then traveled with the cowboys on cattle drives. It’s easy to imagine a cauldron of beans simmering over a fire, the cook tossing in bits of meat from the grill, then pouring in beer to cover the beans, which might have been more convenient than water. According to “The Taste of Mexico” (Harry N. Abrams, 1986) by Patricia Quintana, the food of northern Mexico is often associated with grilled meats, but it is also epitomized by spicy beans like frijoles charros (or cowboy beans) and drunken beans. Bacon (or Mexican chorizo or other fatty meats) provide a rich base in which to cook vegetables like onions and peppers, while the beer makes the beans brighter and sharper but not boozy. Eat a bowl with grilled meats, flour tortillas or solo.
Creamy White Bean and Seaweed Stew With Parmesan
Cooking dried beans with seaweed is a traditional method of adding flavor that’s also thought to mitigate some of the gas-inducing enzymes present in the legumes. Here, white beans are simmered with briny dried kombu to add depth, then mixed with slivered kelp for freshness and a slight crunch. It’s a play on white beans with escarole, but with the flavor of the sea.
Black-Eyed Pea Salad
This salad is inspired by a Greek recipe that calls for lots of herb fennel. I couldn’t find herb fennel, so I added a thinly sliced fennel bulb to the mix. Along with its refreshing flavor, the fennel bulb contributes a delightful contrasting crunchy texture. It’s a great salad with or without the tomatoes.
Braised Fennel With White Bean Purée
Creamy but not overtly rich, this simple preparation of earthy vegetables is infused with the flavor of salty, homemade Parmesan broth — but it’s adaptable, and could also be made using vegetable or chicken stock. If fennel isn’t your thing, try this with celery stalks or parsnips. If you are preparing the puréed beans ahead of time, keep them moist when you reheat them by adding a small splash of Parmesan broth or stock to the saucepan and stirring until warm. This deeply comforting dish can be prepared days in advance and assembled and served within minutes.
Chickpea and Herb Fatteh
Fatteh is a popular Middle Eastern dish made with stale bread and accompanied by a host of hearty ingredients. Serve it for brunch, with eggs, or as a vegetarian main course with cooked seasonal vegetables — simply be sure to plan ahead and soak the chickpeas the night before. You can cook the chickpeas and prepare all the toppings in advance, but you'll want to assemble the herb paste and toss everything together just before serving to ensure that it all stays green and vibrant, and that the fatteh is the right consistency.
White Bean, Sage And Tomato Salad
Red Lentils and Chili Sauce With Quinoa
Quick Black Bean Salad
Slow-Roasted Duck With Mashed White Beans, Sizzled Herbs and Olives
Slow-roasting duck legs in the oven, uncovered, yields tender meat, similar to duck confit, and lovely crispy skin. Look for large moulard legs, available at some butcher shops and online. Here, they are served with savory mashed white beans. The beans are best cooked from scratch, but, if desired, they can be made a day or two in advance. A topping of sizzled rosemary, sage and olives brings it all together. It’s a delicious dish, though somewhat rich, so a simple salad of arugula or some steamed broccoli rabe are nice as side dishes.
Frejon (Beans in Coconut Milk)
A simple dish of cooked beans puréed with coconut milk, frejon is an ode to the coastal city of Lagos and its rich cultural diversity. Typically served with a seafood stew, it is accompanied here by a vibrant, chunky tomato sauce laced with the heat of habanero, the richness of red palm oil and a hit of umami from dried crayfish, which is optional but highly recommended. A garnish of garri (coarsely ground and dehydrated cassava) adds some necessary texture; lime zest and bright green herbs lends freshness.