Dry beans and frozen vegetables are an incredible nutrition value. I developed this recipe as a low-cost, high-protein, one-pot, flavor-filled alternative to meat-centered meals in cramped kitchen facilities. Broccoli and wine are key to rounding out the aroma, to deliver a surprisingly satisfying vegan-compatible dish, without a fancy spice rack, and without resorting to fake-meat tricks like tofu, seitan or tempeh.
Makes about 6 cups cooked. (2-3 meals for one)
Cook time: about 90 minutes
Ingredients:
1/3 cup each dry chickpeas, great northern beans, black beans, and pinto beans
2/3 cup dry lentils
1 cup frozen broccoli crowns or florets
1 cup frozen chopped spinach
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 cups water
1 & 1/3 cups wine
(pinot grigio or merlot are great choices;
chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, malbec, or cabernet sauvignon can also work)
Morton's "lite" salt (or regular salt, or sea salt, whatever)
Directions: Set the lentils aside for now. Inspect the rest of the beans, in a single layer in a glass dish or white plastic storage container, to easily identify and remove unwanted material. (It's rare, but sometimes you get pebbles or bits of bean stalk.) Then rinse them 2 passes in cool water to remove any remaining field dust, as well as the oligosaccharide sugars in the skins that make beans "the musical fruit".
In a 3-quart saucepan, heat the rinsed 4-bean mix to a medium boil in 2 cups fresh water and a few shakes of lite salt. Boil covered for 2 minutes, then remove from heat and let sit covered at least 1 hour. (This is known as "quick soaking". "Slow" soaking strikes me as pointlessly... slow...)
Ding! Now your beans are soaked, it's time for some real cooking. Add the dry lentils, broccoli and spinach, oil, wine, and the last cup of water, with a couple more shakes of lite salt. Cook covered at a medium simmer for 30 minutes or until the larger beans are tender.
* * *
Very sloppy start after ~3.5 weeks' hiatus. Forgot to salt the soak stage, and didn't measure the water input, so I had ~2 cups excess broth to pour off after the soak. I figured that by pouring off enough liquid to uncover the beans, then adding back just enough to almost cover them, saving aside the remaining cup. Then on adding ingredients for the cook stage proper, I re-input 1 cup of broth instead of plain water. I'll use the rest of the broth for something eventually.
Wine choice was Vendange merlot again. Sutter Home was on sale at a comparable price last week, I enjoyed it immensely, and if price was no object I'd happily standardize on Sutter Home (or hey, why not a $20/bottle wine). But to cook with, for $2 less per magnum? Vendange it is.
I'm almost positive Vendange was $6.95/magnum, but most recently $7.95. Still a great value, no doubt. Maybe it was on sale and my brain glommed onto the sale price as its reference point. Ever wonder how to pronounce Vendange? It's French, so something like von-donzh.