Perfect Green Beans with Walnut Vinaigrette

Considering how many hours of my childhood were spent sitting in front of a plate of cold green beans that I refused to eat, it's pretty ironic that I'm posting a recipe for green beans. Luckily, time passes, tastes change, and I'm thrilled to share this recipe with you in time for Thanksgiving. It's elegant enough to serve to company but simple enough that it won't stress you to do so. Really, it's a perfect recipe for any ordinary day as well.

The recipe for the green beans is Ellie Krieger's, and she calls it Green Bean Salad. I call it "perfect" though, because it is. For the past two months I have not made green beans any other way.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- You can find the recipe here.

- I begin this dish by steaming the beans and toasting the walnuts at the same time, each for 4 minutes. In that time the rest of the recipe - chopping red onions and flat leaf parsley, whisking a simple vinaigrette, can be made in the 4 minutes that it takes to steam the green beans.

- Walnut oil is delicious in the vinaigrette, but I also have used olive oil and it is quite tasty.

- The walnuts and onions are so good with the beans that I usually measure them generously.

- The beans can be enjoyed warm, cold, or at room temperature. I've served them at all three ways with equal success.

the verdict:

These beans are quite simple to make, and have a subtle, sophisticated fall flavor from the toasted walnuts and walnut oil. I plan to serve these with my holiday turkey and hope you will also!

Other green bean recipes that I've known, loved, and posted on the blog:

Dramtically Seared Green Beans With Garlic and Chile from Mollie Katzen
Green Beans with Shallots and Clementine Zest from Cottage Living Magazine

Sweet Potato Black Bean Salad

Ah, Fall! Thank you for the abundance of orange foods - pumpkins, butternut squash, sweet potatoes - and a plethora of ways to enjoy them. Sweet potatoes are most commonly prepared to emphasize their sweetness, with added brown sugar and cinnamon, but they can be fantastic in a spicy, savory dish, such as Mark Bittman's Sweet Potato Black Bean Salad.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- I didn't have red bell pepper, so used an orange one. It tasted the same, but wasn't as pretty.

- To amp up the heat, I threw in some additional chopped hot peppers.

- Just in case we might find the citrus overwhelming, I added half the lime juice.

- This versatile dish can be served warm or cold

the verdict:

I had high hopes for this salad, and it met and exceeded them! Despite the extra peppers that I added, there wasn't a ton of heat in this dish, but it was flavorful and delicious. I love that it can be served at any temperature, and can serve as a filling lunch or a side dish at Thanksgiving.

Linguine with Pesto, Potatoes and Green Beans

One of my current favorite cookbooks is Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. The hefty book is chock-full of recipes and variations, and is a wonderful kitchen resource. On the other end of the spectrum is Bittman's slim and spare book The Minimalist Cooks Dinner
which is based on his food columns in the New York Times. 100 recipes, one per every 2-page spread. Even with this economy, being Mark Bittman's work, the book does provide ways to vary each featured recipe.

I've paged through the book and marked a bunch of recipes, but given the bountiful basil supply in my garden, the Trenette with Pesto jumped to the front of the line this week. This traditional dish from Genoa combines pasta with potatoes and green beans, and sounded perfect for summer dining.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- You can find the recipe online .

- Bittman explains that in Genoa the trenette pasta shape is always paired with pesto. Linguine is a close substitute, so that's what I used.

- The recipe has very easy instructions for boiling all the ingredients in the same pot. The version in the book has the potatoes cook for 3 minutes before adding the pasta, so that's what I did. The beans get added when the pasta is half cooked (about 5 minutes after adding the pasta) It worked perfectly!

the verdict:

I served this pasta with grilled chicken Italian sausages. We enjoyed it so much that we didn't even mind eating it twice more that week!

French Green Lentils with Sausages

OK, I know that we're well into Spring. And food bloggers everywhere are posting wonderful seasonal dishes, featuring things like fresh green peas, strawberries, and asparagus. But here at The Dogs Eat the Crumbs Headquarters, we operate a little differently. Namely with a severe posting backlog. Say, a 50+ post backlog. There are a bunch of things that I've cooked that I either need to post out of season or hold until the appropriate season comes back around. I'm doing my share of carrying over posts (one for summer squash has been in the "drafts" collection since, well, last summer, and I have some Christmas posts that may have to wait until the next time the holidays roll around). But I've got a recipe or two for dried beans/lentils that are are likely to sneak their way into this blog in the very near future. Pantry staples are seasonless, right? Plus, the recipes are just too yummy to wait!

From the minute I saw this recipe for Sausages with French Green Lentils on the Saveur website, I knew I would have to make the dish. Although the French make this recipe with a traditional French pork sausage (read: "hard to find"), Saveur assures us that sweet Italian sausage is a fine substitute. I ordered some fresh sweet pork sausage from the farm box, and picked up some green lentils at Whole Foods. Finally I had the ingredients in place!

This was a difficult dish to photograph, especially since we were hungry and ready to eat it!

n.o.e.'s notes:

- I increased the recipe because I had 1 lb of lentils and the recipe calls for 12 oz.

- The Farm Box sausage turned out to be a very mildly seasoned sausage.

the verdict:

The subtle and perfectly balanced flavors of this dish surpassed my very high expectations, and won highest ratings from my husband. Although we typically love our food good and spicy, the mild nature of this sausage paired perfectly with the sublime seasoning of the lentils.

I loved this so much that when we were done eating I had the strongest feeling that I needed to call someone or email, or, heck even shout from the rooftop to say: "People, you HAVE to make this dish!" The lentils are cooked and seasoned perfectly. They do pair well with the sausage, but could easily stand on their own. Oh, and the leftovers were delicious - and they freeze well.

So, here's the deal. If you like lentils at all, do yourself a favor and try this dish. If you've ever wondered about lentils, this is the recipe to start with. If sausages are not your thing, you can (and should) still make the lentils. If you like things a bit spicier, you could pair the lentils with other sausages or meat. Hmm, what else? If you don't think you'll make lentils until cold weather returns, bookmark this recipe and make it later! You will thank me.

{Simple Soup Supper} Union Square Black Bean Soup, two ways

Black bean soup is one of the signature dishes at the Union Square Cafe in New York. When I ate there a year ago, I ordered this soup. It was extraordinarily good. Imagine my joy when I discovered an online recipe for the soup! [edit to add the link for the soup recipe] And even greater joy when I was given a copy of the Union Square Cafe Cookbook.

So the week before last, with temperatures dipping into the single digits (yes, here in Georgia), I decided it was the perfect time to make this soup.

n.o.e. notes

- I was very tempted to brown the veggies and bacon for a bit, but the recipe says to throw it all in a pot with water and the black beans, then pop it in the oven for, oh, 4 hours or so. That's what I did.

- The recipe calls for a 3-quart pot. After reading the recipe, I was dubious about the size, but figured surely the cookbook knows how much it makes. I used my 3-quart le Creuset-wanna-be Lodge pot and sure enough there was no way 2 quarts of water were going to fit in that baby with all the other ingredients. 6 cups were the limit. I ended up adding a little bit more as the soup cooked down. Luckily, the soup didn't seem to need the full 8 cups.

- I used Benton's bacon (of course!) While the soup cooked, the smoky aroma of the bacon just filled the house.

- I loved the technique of baking this soup. It totally eliminates any question of soup sticking to the bottom of the pot. Just pop it in the oven and forget about it. I imagine this recipe could be made in a slow cooker.

- After the soup comes out of the oven the directive is to "puree the beans with their cooking liquid." What about the veggies? and the bacon??? do they get to come along for for a whirl in the blender? Pureeing boiled bacon sounded kind of weird to me. I shot off a quick email to the restaurant asking them about that pureeing step. And whether I should have sauteed the veggies and bacon in the beginning. And the restaurant actually emailed me back!!! How cool is that??? And here's the scoop: the recipe does mean for us to just throw everything into the pot in an uncooked condition, but in the actual restaurant the chefs "show a little love" by sauteeing everything first (well, not the black beans.) And yes, according to the chef, we are supposed to blend everything together at the end.

- I used my new immersion blender that Santa brought me for Christmas. Boy is that thing effective! As it turns out, after 4 hours in the oven, the bacon is so softened that it blends just as well as everything else.


- My husband Jim was there (with a spoon) when I took the pot out of the oven and he fell out over* the taste. He didn't want me to puree it, and suggested that we leave some unblended and compare it to the blended. A taste test! I'm all in.

the verdict:

This is a very nice black bean soup. The smokiness of the Benton's comes through as well as the flavors of all the veggies, complemented by the shot of sherry that gets added to the bowl at serving time. I served this with a salad and the Mesa Grill corn muffins. Ha, recipes from two NYC restaurants!

We both tasted the soup both ways - pureed and un-pureed. My husband preferred his un-pureed, saying, "the mastication process infuses the taste into my olfactory facilities," which in turn made it taste better. I kinda agree with him about the taste thing, but if I'm going to have black bean soup I just want it pureed. Easy as that.


* "fell out over" in common parlance means to disagree about something. My very Southern mother-in-law, however, always uses the phrase to mean "liked something very much."

Greens, Peas, Beans, and New Year's notes

We've received so many fabulous greens in our farm box, that I've been looking for ways to do them justice. I found this recipe for Sauteed Greens with Cannellini Beans and Garlic a Bon Appétit recipe on epicurious.com. It's quickly become my favorite way to enjoy greens. In the picture above, I've used kale and canned white beans, although I've also made it without any beans.

Here in the South, New Year's Day is traditionally celebrated with a meal of (collard) greens and (black eyed) peas. Of course black eyed peas are really a dried bean, so I figured this recipe was a perfect vehicle for luck in the New Year. On January 1, I made it with kale and some field peas that I'd cooked with lardons in the summer and frozen.

cook's notes:

- Kale is my favorite green for this recipe.

- I use half the amount of broth that the recipe specifies.

- I've made this recipe with and without the white beans, and it's good both ways.

the verdict:

We love this method of eating greens! The greens are just tender and the sherry vinegar adds a little bite to the garlicky oil that lightly coats the greens.

I think the dried beans are fantastic combined with the greens, but my husband prefers his greens in their unadorned glory. Actually, he probably prefers them boiled up and doused with Bruce's hot sauce, the way he ate them growing up!

2009:

In my forays in the foodie-net I've read lots of bloggy posts that celebrate the start of the new year. There are round-ups of the past year, resolutions for the new year, and cooking goals.

While I'm not organized enough to post a round-up, nor disciplined enough to make a list of resolutions, I do have a few cooking aspirations for 2009. The first is to take on yeast cookery. I'd also like to make some fresh pasta. My weekly cooking will probably included more lentils and dried beans. And I will continue to balance expanding my baking repertory without expanding my waistline!

Green Bean Drama!

Mollie Katzen (author of the Moosewood Cookbook and others) was featured on NPR in the run-up to Thanksgiving. The story was titled "Making Those Thanksgiving Green Beans Exciting", and I lucked upon it while I was driving. Mollie talked about two different recipes; one of them, Dramatically Seared Green Beans with Garlic and Chile, made it to the final round of our Thanksgiving recipe selection, but ultimately lost out. The recipe continued to intrigue me, and I've cooked them recently.

cook's notes:

- This is a simple, straightforward recipe.

- You can control how tender or crunchy to cook the beans, and can also control the spiciness by adding more, or less, pepper flakes.

the verdict:

These were a huge hit! Not only was the recipe delicious as written, I love the technique of cooking the beans on the stovetop in a skillet over high heat. I'm already thinking of lots of different flavors could be added (tomatoes, citrus, herbs, etc) to beans prepared with this method.

Very quick, very pretty and very tasty.

{Simple Soup Supper} Union Square White Bean and Broccoli Soup

Last January I enjoyed a lovely meal at the Union Square Cafe in NYC, including a bowl of their fabulous Black Bean Soup. I intend to try making that soup sometime soon using Benton's bacon!

A few weeks ago I was delighted to spy a copy of The Union Square Cafe Cookbook on my mother's bookshelves and this recipe for White Bean and Broccoli Soup with Parmigiano and Prosciutto (recipe at end of this post) jumped out at me. It has all of my favorite flavors, and I had some lovely little heads of broccoli that came in my farm box.

cook's notes:

- This was a fairly easy soup; most of the time is waiting for the beans to soak or cook.

- I couldn't find coriander seeds anywhere local, so I just added a pinch of ground coriander.

- for added flavor, you can add Parmigiano rinds into the soup at the same time you add the salt.

- I froze half of the soup after step 4


the verdict:

Although my husband was deeply suspicious while this soup was cooking, we both loved it and it has earned "keeper" status.

White Bean and Broccoli Soup with Parmigiano and Prosciutto

serves 4

3.4 cup dries cannellini or Great Northern Beans
1 tsp coriander seeds
¼ tsp black peppercorns
1 fresh thyme sprig
4 parsley sprigs
1 bay leaf
1 T. butter
¾ cup sliced onions
¾ cup sliced celery
¾ cup slices leeks, white and light green parts only, washed
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
2 oz prosciutto, finely diced (1.2 c.)
4 c. broccoli florets (1/2 lb)
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
freshly ground black pepper
¼ c. shredded or coarsely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1. Soak the beans in water overnight or for at least 6 hours.

2. Make an herb bundle: In a small piece of clean cheesecloth, place te coriander seeds, peppercorns, thyme, parsley, and bay leaf. Close the bundle by tying with a piece of kitchen twine.

3. Melt the butter over a medium flame in a 3 quart saucepan; add the onions, celery, leeks, and garlic. Cook for 10 minutes, until the vegetables are softened but not browned. Add the herb bundle, beans, and 8 cups water.

4. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and gently simmer, covered, for 1 ½ hours. Season with the salt and cook for an additional 30 minutes, or until the beans are tender.

5. Discard the herb bundle, add the prosciutto and the broccoli, and simmer 3 to 5 minutes, until cooked. Just before serving, stir in the balsamic vinegar and season with freshly ground black pepper to taste. Pour the soup into warm bowls and garnish with the grated Parmigiano.

Green Beans with Shallots and Clementine Zest

I came across several tempting green bean recipes as I did my Thanksgiving menu planning. This recipe for Green Beans with Shallots and Clementines proved to be the most appealing to my daughter A.L.E., who had the final choice, and who prepared the dish.

cook's notes:

- You can find the recipe here.

- The recipe is fast and easy, which is a boon on Thanksgiving, or indeed, any day I'm cooking dinner! A really organized cook could prepare and blanch the beans in advance and just saute them at serving time.

- We had some fabulous fresh green onions from the farm box, so we substituted them for the shallots. (The beans were from the box also!)

- We used Satsuma clementines. They were pretty soft and difficult to zest, but tasty.

the verdict:

These beans were delicious - crisp and green with a great fresh flavor from the zest and the scallions. They were just the right clean note on the Thanksgiving plate and would be equally at home with many other main courses. I'll make these again!