Discovering my Ancestral Roots Chili

I feel like such a curandera, with all my spices and backyard herbs, using mostly indigenous ingredients, channeling my tartara abuelita, stirring an aromatic pot of thick, bubbling beany pot liquor. I'm glad I can grow harder-to-find herbs like mexican oregano.

Here's a chili half-way between my black bean chili and chicana power chili beans from Decolonize your Diet:

1 cup dried beans (black, tiger, mayocoba...), sorted, rinsed, and soaked in spring water overnight
2 teaspoons olive oil
½ medium onion, chopped (from Schaner Farm via the Little Italy Farmers Market)
1-2 mild chiles (such anaheim, pasilla, or poblano - or maybe a jalapeño if you like it spicy), chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried (preferably mexican) oregano or a couple teaspoons fresh from the herb spiral
cayenne to taste (start with a pinch, if you're wimpy; up to 1/4 teaspoon if you like it spicy)

1½ teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon ancho chile powder
3 large cloves garlic, minced (from Schaner or Sage Mt Farm)
¾ cup tomato, fresh chopped or crushed canned in glass
juice of a small orange from mom's backyard

sea salt (about 1 teaspoon)

Sauté the onion, chile, and spices in the oil in a medium pot on medium-low heat until soft, about 10 minutes, stirring (do not brown). Add garlic and tomato and cook for 5 minutes, stirring. Add orange juice and beans (drained well) and cover with spring water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat for a low simmer and cook covered until soft, about 2 hours. Salt to taste. Serve with skillet cornbread.

Garnish Options: jack cheese (from Spring Hill), avocado, cilantro, green onions

Variations: add in sautéd zucchini, kale, corn, roasted sweet potato, baked tempeh chunks...

Beans Revisited

After reading Decolonize Your Diet I had to revisit how I cook beans.  Now I'm skipping all the soaking, water changing, skimming...no need to plan the day before and it doesn't take that much longer to cook.  This method is so flavorful, you can eat it as a soup as is.  Here's my version:

sunflower oil from the bulk section at OB People's Co-op
1/2 yellow onion, diced from Schaner Farms
3 cloves garlic, minced from Schaner Farms
1/2 poblano chile, seeded and diced from Suzie's Farm or JR Organics Farm
small sprig of oregano from my garden
1 cup dried pinto beans, rinsed and sorted from the bulk section at OB People's Co-op
spring water from Palomar Mt
1/2 tsp sea salt from the bulk section at OB People's Co-op

Heat a medium-sized heavy pot (I like enameled cast iron) on medium-low heat and lightly cover the bottom of the pot with oil. Stir in the onions and cook with lid slightly askew until soft.  Add the garlic and chile and saute until soft.  Add the oregano and beans and cover with a 1/2 inch of water.  Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook covered until the beans are soft (a couple hours), checking occasionally and adding water as needed to keep them covered.  When the beans are almost done, add salt and cook until soft.

Crostini Trio

I recently attended a holiday potluck and was inspired by ingredients from the Little Italy Farmers Market to make crostini.  I had a Prager Brother's olive rosemary loaf of beautiful bread that I sliced thin, drizzled lightly with olive oil, and toasted until crisp.  And I made these three toppings:

Cannellini Bean & Roasted Garlic Spread
a head of garlic from the Schaners
1 tablespoon fresh sage leaves from Suzie's, minced
sea salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cup cooked cannellini beans (Suzie's Farm seasonally has them fresh in the pod or dried), saving the cooking liquid
juice of a small lemon from Honeymoon Ranch

Separate the garlic cloves, drizzle with a touch of olive oil and a pinch of salt, and roasted at 350 degrees until soft and golden in color (this can be done on a cookie sheet, in a terra cotta garlic roaster, or wrapped in foil), about 30 minutes.  Allow to cool, remove skins, and set aside.

Over medium heat, saute the sage in a tablespoon of oil with a pinch of salt until fragrant.  Put all ingredients in a food processor, (start with just 1/2 the juice and add more to taste) including 1/4 cup bean broth. Blend until smooth. Taste and add salt to taste, and add more bean broth if it's too thick.

Makes about 1&1/2 cups.

Top with a drizzle of your favorite olive oil, fresh chopped parsley, caramelized onions, and/or some nice olives.

Sauteed Greens
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 medium red onion, quartered and sliced thin
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
a pinch of red pepper flakes
1 bunch kale, destemmed, sliced into ribbons
1/2 bunch mustard greens, destemmed, sliced into ribbons
a couple big handfuls of spinach
fresh parsley, chopped
sea salt
red wine vinegar

In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium heat. Add onion, red pepper flakes and a pinch of salt and saute, stirring, until onions are soft. Add greens, garlic and another pinch of salt; cook until wilted, 4-5 minutes.  Remove from heat, stir in parsley and a splash of red wine vinegar, season with salt to taste.

Artichoke & Mushroom
a can of quartered artichokes, drained and chopped
1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
a large shallot or 1 small leek, sliced thin
a pinch of red pepper flakes
sea salt
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, minced
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh chives, sliced thin
freshly ground black pepper
thick, aged balsamic vinegar

In a large skillet, heat a tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat.  Add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt, and allow to cook until the mushrooms have given up their liquid and browned, stirring occasionally.  Set aside.

In a large skillet, heat a tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat.  Add the shallots, red pepper flakes, and a pinch of salt, and allow to cook until the shallots soften, stirring occasionally.  Then add garlic and thyme, and cook a few more minutes, stirring.  Remove from heat, stir all ingredients together, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.  Top with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

Tuscan Vegetable Soup

Basically a hearty minestrone without the pasta. All veggies found from my favorite farmers at the Little Italy Mercato...

1 tblsp olive oil
½ cup yellow onion, chopped
8 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup carrot, diced or julienned or thin sliced quarters
½ cup celery, diced
½ cup zucchini, chopped or sliced
¾ cup cooked kidney or cannellini beans, (reserve cooking liquid for broth if cooked from scratch)
¾ cup green beans, fresh, chopped into 1” pieces
1½ cups tomato, diced (fresh or canned) with juice
6 cups vegetable broth
½ cup fresh spinach, packed, destemmed, rough chop
a handful of Italian parsley leaves, fresh, chopped
sea salt, fresh ground black pepper and red pepper flakes to taste
a handful of fresh basil leaves, julienned

Sauté the onion and garlic in the oil in a pan on medium heat until they begin to soften, about 3 minutes, stirring (do not brown). Add the carrot and celery and cook until they begin to soften, about another 3 minutes. Add zucchini and cook until it begins to soften, another couple minutes.

Add the beans, tomato and stock and simmer briefly. Stir in spinach, parsley, basil and season to taste.

Serve with a crusty, toothsome bread.

Serves 6

Corn, Bean, Avo Salsa

I am very exctied that starting this summer, one of my favorite San Diego farmers, Suzie's Farm, is growing organic corn!  But I am still nostalgic for the most amazing corn I ever had (minutes from the field) from Reegers Farm, a family farm where I used to work in rural Pennsylvania.  What a gift to experience!   This farm made me real picky about my corn  - one of the farmers wouldn't eat the corn that was picked that morning for dinner that night; she could taste the difference.
I love fresh sweet corn and I'm so happy to get it fresh from the field again...

about a cup or 2 of beans of your choice (today I'm using an heirloom variety I picked up at the Hillcrest Farmers Market - anazasi is one of my favorites)
a couple ears of fresh corn, kernels cut of the cob (your chicken will love the fresh cob)
1 cup or so of mixed heirloom tomatoes - try green zebra and indigo rose (from the Schaners and Suzie's), chopped
1 avocado, chopped (from Schaner Farm)
a handfulof chopped cilantro (from Ripe North Park)
1/2 a red onion, diced (from the Schaners)
juice of 2 limes (also from the Schaners via the Little Italy farmers market)
drizzle of your favorite extra virgin olive oil (mine is from Ensenada)
2 or more cloves fresh garlic, peeled and minced (from the Schaners)
1/2 jalapeño (from Suzie's), miced or another chile or chile powder, optional for a little heat
sea salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together and serve up some summer in a bowl!

Eat with tortilla chips, as a tostada, in a burrito, on top for your favorite greens...

Bean Soup from Leftovers

We made bean and rice burritos yesterday.  And after eating beans from scratch, we end up with a bit of leftover beans in a lot of beany broth - which lends itself very well to being turned into soup on this cold and rainy day...

(amounts are approximate and will vary depending on how much leftovers you have)

a cup of cooked beans in a few cups of beany broth
1/2 cup or so of leftover cooked rice
1-2 tablespoons olive oil or Spring Hill butter
1/2 onion, chopped
1-2 carrots, quartered and thinly sliced
a celery rib, diced
a few cloves of garlic, minced
any other veggies lurking in your fridge? some roasted cauliflower? sugar snap peas? tomato? a handful of chopped greens?

In a pot, reheat the beans in their broth as you cook up the rest of the ingredients (if you have a parmesano cheese rind you've been saving, add that to the pot, too).

In a separate pan, saute the onion, garlic, carrots and celery (this is also a good time to add any dried herbs or spices you want) until just soft and add them to the beans along with the rice.  Saute any additional veggies until just soft and add them, too or add already cooked veggies straight into the pot.  Fresh greens or herbs go in last.  Gently simmer for a few minutes.  Season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

How to Cook Beans from Scratch

Home-cooked beans made from scratch are sooo delicious!  They are vastly superior than canned for many reasons: texture, flavor, you get awesome bean broth, they are cheaper, you can add your own seasonings, and I find it very satisfying.

It is very easy to cook dried beans from scratch but they do require some advanced planning because they take awhile to soak and cook. (You can also cook fresh or sprouted beans super fast but I'll talk about those later...)

Other than thinking about the approximate amount of cooked beans I want to end up with...

(kitchen tip: 1/2 pound dried beans = 1 cup dried = 3 cups cooked)

...I don't really measure ingredients, but here's the method I use:

1. Sort your dried beans: spread them out on a flat surface (like on a baking sheet) and make sure to remove any bad looking beans and anything that is not a bean (like little stones and grains).
2. Rinse the beans with water.  This removes dirt or anything else their surface has come into contact with.
3. Ideally: in a bowl, cover the beans with water by a couple inches (about 3 times as much water as beans), cover with a lid, and soak overnight in the fridge or for at least 4 hours. The soaking water contains the bulk of the raffinose (a bean sugar that we can't digest), so tossing this water after soaking helps eliminate gas. (If you forget to soak beans ahead of time, don't despair; you can still pull it off with a quick soak: boil beans in soaking water for a few minutes, the cover and let soak in the hot water for an hour.)
4. Drain & rinse the beans, then cover them with fresh water plus about an inch in a pot.
5. Boil the beans on a good hard boil for about 10 minutes and skim off any foamy scum that forms on top of the water (cuz who wants to eat bean scum? Also, it can boil over and make a terrible mess).
6. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook time will depend on several things: pre-soaked beans cook faster, small beans cook faster than big ones, old beans that have been sitting in your cupboard for years may not ever get tender.  Generally, pre-soaked beans will take 45 minutes to an hour to simmer until soft and tender, with larger beans taking close to an hour and a half.  So start 'em early; beans keeping warm on the stove waiting for the rest of the meal to be ready is not a bad thing.  Also, you can cook beans in a crock pot.
7. After you skim off the bean foam and reduce the heat, this is a good time to add any flavorings to the pot.  I always add 1/4-1/2 onion, 2 peeled whole garlic cloves and a couple sprigs of parsley, cilantro (for Mexican food), or epazote (for black beans).  If you don't have fresh herbs, you could use a teaspoon or more of dried herbs.  These additions enrich the flavor of the beans and the beany broth.
8. While your beans are simmering, periodically check the water and add more as needed to keep the water level completely covering the beans.
9. Periodically, scoop out a bean or 2 and taste to see how they are coming along. If they are getting close to done, this is the time to add salt to taste.  Do not add salt earlier in the cooking process or it will make your beans tough.  Some people like to cook their beans until they are super mushy but I prefer to cook them until they are a kinda soft creamy texture when I bite into them but they still hold their shape.
10. Now they are ready to eat!  You can serve them in their broth, drain them (save the broth for soup!) or mash them (add in the broth as needed when mashing).

If you grow your own or find them at the farmers market, cook beans fresh out of their shell! You can find beautiful heirloom varieties and fresh favas (which take forever to shell but are amazing) and cannellinis. In a pot, cover fresh beans with water, bring to a boil, add your seasonings (except salt) and simmer on low heat until tender, adding salt in the last few minutes of cooking.  Fresh beans will cook up in 10-30 minutes.

Or, Suzie's Farm sells sprouted beans, which you can eat raw or simmer like I've described above.

Smashed Cannelini Bean Spread

4 cloves garlic from the Schaners, peeled, pressed
2 tablespoons fresh sage leaves from Suzie's or the Schaners, minced
sea salt
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
a pinch of red pepper flakes
1 cup cooked cannellini beans (Suzie's Farm recently had them fresh in the pod!), saving the cooking liquid
juice of a lemon from the Schaners or your tree

Over medium heat, sweat the garlic in 1 tablespoon of oil with the sage and a few pinches of sea salt until tender. In a food processor, add the beans, another tablespoon of oil, lemon juice, 1/4 - 1/3 cup bean broth, red pepper flakes to taste and the garlic mixture.  Blend until smooth, salt to taste, maybe add more bean broth if it's too thick.

Makes about 1&1/2 cups.

Top with a drizzle of your favorite olive oil, fresh chopped parsley, caramelized onions, and/or some nice olives.  Serve with toasted ciabatta.

A Trio of Hummus (& other variations)

Yes, the plural of hummus is hummus (but I had to look it up).  Anyways...
Hummus is a very easy recipe to riff on and I'm kinda into serving trios of things, so let's start with the "mother" recipe:

4 large cloves garlic (I like garlic, but if you don't you can skip or use less)
1 cup garbanzo beans, cooked from scratch (yummy) or canned
1/3-1/2 cup tahini
pinch of ground cayenne
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
4-6 tablespoons garbanzo broth (if you cooked them from scratch) or water, more if you like a thinner hummus

In a food processor, buzz the garlic until minced.  Add the garbanzo beans, tahini & cayenne.  In a separate container, combine the olive oil, lemon juice and broth/water.  Turn on the food processor and slowly pour in the liquid.  Blend until very smooth (a few minutes).

Makes about 1&1/2 cups. Top with a drizzle of your favorite olive oil and sprinkle with za'atar (a middle eastern spice mix).  Serve with fresh pita and crudités.

A few suggestions for variations:
Fresh herbs - I served a cilantro hummus at Roots, if you'd like to duplicate it...add 1/2 bunch of cilantro (stems & leaves) (or parsley or basil - leaves only) and buzz with the garlic before adding the rest of the ingredients.

Roasted garlic - roast a full head of garlic and add the caramelized cloves in before adding the liquid.

Sun-dried tomato -  I didn't like these until I tried them from Terra Bella Farm & Sage Mountain Farm and they taste amazing. Add a handful and buzz with the garlic before adding the rest of the ingredients

Roasted red pepper - or try roasting any of the beautiful peppers from Suzie's Farm.  Add 1-2 roasted, skinned, seeded peppers in with the garlic and blend until pureed before adding the rest of the ingredients.

Baba ganoush - roast a smallish eggplant and scoop out the flesh to replace the garbanzo beans (and hold off on the water)

Two bowls of Chili

Black Bean Chili  a Roots favorite...

2 teaspoons olive oil
½ cup onion, chopped (from Schaner Farm via the Little Italy Farmers Market)
½ cup mild chile (such anaheim or pasilla - lots of options from Suzie's Farm),  chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano (dry your own from Schaner or Suzie's Farm)
cayenne to taste (start with a pinch, if you're wimpy; up to 1/2 teaspoon if you like it spicy)

1½ teaspoon paprika
3 large cloves garlic, minced (from Schaner or Sage Mt Farm)
¾ cup tomato, fresh chopped or crushed canned in glass
juice of ½ an orange (from the Schaners)
3 cups cooked black beans

salt to taste

Sauté the onion, chile, and spices in the oil with a few pinches of salt in a pan on medium heat until soft, about 10 minutes, stirring (do not brown). Add garlic and tomato and cook for 2 minutes. Add orange juice and beans with their liquid and cook uncovered for 15 minutes. Salt to taste.

Garnish Options: crema, cheddar or jack cheese (from Spring Hill), avocado, cilantro, green onions


Simple Vegan Chili
½ tablespoon olive oil
½ cup yellow onion, chopped
½ cup celery, chopped

1 teaspoon cumin, ground
¼ teaspoon cayenne
3 cups diced tomato (fresh or canned)
3 cloves garlic, minced 

3 cups cooked kidney beans, drained or with liquid if you want it soupier

salt to taste if using fresh tomato and cooking your own beans.

In a large pot, saute onions and celery in oil over medium heat, stirring occasionally until onions just begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a simmer.  Great served next to corn bread.

Variations
Add other ingredients: corn, greens, or sauteed carrots or zucchini.
Add or sub other beans: black beans, black-eyed peas, garbanzo beans…