How to cook beans from scratch & classic refried beans

Beans! They're the perfect food: cheap, delicious, versatile, easy, abundant, suitable for both vegetarian and vegan diets, and healthy. There is literally nothing not to love. So let's talk about how to cook a pan of dried beans from scratch and create a lovely pot of deliciousness.

How to cook beans from scratch

Dried beans should generally be soaked overnight. It's possible to do a quick soak using hot water, but that may require a longer cooking time later. I prefer the overnight soak.

Measure out the amount of beans you plan to cook, keeping in mind that they'll swell to twice their size after soaking and cooking. For this demonstration, I used a 1-lb bag of pinto beans.

Sort your beans before soaking them. Just pour a handful of dry beans onto a plate or other surface and quickly look through them. If you see any chunks of dirt, rocks, or beans that look really past their prime, pick them out and throw them away. Repeat this until you've looked through all the beans. It may seem ridiculous to look through all your beans, but it is 100% possible to find rocks! Get them out of there and avoid cracking a tooth, okay?

Put your sorted beans into a mixing bowl and cover them with twice their depth in tap water. Cover loosely and leave on the counter overnight, or for at least six hours. The beans will absorb the water and get bigger.

When you're ready to cook, pour out the soaking water and replace it with new water, covering your beans by at least an inch. Pour the whole shebang into a large saucepan with a lid. Add a bay leaf (optional, but nice) and bring the pot to a boil.

Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer gently for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until your beans are tender. Your beans are done if their skins split when you blow on them. The taste test is also reliable.

Now you are the proud owner of a pan of lovely cooked beans in their own broth. What will you do with them?

I decided to make classic refried beans with my beans, and to freeze the leftover bean broth for future soup purposes. If you want, you can also freeze your beans in their broth. It works beautifully.

Classic refried beans

olive oil or butter
onion
jalapeño or other hot pepper
salt, red pepper flake or dried chile of choice, cumin, oregano
cooked pinto beans
bean broth or water

In a wide skillet or saute pan, warm your oil or butter on medium heat. (For ultra-classic refried beans, I hear lard is the fat of choice.) Add a diced onion or two and saute until softened. Finely mince your jalapeño and add it to the pan. You can use as many jalapeños as you desire, depending on your spice tolerance.

Season with salt, red pepper flake, cumin, and oregano to taste. You'll want to be a little heavy-handed with all the spices because the beans are otherwise a big bland neutral palette.

When your onions and jalapeños are both softened, add your beans and enough broth or water to make everything a bit sloshy. Reserve a little liquid to add if needed. Cook your beans together with your onions and jalapenos, stirring frequently.

After everything is hot through, start crushing your beans with the back of a large spoon or with a potato masher. Mix and mash until your beans are the texture you desire; add more liquid if necessary. Taste and correct the seasonings, and you are done.

Classic refried beans are good in tacos, burritos, enchiladas, tostadas, or quesadillas, among other things. I used mine to make 16 bean and rice burritos (flour tortillas, beans, rice, salsa, scallion, cheese), which I put in the freezer for future dinner endeavours. The rest got eaten in quesadilla form almost immediately. So good.

What would you make with a big pan of freshly cooked beans?

Yellow split pea soup with kale and quinoa

We are just barely back from a whirlwind trip to a family wedding on the Florida panhandle. We flew into New Orleans, stayed for a day of beignets, coffee, and wandering around, and then set off for that most traditional of American pastimes: driving for several hours across several states to get as many family members as possible into one place at one time.

The wedding -- on a blindingly white and lovely beach -- was tiny but very happy, with toast after toast in both Spanish and English stretching on into the night at the reception. Yay!

We had a great time.

That said, do you know how much vegetarian food there is in the tourist areas of NOLA and the beach (and also the airport)? Not much. Almost not at all. I ate several platters of fish with fried shrimp garnish, a plateful of veal, and an excellent sausage with caraway, but the vegetables were few and far between, and the beans practically nonexistent, except in dishes that also contained large chunks of ham. There were multiple bags of delicious Michigan apples, however!

So when we got home John and I (especially John -- I like meat, even if my digestive system is not happy with me after I eat this much of it) were ready to get some beans and greens into our mouths as instantly as possible. We dug some split peas out of the freezer, got our hands on a big bunch of kale, and went to town.

The secret to making a delicious yet vegan split pea soup is liquid smoke. Well, liquid smoke and plenty of other herbs and spices. Actually, the use of herbs and spices is possibly the secret of vegan and vegetarian cooking in general. You don't have meat flavoring everything automatically, so spice application is super important.

Yellow split pea soup with kale and quinoa

1 cup yellow split peas (green will work too)
oil of your choice
1 yellow onion
3-4 cloves garlic
1 carrot
1 leek
~4 cups vegetable broth
salt & pepper
marjoram, paprika, smoked paprika, cayenne, red pepper flake
bay leaf
optional splash of dry vermouth or white wine
1 bunch kale
handful of fresh parsley with stems
1 cup quinoa
10-15 drops liquid smoke

Start by covering your split peas in plenty of hot tap water. Leave them to soak and begin softening for 15 minutes or more before you start cooking. This quick soak will help reduce the overall cooking time.

Warm a slug of oil on medium heat in the bottom of a 3-quart pot. Chop your onion and add it to the oil. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, or until your onion has begun to soften.

Mince your garlic, scrub and chop your carrot, and wash and chop your leek. Add each vegetable to the pot as you finish chopping it.

Season your vegetables with a few shakes of salt, as well as some marjoram, paprika, smoked paprika, cayenne, and red pepper flake to taste. Toss a bay leaf in there too. If you don't have every single one of those spices, you can always rely more heavily on what you do have. I just like to use smaller amounts of a variety of different peppers for a nice depth of flavor.

Stir everything together and continue to cook for 5-10 minutes. When all your vegetables are nicely softened, drain your split peas and add them to the pot, along with your vegetable broth. If you would like to add some vermouth, now is a great time to splash some in.

Bring the pot to a boil, cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for about 45 minutes, or until your split peas are completely cooked and soft.

While you're waiting, wash, destem, and roughly chop your kale. Chop up your fresh parsley as well. Put your quinoa on to cook, so it'll be hot and ready when your soup is done.

When your split peas are cooked, take the pot off the heat, remove the bay leaf, and puree your soup to the texture you desire with an immersion blender. Or leave it chunky if you prefer. It's all good. If your soup is too thick, this is a good time to add some more broth or water to thin it.

Stir your chopped kale and about half of your parsley into the hot soup. Cook for another 2-3 minutes, or until all the greens are well wilted.

For the final seasoning, add your liquid smoke. This stuff is very potent, so be careful and add a little at a time. This is also the time to add pepper and correct any other seasonings.

To serve, add a scoop of hot quinoa to the bottom of a soup bowl. Top with a ladleful of soup and garnish with the extra parsley.

Hooray! Beans (or pulses anyway), greens, and quinoa, together at last.

Needless to say, we both felt miles better after eating this delicious veg-heavy dinner in our own house.

What's the first thing you want to eat when you get back to your own kitchen after a few days (or weeks) of traveling?

Couscous salad with chickpeas, golden beets, and zucchini

Who wants a quick and delicious lunch salad? You know you want one.

Raw beet has fast become my favorite way to cram as much crunchy, sweet vegetables as possible into a salad. To keep everything in my kitchen from turning fuchsia, I use golden beets. Red or chioggia beets also work well, but their juice will stain. At the very least, red beets will produce a bright pink salad. Be aware!

Of course, beets alone are not a particularly sufficient lunch. To give this salad some real heft, I opened a can of chickpeas. These little guys are the saviors of lunch salads everywhere. And why not bulk it up with the easiest non-grain ever, instant couscous? Perfect.

Not only is this salad tasty, easy, and cheap, it's very easily packable for work lunches or potlucks. The couscous absorbs the dressing, so there's very little risk of an olive oil spill. If I still worked in an office, I absolutely would have packed up a bunch of servings so I could grab one every day as I ran out the door.

I accidentally made enough salad to feed myself for a full week. Oops. On the other hand, now I have lunch just waiting in the fridge constantly. I call that a win.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Couscous salad with chickpeas, golden beets, and zucchini

Salad:
1 cup instant couscous
salt, pepper, olive oil
1 cup boiling water
1 medium-large golden beet
1 small zucchini
4 mushrooms
fresh parsley & chives
2 cups cooked chickpeas

Dressing:
lemon juice
dijon mustard
salt, pepper
olive oil

Make your couscous by putting it in a heat-safe bowl, seasoning it with a bit of salt, pepper, and olive oil, and pouring the water over it. Cover with a clean tea towel and let it sit while you prep the rest of your ingredients. It will be done in about five minutes.

The vegetables are super easy: just cut them up into the shapes of your choice. I scrubbed and grated a golden beet and finely chopped a zucchini and a handful of mushrooms. You can add all kinds of other vegetables if you like. Chop up a decent whack of flat-leaf parsley and a handful of chives while you're at it.

When your couscous is finished, fluff it with a fork. Add your vegetables, herbs, and chickpeas and stir together.

Make your dressing by combining the juice of half a lemon, a spoonful of dijon mustard, and a generous grinding of salt and pepper. Whip with a fork to emulsify as you drizzle in about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of olive oil. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Pour your dressing over the salad and mix thoroughly.

Check out that beautiful golden glow. I actually might have to rename this "golden glow salad," don't you think? So pretty. So tasty.

Which salads are keeping you happy as the weather heats up?

Chickpea coconut curry with kale, carrots, and peas

Who wants curry? I, of course, always want curry. Let's have curry!

So I explored the pantry and came up with a can of chickpeas and one of coconut milk. Perfect.

Chickpeas always benefit so much from a long, hot bath in something super-flavorful, which makes them a natural match with coconut milk. Then all you need to do is check out the crisper and see which vegetables to add. I found a bunch of kale, a couple carrots, and, hiding in the back of the freezer, a bag of peas. Chickpea coconut curry, here we come.

Normally when I season a coconut milk curry I go straight for the curry paste. This time, however, we were out, so I went for ultra-simple spicing and just used hot curry powder. Hey, it worked with the coconut milk chicken that has somehow become a huge hit on Pinterest! (Seriously, how? Those pictures are awful.) And it also worked here. Hooray!

Chickpea coconut curry with kale, carrots, and peas

peanut or other oil of choice
1 onion
1-inch knob of ginger
1 jalapeno or other hot pepper
2 small carrots or 1 large
1 can chickpeas
~1.5 cups frozen peas, defrosted
1 bunch kale
1 can coconut milk
salt, curry powder (or your choice of individual spices)
rice or your choice of grain to serve

Start by sauteing a chopped onion in your oil of choice in a wide saute pan. Mince your ginger and jalapeno; scrub and slice your carrots. Add all of these to the softened onion. Give the pan a pinch of salt, stir, and cook over medium for about five minutes, stirring occasionally.

Next, drain and rinse your can of chickpeas and add them to the pan. Shake your coconut milk well before opening it and adding it as well. Season with curry powder, stir everything together, and bring the pan to a gentle simmer. Let cook over medium-low for at least ten minutes, so the coconut milk begins to reduce and the chickpeas have a chance to absorb plenty of flavor.

While you're waiting, prep the rest of your vegetables. Defrost your peas by submerging them in warm water, letting them soak for a few minutes, and then draining them. Wash, destem, and chop your kale leaves.

When the coconut milk has reduced by about half, add all the rest of your vegetables to the pan. Adjust your seasonings and cook for about five more minutes, or until your kale has wilted and become completely tender and your coconut milk has become a thick sauce coating your curry. Taste, add a bit more salt if necessary, and you're ready to serve. Yay!

I had my curry over short grain brown rice, because that's how I roll, but practically any grain you like would be an excellent match here. Garnish is not really necessary with such an array of beautiful vegetables, although a little cilantro wouldn't hurt. But really, all you need to do is get it into a bowl and eat. Super simple.

CURRY. Such an excellent, hearty, and cheap dinner. And did you notice it was vegan as well? It's vegan. Yay!

What quick yet tasty dinners are you conjuring up out of the dark recesses of the pantry?

Other people's recipes

Fear not--we have been eating things other than pie occasionally.

First, an amazing mung bean dal! We've had a big bag of whole mung beans hanging out in the freezer for way too long. I knew we needed to do something with them, so I scanned the internet and came up with this Indian style mung dal from Lisa's Kitchen.

I added in a chunked Asian eggplant, and the results were PERFECT. They were excellent over a bowl of brown rice, reheated very well, and were stuffed full of flavor and vegetables along with the hearty beans--yes please. I made a double batch and we ate for days before stuffing the last few cups in the freezer for future emergency dinner application.

Needless to say, this will definitely be on the menu again.

Once pi day was over, I needed cake for some reason. Why? I don't know, since I pick pie over cake 100% of the time, but still. So I went through the cupboards and emerged with the ingredients for Cookie & Kate's orange poppyseed yogurt cake, minus the olive oil. I've just never gotten into the olive oil flavor in cakes thing. But the rest of the cake is definitely an excellent plan!

A little grapeseed oil and a whole lot of orange zest later, I was pulling this beautiful loaf out of the oven. So good.

This is exactly what I want out of a cake: a punch of barely-sweet citrus and wheat flavor featuring no frosting whatever. You can eat it for breakfast (with more yogurt on top) and it's no big deal, have a slice or two in the middle of the afternoon with a big mug of tea, or go for the classic dessert option. I did pretty much every single one of the above.

Whose recipes have you been cooking this week?

Red curry with chickpeas, carrot, and kale

Coconut milk curries have become one of my favorite things ever to cook. As long as you have the main ingredients--by which I mean coconut milk and curry paste--you can pretty much curry anything in your kitchen. Meat, beans, soy; broccoli, cabbage, squash, mushrooms: nearly any combination of protein and vegetable can make a delicious curry.

Do you have some black-eyed peas and cauliflower sitting around? Curry. How about a package of tofu and a bag of frozen peas? Curry. Dry red lentils and a bunch of spinach? You'll need to add some cooking liquid and make it into a rich soup, but it's still curry.

I usually make red curry for a couple reasons. First, we like spice, which rules out a gentle yellow or masaman curry. Second, the green curry paste at our usual grocery store contains shrimp, which is a problem in a half vegetarian household. I could solve this if I made my own curry paste, but that hasn't happened yet, so. Red curry it is.

On this particular occasion, I broke out a can of chickpeas and pulled some carrots and kale out of the crisper. Twenty minutes later, voila! A rich, satisfying, and spicy vegan dinner.

Red curry with chickpeas, carrot, and kale

peanut oil/flavorless oil of your choice
1 onion
1-inch chunk ginger
2-3 carrots
1 can/2 cups cooked chickpeas
1 cup coconut milk
1+ bunch kale
2-3 tbsp Thai red curry paste
salt
rice/etc to serve

Start by putting your rice on to cook. If you're making something quicker, like instant couscous or noodles, you can wait until your curry is almost done. Use your judgement.

OKAY. For the actual curry, start by warming a slug of peanut oil in a wide saute pan. Add a chunked onion, stir, and let soften while you peel (use the spoon trick) and finely mince a piece of ginger.

Add your ginger and a pinch of salt to the onions. Stir everything together and continue to cook while you wash, scrub, and cut your carrots into 3/4-inch-thick chunks. When your onions have started to turn translucent, dump in your carrots. Give them about five minutes, stirring occasionally, before you add your drained and rinsed chickpeas.

Shake your coconut milk well before pouring it into the pan. Add your curry paste and stir to combine. The amount here will depend on your spice tolerance. If you like hot and spicy dishes, add more curry paste; if not, add less. It's all good.

Bring everything up to a gentle boil, lid, reduce the heat, and let simmer five minutes. This will give your carrots a chance to cook through and your chickpeas a chance to absorb the spices.

While you're waiting, wash your kale, pull the leaves off the stems, and roughly chop them up. When your carrots are just tender, add your kale to the pan and stir. Put the lid aside and cook for another three or four minutes, or until the kale is completely wilted and the sauce has reduced to your desired thickness. You can always add a touch of water if it gets too thick.

Taste and correct seasonings, and you're done! Serve with rice or your choice of grain device. You can garnish with chopped green onion, cilantro, or basil if you so desire. Cut up a couple oranges and you have a complete dinner.

This served two of us easily, and left plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day besides. Yay, lunch!

What's your favorite kind of curry?

Toor dal and spicy sambal cabbage

In the interest of cleaning out our food stash while also eating a variety of delightful dinners, I made some toor dal the other day. This fulfilled several criteria at once.

First, we had toor dal already in the freezer. I wanted to get things out of the freezer. Win!

Second, I didn't want to leave the house for any other ingredients. Fortunately, we have a well-stocked spice cabinet and pantry, so that was also a win.

Third, we wanted to eat delicious things. Toor dal is aromatic, full of flavor, and certainly delicious. Another win.

Fourth, we've been wanting to learn to make more Indian food at home. A new dal--generally defined as a lentil or pulse-based soup with spices--definitely qualifies there.

And fifth, I thought it was about time for me to actually try to cook something besides plain dried beans in the pressure cooker. This recipe called for turmeric and ginger in the pressure cooker as well. I tried it out, and lo! Everything worked perfectly.

In conclusion, win win win win win. Yeah!

If you aren't aware, toor dal = dried split yellow pigeon peas. This one combined them with a chonk--a heated oil or ghee with lots of spices--flavored with cumin, mustard seeds, bay leaves, asafetida, dried red chilies, and paprika. That sounds good already, doesn't it? But when you add in some garam amsala and amchoor--dried green mango powder, which serves as an acid punch--you get a really excellent finished product.

I followed Manjula's toor dal recipe, because, as we all know, Manjula's recipes are great. You should go try some of them if you haven't yet. I can't say I bothered clarifying my butter, but otherwise, I followed her basic recipe completely.

The dal was really, really amazing: super delicious, fragrant, hot, but not too spicy. I had some yogurt and cilantro out for garnish, but I ended up not using them at all. The dal itself was already too good. That is really saying something.

We had our dal with brown rice (currently hiding under the dal) and some sambal-sauteed cabbage of which I took zero pictures. It was super easy and tasty, though. This method should work for most hardy winter greens, no problem.

Sambal-sauteed cabbage

white cabbage
vegetable or peanut oil
salt
sambal oelek to taste

Warm a slug of oil on medium-high in a saute pan of your choice. While your oil is heating, core half a cabbage and slice it into whatever shape you like best. I made large, rough strips about 1 inch wide and 2 inches across, but you can cut yours however you like.

Add your cabbage to the pan along with a pinch of salt. Saute, stirring frequently, until your cabbage has mostly wilted. This should take maybe five to seven minutes. Toss in a spoonful or two of sambal oelek or the other hot chili paste of your choice and continue to cook for another minute or two, or until the cabbage is done to your liking. Taste, correct seasonings, and you're done. Simple.

Eat your cabbage with dal or top it with a fried egg and some slivered toasted almonds for a full-meal experience. Hooray!

What hearty soups and winter vegetables are you eating lately?

Sweet potato soup with black beans, corn, and jalapeno

It has actually started to get chilly here in scenic NorCal! You know what that means: SOUP. On the other hand, "chilly" in NorCal really means "highs of under 80F during the day, with lots of sun," so while the fall vegetables are certainly emerging, we still have tomatoes and corn and zucchini and hot chili peppers everywhere. Okay! Let's make a hearty soup full of both late summer and fall produce!

I took some inspiration from Joanne's sweet potato corn & jalapeno bisque and made this soup. The catch is that we needed protein, but that was easy enough to fix with the addition of bean broth and black beans. It also balanced out the serious sweetness of the potato and corn.

So, to sum up: this is an easy, delicious, filling, spicy vegetarian main dish soup with protein and seasonal vegetables. And if you use oil instead of butter, it's vegan! Convenient as hell.

I wanted a big vat of thick, creamy puree studded with bits of barely-cooked corn, so I reserved the corn to add at the end. If you want a more highly textured soup, you can always add the whole black beans to the pot after your puree the potatoes and broth, or you can just hold off on pureeing altogether. It's delicious in every case.

Sweet potato soup with black beans, corn, and jalapeno

butter/oil of your choice
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
2+ hot peppers
cumin, oregano, red pepper flake
salt, pepper
2 big sweet potatoes
3-4 cups veg and/or bean broth
2 cups black beans, refried or whole
2+ ears fresh corn (frozen also ok)
lemon or lime juice to finish
garnishes of your choice: curtido de repollo, sour cream, cilantro, green onion, lime wedges, corn tortillas, avocado...

Start by warming a good slug of oil over medium-high heat in the large soup pot of your choice. Dice up your onion and add it to the pot, stirring to coat with oil. Smash and mince your cloves of garlic and add them as well.

Destem and mince your hot peppers. I used one garden jalapeno and one random red hot pepper from the farmer's market; you can use whatever combination you so desire. I imagine these hot peppers would be a particularly great addition if you roasted them and flaked off the skin beforehand, but I was in the WANT FOOD NOW zone and so didn't bother.

Add your hot peppers to the pot. Season with cumin and oregano to your taste, and add a sprinkle of salt. If you want extra spice, you can add in some red pepper flake as well. I used some hot red hatch chile flake, because that's how we roll, and also because my parents brought us a gigantic bag of it last year, and we're still nowhere near making a dent even though we use it all the time.

Stir everything together and cook, lowering the heat a bit if necessary, to soften. In the meantime, peel and cube your sweet potatoes.

When your vegetables have softened and the onion is golden brown, add your broth to the pot. I used a mix of frozen pinto bean broth and vegetable broth; the bean broth adds protein and the veg broth adds flavor. If you're on the meat boat you can use chicken stock, but it's really not necessary. (Now I'm having a horrible flash of what "the meat boat" might look like. Curse you, personal slang!)

Add your sweet potatoes and black beans to the pot and bring everything to a boil. Cover, lower the heat, and simmer until your potatoes are cooked through. This took about 20 minutes for me, but the time will vary depending on the size of your potato cubes.

Pull your pan off the heat and puree with an immersion blender until the soup reaches your desired texture. Taste and correct the seasonings. You may want to add some more broth or water if the soup is too thick for your tastes.

Put the pan back on the heat and let it simmer gently while you husk your ears of corn and cut the kernels off the cobs. Add the corn to your soup, stir, and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes, or until your corn kernels are hot and delicious. Take the pan off the heat, add any final sprinklings of pepper, and mix the juice of a lime or half a lemon into the pot. Done!

Serve your soup with the garnishes of your choice, preferably of the "fresh and crispy" category. We had ours with big whacks of well-drained curtido de repollo, which provided an excellent crunchy contrast plus some extra acidity. A wedge of extra lime and a stack of corn tortillas charred over the gas flame are also good ideas.

The best part? We had enough soup to feed us for two dinners, plus a few extra servings to stash in the freezer. Hooray!

How are you bridging the gap between summer and fall?

Chickpea carrot salad with fresh parsley

It's August! Let's have a salad!

This guy is super simple, delicious, and fast. It's the perfect thing to eat when you can't stand the thought of turning on any appliance in your kitchen. (Okay, refrigerator excepted.)

The key to making a bean or legume-heavy salad appetizing is to add lots of vivid vegetable and herb flavors. Carrot is a perfect contrast to chickpeas: bright, sweet, and crunchy.

I used parsley for my main herb component, and boosted it even more with a super-herby dressing. Chopping a bunch of mixed green herbs and adding them to either the salad itself or a standard vinaigrette would work really well too. Or you can choose to go for a different herb entirely. Dill and carrot are excellent friends; basil would work well too.

The best part? You can make this salad the night before, and the flavors will be even better the next day. Instant lunch for the win!

Chickpea carrot parsley salad

1 can/2 cups cooked chickpeas
3 carrots
1-2 cloves garlic or half a shallot
handful of parsley
lemon juice to taste
salt, pepper
herb vinaigrette or other vinaigrette of your choice

Drain and rinse your chickpeas. Shred your carrots with a box grater. Mince your garlic or shallot and finely chop your parsley leaves.

Add all your ingredients to a large bowl, season with a squeeze of lemon juice and some salt and pepper, and dress with vinaigrette. Toss everything together and taste for seasoning.

If possible, let your salad rest in the refrigerator for several hours before eating.

This salad can go into a split pita with some chopped lettuce for a quick lunch. If you're not a sandwich person, you can transform it into a full meal salad by adding a big scoop to a plate of greens and your choice of chopped veg. It's a simple side for your choice of grilled or barbecued main dishes--juicy lamb would be an especially great combination with chickpea and carrot--and it will travel well to a potluck across town. Perfect!

Which salads are helping you avoid the oven this August?

Big green salad with chickpeas and herb vinaigrette

It looks like we've finally broken through last week's heat wave, and am I ever happy about that. In the meantime, however, the word has been SALAD.

Spicy tuna salad on crisp flatbread with chopped cilantro. Little bites of Erin's cucumber caprese salad. And this salad: the big green.

A green salad is exactly what I want to eat when it's too hot to contemplate anything but lying in the shade with a cool drink, and yet I still need some form of solid food. Of course, while a plate of all veg is delicious and cooling, it's not normally a full meal.

Enter the chickpea.

Chickpeas are by far my favorite way to make a salad into a complete lunch or dinner. They're full of protein, cheap, easily available, healthy, and readily absorb flavors. This time I combined them with with a simple plateful of lettuce, mushrooms, tomatoes, and cucumber, and drizzled the whole shebang with an intensely green vinaigrette made with all kinds of garden herbs. It was perfect.

You can add practically anything you like to this salad. Chickpeas are relatively bland on their own, so they stand up well to intense flavors. I think some finely sliced red onion and kalamata olives would have been perfect additions. Bits of crumbled goat cheese or feta would not go amiss either.

Big green salad with chickpeas

butter lettuce
cucumber
mushrooms
grape tomatoes
cooked, drained chickpeas
salt & pepper
herb vinaigrette

Wash your lettuce and spin it dry. Chop the leaves into bite-sized pieces and spread them on a plate of your choosing.

Peel your cucumber, seed it, and slice it into thin half-moons. Slice your mushrooms and halve your tomatoes. Scatter all your vegetables over your lettuce. Top with chickpeas.

Season your plate with salt and pepper and dress with herb vinaigrette.

Eat. Isn't it delightful? A glass of white wine would be an excellent addition.

Herb vinaigrette

6 tbsp olive oil or salad oil of your choice
2 tbsp champagne vinegar
1 big handful apiece of parsley, basil, oregano, and chives
salt & pepper

Wash your herbs, trim the leaves off their stems, and chop roughly. Add to a blender with your vinegar, oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Blend until mixed well. Store excess dressing in a jar in the refrigerator, and use within a week.

Hooray for salads!

What are you eating to beat the heat?

We have been eating

Like everyone who writes a foodblog, I make and eat a lot of food I don't write about. Let's look at some of it!

I was excited enough about zucchini that I made and ate not only two separate instances of zucchini tacos, but also a pan of fried rice. Green onion, mushroom, carrot, zucchini, leftover brown long-grain rice, and egg. I mixed the onion greens and some chopped cilantro in at the end, then scattered the plate with little bits of parmesan. Yes please.

I got super excited a couple weeks ago when I saw this recipe for Goan black-eyed pea curry on Girl Cooks World. So I cooked up a batch, and we ate it for dinner, and was it ever good. SO good. It's absolutely going in the rotation.

Next time I think I might shred a couple carrots and add them near the end of cooking, to up the vegetable content and add another textural element. Or maybe I'll serve it over a big plate of barely blanched spinach tossed with a little melted butter instead of rice. Either. Both. I don't know!

And finally, because I don't know about you, but I totally bought an entire two pound bag of tiny avocados a few weeks ago, we have AVOCADO TOAST. I just sliced up half an avocado, put it on a piece of hot toast, and added a sprinkle of salt and pepper. With a little bowl of cottage cheese with chopped green onion and cilantro, it was a perfect breakfast.

Hooray!

What have you been cooking, photographing, eating with great gusto, and then never posting about? You guys must have all kinds of delicious business that never sees the light of day too, right?

Coconut extravaganza!

I have a new favorite ingredient and its name is coconut. Coconut oil, coconut milk, actual shreds of sweetened coconut--I want it all. Okay! Let's do it!

My stash of extra virgin coconut oil had been sitting around alone and unloved ever since I used it in my 3-ingredient DIY deodorant. (This has been working just about perfectly for me, incidentally, so if you've been putting off making your own homemade deodorant, go for it!) But now? Now it is no longer alone and unloved. I've started using it as a cooking oil, and is it ever great.

I started out by making Gena's curried lentils, substituting red lentils for the specified yellow, and serving the whole shebang over basmati rice. The coconut oil gives this curry a faint tropical undertone and a richer mouthfeel, making the whole dish much more satisfying.

This was amazing, not to mention practically free. Isn't that a great feeling? I heart practically free food. And it tasted just about perfect, whether with avocado (always a plus) or with a big spoonful of plain yogurt and some sriracha sauce. When you put those two traits together, you know you have a good thing on your hands.

I liked it so much that I made a big pot of very similar red lentil soup with coconut oil and quinoa several days later. That one got the yogurt and sriracha treatment too. So good.

Next, I started drooling over Michelle's beautiful-looking coconut bread. Clearly, I needed to test it out and determine its actual deliciousness level. So I bought a bag of shredded coconut and went to town.

This recipe is based on the original at Smitten Kitchen, but substitutes in coconut milk in place of dairy. I'm thinking this made the loaf a bit heavier overall--but it also made it an especially coconutty delight. COCONUT!

The only change I made was to sub in wheat flour in place of the all-purpose. This is kind of the default at our house, since we almost never have all-purpose flour, but always have whole wheat kicking around. Wheat flour generally gives a slightly more damp and hearty character to baked goods, and that was certainly the case here. I think it worked especially well with all the chewy strands of sweet shredded coconut.

Toasted in the toaster oven, cut into cubes, and topped with sliced sugared strawberries, this bread made one of the best desserts ever. Or maybe one of the best breakfasts ever. Either. Both. Yes.

Speaking of strawberries, how about a coconut milk and strawberry smoothie?

I had just about 1/4 cup of coconut milk left after making my coconut bread, so I stuck it in the freezer for a few days. Then, when I scored some windfall white grapefruit, but didn't want to make it into a typical alcoholic beverage--the fact that it was Monday at 11:30 am helped a lot there--I decided it was smoothie time.

White grapefruit, strawberries, frozen coconut milk, and yogurt made a delightfully tart, thick, and filling creation. I also got to avoid the bane of my smoothie existence: frozen bananas. Seriously, frozen bananas are one of the main reasons I don't do smoothies more often (the other reasons are my visceral repulsion as regards the word "smoothie" and my dislike of washing the blender), so discovering the wonders of frozen coconut milk essentially made the heavens open right there.

I put my smoothie in a mason jar. This worked out especially well, because when I discovered I was too full to drink the entire thing, I just put a lid on it and put it in the refrigerator, a la KERF. Then, the next day, I drank it for completely instant and ready-made breakfast. Hooray!

What's next on the coconut agenda? Hmmm...any suggestions?

GIANT BURRITO

There comes a time in every girl's life when she just wants to eat the most gigantic burrito possible.

Actually, for "a time" substitute "all the time."

Yeah. This weekend we happened on the largest tortillas I've ever seen--12 inches in diameter. What better excuse could we possibly have for making gigantic burritos?

I sauteed some garlic, jalapeno, red and green pepper, and frozen corn in olive oil, seasoned the pan with cumin, oregano, ground New Mexican hot chile, and onion powder (there being no actual onion in the house), and mixed that with a couple cans of refried black beans. You could clearly use your own black or pinto beans instead. I made short-grain brown rice in the rice cooker and warmed up the tortillas in a foil packet in the oven. They were too big to fit in the toaster oven. Yeah.

Assembly: beans, rice, thinly sliced cheddar, hot sauce, avocado, and some mixed lettuce from the farmer's market. I had cilantro in mine too. We forgot to cut up the green onion, but oh well. Note the random piece of purple lettuce peeking out of the end.

The result? One huge burrito for each of us, and three additional similarly huge burritos for the freezer. I left the avocado and lettuce out of the frozen versions, since those obviously would not do so well in the cold. But I can't say I'll mind smashing up a batch of guacamole or pouring a bunch of tomatillo salsa over a hot emergency burrito in the future.

MOST SATISFYING DINNER EVER.

Black bean cauliflower soup

It's been a crazy week. I've been working setup for Stitches West, a gigantic yarn convention, and am going to at least one yarn-related party this weekend before working teardown Sunday night. That means many hours of physical labor. Personally, I'm used to sitting in front of a desk or videocamera for the majority of my workday, so this is a huge and exhausting (although fun) change. It does mean I'm getting the best sleep I've had in ages, though.

Thank you all for your camera recs! I did a good bit of additional research, especially since I decided a smaller and more portable form factor was important to me. So I decided to take a step back from the ubiquitous Canon and go for the Panasonic Lumix GF3. Hey, why not learn to use a different camera interface while I have the opportunity? And a small DSLR with pancake lens seems to offer the best of both worlds.

So here's the situation. I have the camera in hand, but I haven't been in the kitchen since Tuesday, and all I want to do is lie on the couch and eat delivery pizza.

It's a good thing I'm the type of person to stash homemade soup in the freezer.

I make this same kind of simple pureed veg and bean soup over and over, as you may have noticed. It freezes beautifully and defrosts to an unchanged texture. By keeping the main base free of dairy, you can not only avoid any separation or crystallization in the freezer, but also feed vegans. Hooray!

Black bean cauliflower soup

olive oil
onion/garlic
celery
carrot
cauliflower
dry vermouth
cooked black beans
bean/veg broth
salt, pepper, thyme, sage, red pepper flake, bay leaf, etc.
typical garnish of cilantro, yogurt, and sriracha

If you're starting from dried beans, sort them, soak them overnight, and boil them in a fresh change of water for about an hour, or until tender. This will give you both beans and black bean broth. I was starting from previously cooked beans in their broth, which I had frozen into a 2-cup block. Yes, the freezer is my prep kitchen.

If you're using canned beans and thus need veg broth, start a pot of that first.

Okay. Chop up an onion and a couple cloves of garlic. Saute in some olive oil in a reasonably sized soup pot. While the onion is softening, scrub and chop a carrot and dice a stick or two of celery. Throw them into the pot, add a bit of salt, stir, and let cook on medium for about five minutes, or until tender.

While this is happening, tackle the cauliflower. Cut off any dark bits and chop the rest of the head (or as much cauliflower as you want) into florets. Add them to the pot, season with the herbs and spices of your choice--I used thyme, sage, red pepper flake, a bay leaf, and maybe some marjoram too--and cook for another five to eight minutes, stirring occasionally. You want the cauliflower to soften and also to pick up a bit of browning. Deglaze with vermouth when the pan gets too dry.

Next, add your black beans and broth. Since mine were frozen, I just threw the blocks into the pan and let them melt. I used about four cups of beans in broth, so that's roughly 2 cups apiece.

Bring everything to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for a good ten minutes. Puree off the heat with an immersion blender. Cook down to your preferred texture, correct any seasonings, and you are good to go.

Eat with the garnish of your choice and some delicious pita or toast. I obviously really like yogurt, sriracha, and cilantro as soup garnish, but I think a squeeze of lemon and a scattering of parsley would also be delicious. Also: cashew cream. I'm just saying. I may be needing some cashew cream in the next few days.

Put the ungarnished leftovers in the freezer for the next time you come home with absolutely no desire to spend any time over the stove. Hooray!

What foods do you store for emergency dinners?

Chickpea tomato couscous

Well, my camera has suddenly started writing invisible junk data to its memory card. It still takes pictures, but it won't store them. So I'm pretty happy that I've had a backlog of pictures hanging out waiting to be edited, aren't you?

It was a good run, ridiculous little Canon point-and-shoot. Hey, over five years' worth of service in the kitchen is pretty great, considering all the sauce and steam and oil in the mix, right? I'm thinking I will take a small step up instead of leaping into the land of complex equipment I don't really know how to use. If any of you guys have recommendations for mid-range cameras that work well for food photography, let me know!

Anyway. Lunchtime!

Instant couscous is one of my favorite options for a super-fast meal. It costs just about nothing from the bulk bins. It's not perishable, so you can keep a container in your desk at work and whip it out whenever you have a food emergency. It's surprisingly filling, and can be a meal in itself if necessary. It's exceptionally easy to make--all you really need is boiling water and a little salt and pepper. And, of course, it makes a perfect backdrop for nearly any mix of vegetables, beans, and sauce. This time I had chickpeas, tomato sauce, and some carrot and red pepper. Voila! Lunch.

Chickpea tomato couscous

couscous
garlic
olive oil
carrot
red bell pepper
cooked chickpeas
dry vermouth
tomato sauce
salt, pepper, red pepper flake, marjoram, oregano
parsley and green onion to garnish

Start out by making your couscous. Simply put as much couscous as you want to eat into a bowl, keeping in mind that it will expand by about half when cooked. Boil some water in your teapot and pour it over the couscous to cover by a finger's width. Add some salt, pepper, and a little drizzle of olive oil, cover the bowl with a clean tea towel, and set it aside. It will steam while you cook all the vegetables.

Warm a glug of olive oil in a saute pan. Add as much minced garlic as you like. I like plenty, so I used three or four cloves for my lone lunch serving. Let the garlic soften over medium heat while you scrub and grate a carrot and slice up a chunk of bell pepper.

Add the carrot, bell pepper, and a bit of salt, and cook your vegetables together, stirring occasionally, for about five minutes. When the vegetables are tender, add your chickpeas and season with pepper, red pepper flake, marjoram, and oregano. I used half a can of chickpeas, since I was only feeding myself, but you can easily up the amounts if needed. Stir everything together and cook for another three or four minutes. When the pan gets dry, deglaze with dry vermouth or some water.

Add your tomato sauce to the pan, stir, and bring to a simmer. Give everything a few minutes to cook before you taste and adjust the seasonings. Chickpeas can take a lot of flavor, so be prepared to add a bit more of everything. Continue to cook until the sauce has reduced to your desired thickness.

By this time your couscous should be finished steaming. Uncover the bowl and fluff with a fork. Top your couscous with a big spoonful of chickpeas and tomato. Garnish with chopped parsley and green onion.

Now eat it!

Since I used oregano and marjoram as my main herbs, this turned out slightly Italianate. The red pepper, carrot, and tomato made the overall profile a bit sweet, while the red pepper flake punched everything up with spice. It would be really easy to switch out the herbs and turn this into a spicy tomato curry, to mix up the vegetables with some celery or mushrooms, or to exchange the chickpeas for white beans and puree into fagioli-type sauce. It's totally up to you. I think that's my favorite thing about knowing how to cook--the ability to improvise lets you use your available ingredients to cater precisely to your tastes. It's so satisfying.

What's your favorite melange to serve over a bowl of delicious grains?

Chole palak

The quest for making good Indian food at home is well and certainly on. This week we made Manjula's chole palak, aka chickpeas and spinach, and it was good.

The recipe itself is fairly simple, and follows a pattern I've started to see as I learn to actually cook Indian food instead of relying on restaurants all the time. (Not that we've stopped frequenting the buffet up the street from our house. NOPE.) The secret appears to be frying the spice mixture in oil, so the flavors all leap out dramatically in the finished dish. Sounds good to me.

My only problem was that I hadn't thought ahead and made a yogurt sauce, so I just spooned some straight plain yogurt over my plate to give it some extra creamy dairy action. This worked well, but some additional cucumber and cilantro would have worked even better.

This was filling enough that John and I couldn't eat it all, even with no supplementary sides. Isn't that always how Indian food works out, though? You go to a restaurant, notice that your entree looks pretty tiny, and then can't eat more than half of it without feeling like you're going to burst. Well, that's what happened here as well. So we had leftovers! Hooray!

For my leftover breakfast, I quickly sauteed my chole palak with basmati rice and yogurt, then slid a fried egg on top. This worked amazingly well. I just broke up the egg and stirred everything together, so the yolk melded in almost invisibly and the bits of white provided a nice texture contrast. Who wouldn't want to boost the richness of a fairly austere bean-and-veg dish with a beautiful runny yolk? I ask you.

What new cuisines are you guys taking on?

Fooding, swift and sure

Whose week is not going to be completely crazy? Raise your hand.

Yeah, not me.

I'm going to release my product in T minus one week. Tomorrow I have to go vote. (Note: go vote, everybody in the US!) Wednesday I have to go into San Francisco. It's going to be this busy for a while, let's just say. So here is what I've been eating.

We made tacos with refried black beans and corn tortillas toasted over the gas jet. Shredded cabbage on top. Maybe some lime. Tacos are always a good emergency dinner.

Then I made migas and ate them with the leftover black beans. MORE MIGAS, PLEASE.

Pasta is a default food at our house. Baked pasta takes a little more effort, but it's worth it. This one is baked penne with marinara, red pepper, and spinach. There was also a lasagna that somehow escaped without a single picture.

On an even easier note, we bought a package of lavash and used it to make pizza with all the onions and peppers in the house. Lavash pizza is the ultimate emergency food if you like thin crust. I'm just saying.

And of course there is always toast. This time I had toast with labneh and the last of my first batch of pickled peppers--tangy and amazing. Fortunately, pickled peppers are one of the most instant pickles on the planet, so I threw together a new jar after I hit up the farmer's market yesterday. I'm going to have some delicious sandwiches, is what I'm saying.

What do you guys eat when you're too busy to do, um, anything?