But I am still searching for good keeper recipes that will give me more versatility with my bulk collection. My problem is that for any one bulk item, say pinto beans, there's only one thing I know how to make with it, say chili. So I'm throwing open my cupboard to comments and advice. I'll list what I've got and the one thing I know how to make. What do you like to make? Let's share!
- Millet: Replacement for brown rice--basically a plain starch side dish.
- Brown rice: Use this all the time as a side dish. Or in macrobiotic casserole.
- Aduki beans: Boil them up and add squash or sweet potato, then refry with chili powder as a taco or burrito filling.
- Black beans: #1 bean in 3-bean chili.
- Pinto beans: #2 bean in 3-bean chili
- Kidney beans: #3 bean in 3-bean chili. These are my favorite cuz they're big & meaty!
- White beans: Use to bulk up quinoa salad. Recently tried in slow cooker with chicken.
- buckwheat: Dislike the taste unless it's in my wakame buckwheat soup
- quinoa: Use for quinoa salad/tabbouleh.
- rolled oats: Oatmeal! Eat this almost every morning. Sometimes put oats in apple crisp.
- popcorn: for nights when I don't have ice cream
- white rice: got it for a dinner party, no clue what it's for
- lentils: boil with garlic and take for lunch 4 times a week--lots of hot sauce added
- sweet brown rice: the other part of my lentil lunch
- barley: Use in barley mushroom soup
- flour: Use in either muffins or pizza crust. I mix & match different flours.
- mung beans: see my sprouting experiment--made for Pad Thai
- bulgur: tabbouleh
6 comments:
You've got a great collection!
One idea that came to mind to use 2 of your staples is homemade black bean burgers. Take 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups cooked black beans and mush them up in a bowl. Add 1 cup of cooked brown rice, 1 minced garlic clove, 2 Tbsp. ketchup (or salsa), 1 egg and salt & pepper to taste. (You can spice them up with chili powder or cumin, if your dining partners wouldn't mind.)
Mix every thing up and form into patties. Saute about 4 minutes on each side until evenly browned.
Yum!
Thanks for the recipe VW, sounds really good!
My mom also sent some ideas, though she couldn't figure how to work the comment machine:
Any beans -- white, black, aduki -- turn into soup. Saute onions, add beans, plus extra liquid, plus any canned tomato stuff, plus any good spices, bay leaf, and simmer. Then puree down into a nice thick soup. A bit of sausage in it is really good (unpureed).
flour -- pancakes, waffles, tarts
rice -- fried rice; filler in meatloaf
oats -- oatcakes
buckwheat -- only good in pancakes as far as I'm concerned
lentils -- added to your Indian cans, plus liquid, they make great soup.
Prof Kitty, listen to Mom! My sentiments exactly -- if it's a bean, it goes into a soup with all the other beans. The ultra-thrifty, ultra-low cal version contains nothing but beans, salt, water, and a few whole dried red chiles for pizzazz. This mess freezes well. It's what I lived on most winters in Chicago: a pot of beans on the stove for a week meant I didn't have to schlepp through the snow to a grocery store. The side bonus of filling up only on bean soup day after day? It's quite slimming if that's all you eat!
White beans: if they're cannellini, have you tried throwing them in the slow cooker with poultry italian sausage (casings removed, peices), some sage, and a can of italian diced tomatoes? Add 4 cups water and cook on low for 8-9 hours whatever..it's really good with fresh bread and a salad!
also, cooked black beans mashed with cilantro and sauted onions makes a great veggie taco filler. Bon Apetit Feb. has the recipe in corn tortillas. Also-I'm on the hunt for a really good black beans & rice recipe.
quinoa--can you do a risotto type dish with that..cooking in broth with mushrooms etc...might be good?
Thanks GG and Alice! I'm working on a bean soup right now. Gonna just throw in what I've got and revel in the cheap warming stick-to-my ribs goodness!
i recently made boston baked beans with small white beans. i liked it largely because it tasted nothing like all my other bean dishes. a nice sweet change. i used a recipe that included some brown sugar and molasses and you bake it for 8 hours. it was fun and smelled good and delicious. if you want the recipe let me know!
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