Cranberry Bean Bruschetta

Way back when, my sister introduced me to cranberry beans and a lovely little snack made with said beans.  She simmered the cranberry beans with garlic and water (and bacon or parmesan rind or tomato or...this recipe is flexible) with a sprinkling of sage at the end--perfect for topping little slices of toasted baguette.  The beans take a bit unfairly long to cook, at least 40 minutes, but if you have time, the result is savory and delicious.

So whenever I see healthy cranberry beans at the grocery store or farmers' market, I grab a bunch to make this cranberry bean topping.  Haha that's a lie. I love how that sentence made me seem like this person that cheerfully roams around markets with a cute little basket on her arm, blissfully caressing all the produce, having a little go-to recipe for each vegetable that she can make in her sleep. Whatever.  In the 10 years or so since my sister showed me this dish, I've made it about 4 times.  How's that for frequency.

You'll need:

• 3/4 lb to 1 lb of fresh cranberry beans in the pod
• Enough water or chicken stock to cover beans in small pot
• 1 to 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• About a 2-inch square piece of parmesan or one slice of bacon, diced
• 1 or 2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
• About 5 medium-sized sage leaves, thinly sliced
• Baguette slices, about 1/4-inch thick and toasted

Shuck your cranberry beans (is it shucking beans? Some other term? I don't know.).  Never seen a cranberry bean? Here you go.

Beautiful, aren't they? Well, enjoy those cranberry stripes while they last, they disappear in the cooking.

Place beans in a small pot with enough water to cover by 1/2 inch. Throw in the garlic cloves.  I threw in the parmesan later because I initially forgot it, but this would be the time to put in the parmesan rind or bacon (or hell, both).

Turn heat to high until water is boiling, then lower heat to a simmer.  Simmer, covered, for about 40 minutes or until beans are tender, checking every once in a while to make sure water doesn't get too low.

When beans are tender but not mushy, throw in the diced tomato.

Simmer, uncovered, for about 15 more minutes until the mixture is a nice brown color, and everything looks melded together.  Fish out the parmesan rind, if using, since it will be a floppy mess by now.

Sprinkle with sage, and load that topping on your crostini. Or bruschetta. I don't know the difference. I am talking out of my ass.

You can make this with other beans as well, and with dried beans. But don't expect me to give you directions on that.  I've only made this 4 times.

Ta-da!

"Chickpeas Cooked in a Moghlai-Style"

I put the title in quotes because that's the name of the recipe from the cookbook World Ve$*%&(# by Madhur Jaffrey.  Okay, okay, the title is World Vegetarian, I just felt really weird admitting that I had a cookbook with the word "vegetarian" in the title. But since we have been cooking so much veggie food lately, I figured I'd treat myself to a veggie cookbook.  Because, did I tell you, that this whole thought process conveniently coincided with a little spending spree of mine? Yipee.


Jaffrey uses dried beans for all her recipes and has instructions on soaking and cooking them, but I'm lazy and wanted to cook this in one night, so soaking overnight and cooking chickpeas for an additional 2 hours was just not in my future. I know it's more expensive to buy canned beans, but I kinda don't give a shit.


Recipe adapted from Madhur Jeffrey in aforesaid and now unmentionable book 

• four 14 oz cans of garbanzo beans/chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 5 TBS peanut, canola or safflower oil (basically something that can stand high heat)
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 small cinnamon sticks
• 6 cardamom (the recipe calls for cardamom pods, but they didn't have that in the grocery store and hell, I was happy that they even had whole cardamom--by the way if I am talking about cardamom completely incorrectly, please keep it to yourself. I have no desire to learn.)
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• one 2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 TBS ground cumin
• 1 1/2 TBS ground coriander
• 7 to 8 oz plain yogurt (full fat)
• 1 plum tomato, finely chopped (it will basically be a mushy mess, which is fine because the recipe called for 5 TBS tomato puree and I wasn't bringing out the food processor for 5 TBS)
• 2 tsp tomato paste (optional--I wanted to up the color and tomato flavor)
• plenty of salt to taste (it will probably take more salt than you think--the original recipe calls for 2.5 tsp, which is quite a lot)
• 1 TBS garam masala
• 1 TBS toasted cumin seeds (put them in a skillet and heat on stove over medium heat for just a minute or two--this stuff toasts really fast.  If you don't have whole cumin seeds, just up the previous ground cumin by a few tsp)
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest (original recipe calls for amchoor powder, which I don't have, and somehow I got it in my head that amchoor powder adds tang to a dish, so I substituted lemon zest.  I know, makes total sense)
• pinch of cayenne, or to taste
• 1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro

Serves 8.

Yeah, no SHIT that's a lot of ingredients.  

Heat oil in large pot over medium high heat.  Place in bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, and cardamom.

Stir for about 30 seconds and then add the onion.

Stir the onion until brown around the edges, anywhere from 8-12 minutes. Just keep an eye out.  The below isn't the best picture, but after getting impatient at the 8 minute mark that the suckers weren't browning, I turned up the heat, illogically became less watchful, and my onions were a little more than browned around the edges.

Moving on.  Add in the ginger and garlic.

Stir for about 1 minute, then add the cumin and coriander.  Stir for just a few seconds.

Then add the yogurt, 1 TBS at a time.  Add the next TBS after each TBS is well incorporated.  The original recipe called for 1/2 cup yogurt--I used almost double that amount because yogurt usually comes in 6 to 8 oz containers.  So mine may look a little more...cottage cheese-y.

I know, appetizing, eh? Well hold on, it gets better. And your kitchen will be smelling amazing by this point.


Add in tomato and tomato paste, if using (the paste is not pictured below).  Cook for about 2 minutes.

Now add the chickpeas, salt, garam masala, lemon zest, cumin seeds, and cayenne.  Add enough water (probably a bit more than 2 cups) to barely cover the chickpeas.

Bring to boil, and then lower heat and simmer.  The original recipe says to simmer for about 15 minutes, but I would simmer it for much, much more (this may be because I didn't have bean soaking liquid to thicken everything).  I probably simmered for about 1 hour, every once in a while adding in a little more water.  But you don't have to do it for that long--30 minutes should evaporate enough water and get it to a nice stew-y consistency.

Stir in cilantro, reserving some to top with at the end.  Serve chickpeas over rice.

Ta-da!  I gotta admit, though, something was missing.  It wasn't quite soupy/saucy enough, and there was something definitely missing.  A something which makes this chickpea dish at our nearby Indian restaurant sooo good and savory.  I might try this again, but after some further research into what I'm missing.  If anyone has suggestions, please let me know.