Fight Back Friday post
In the quest to keep eating while not spending much money, we’ve resorted to a lot of beans and rice lately. More rice than beans to be honest, as I seem to be the only one who loves baked and refried beans. In my quest for variety, I dug into Nourishing Traditions again and did some wandering. French-style baked beans, soaked and then baked in oil, sounded delightful. Having no oven this week, yet again (that’s another story of measuring tapes and overly-complicated websites which will likely remain untold), I had to use the oven downstairs in the empty apartment below us. Thank God for empty apartments :).
SO. I started soaking. Given the oil-cooking, these babies needed a double soaking, and in retrospect could probably have used a third, or a couple days of sprouting. I get ahead of myself.
4c small white beans to start.
pour boiling water over them, leave in a warm place for 12 hours. Drain and repeat.
In case you’re wondering? Don’t put your water on to boil in your only 2Q saucepan and go to bed. It’s not a good idea. Thankfully dear husband was up working and smelled something a bit funny. By then it was too late to rescue the pan, bah humbug.
Back to the recipe. Right.
Drain them again.
In a flameproof casserole, heat and mix:
- the beans
- 1 c. extra virgin olive oil
- 1 sm can tomato paste
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed
- several sprigs of fresh thyme, tied together (i subbed about 1/2 t. dried)
- salt and pepper to taste
Bake @ 300 for about 6 hours, stirring occasionally. If you’re not running down the steps to another apartment to do the stirring, count your blessings :). You can add olive oil if they seem dry. They’re done when soft, but not mushy like beans cooked in liquid.
Remove thyme. Then fold in:
- 2 med red onions, diced small
- juice of 2 lemons
mmmmmmmmmm. delicious, and a bit deadly in typical bean-reaction department. fynn got to use his favorite fart word frequently in the next 24 hours :) despite his pose, they all liked them pretty well actually! the’ll be made again, hopefully not as the main dish, they’re better as a side I think. Enjoy!
