Phew, it's been a rough month! I've been cooking, we've been eating, but frankly I just was not up to sharing. So, thanks for your patience and I hope that things will get back to a normal posting schedule now that the end of the school year stress is over.
Beans, we eat a lot of beans in our house. I love them because they are cheap, nutritious and very filling. I was never a big bean eater growing up, the extent of my love affair with beans stopped at the good old American can of pork n beans. We had refried beans for our taco night, but always from a can. Once I met my husband's mother and experienced what fresh beans were all about I was hooked. Sometimes though, I want a cold bean side dish and that's what we had last night.
Creamy fiesta three bean salad
1 1/2 cup dried beans, assorted varieties, sorted rinsed and placed in a crock pot
water to cover by 3"
1/4 cup veganaise
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon taco seasoning mix (check the label to eliminate the nasty stuff or make your own mix)
1/2 cup loosely packed cilantro
2 cloves garlic
1/4 onion, roughly chopped
2 tomatillos, husks removed, washed and stem removed
Cover the dry beans with water and cook on low for 7-8 hours until done, but still firm. Drain the beans and set aside, reserve the juice if desired for another use.
In a high power blender combine the veganaise through the tomatillos and blend on high until well combined. This will make more sauce than you need for this dish, save the rest for green salad, a marinade or a dip for veggies. Add the sauce to the beans and toss well to coat, set aside or refrigerate.
You can add whatever other veggies to this dish you'd like. Last night I tossed in the last little bit of my frozen corn and chopped up a roma tomato. The time before I added diced raw zucchini. Diced avocado would be good too. It's limited only by what you've got on hand and need to use up. It could even be turned into a main dish if you wanted by adding cooked chicken, shrimp or tofu, which sounds like a good alternative to dinner salads during the **hopefully** warm weather on it's way for us.
Oh, I love love love love love beans! And this looks awesome. Now - I don't have a crock pot. I did but never used it. Do you use yours just for beans? I cannot justify getting another one w/o using it more. Help. In the meantime I will be making this w/ canned beans.
ReplyDeleteI use the crock pot primarily for beans but during the winter it gets used for other things too. I actually had an old hand me down from my Mom that was a great size for beans but the lid broke, so I've been using my large size pot. I'm in the market for another little one though
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