Pops De Milk » beans

Bean and Veggie Stew

Pops De Milk — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:43:01 +0000

Oh it’s been such a long time since I last posted! I was away for the holidays and since coming back a week ago, I’ve had to fight the immense feeling of procrastination. It’s been a tough battle but I’ve finally come through.

The holidays were wonderful and delicious but oh so unforgiving to my figure. One of the most common things people put on their New Years resolutions is to lose weight. I am one of those people and every year I add it to my list of goals but every year I end up putting that goal back on the list because I was unsuccessful. This year I’ve altered that goal. Instead of writing “Lose Weight” at the top of my list I’ve written ”Eat healthier.” It’s realistic, it’s safe, and I won’t feel pressured and later feel inclined to give up.

To start with my healthier lifestyle, I made this tasty, satisfying, and amazingly nutritious vegetarian stew.

Makes about 6 servings

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 onion, chopped

6oz mushrooms, chopped

1/2 red and green peppers, chopped

2 carrots, minced

14oz canned tomatoes, crushed or diced

4 or 5 pickled peppers, chopped

1 can mixed beans, drained

8oz red kidney beans, drained

1 can green lentils, drained

About 1 cup frozen corn

About 1 cup beer

Generous squeeze of mustard

Cayenne pepper to taste

1/4 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp cumin

Heat a bit of olive oil in a large pot and sauté the onion, celery, and garlic. Once the onion is soft, add the mushrooms, peppers, and carrot. Cook until mushrooms are soft and then add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil then lower heat, cover, and cook on low for about 20 minutes. Remove lid and continue to cook on low for another 20 minutes. Serve with a bit of shredded cheese and cilantro.

What I did with a Tex-Mex Mushroom Ragout

Pops De Milk — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:56:17 +0000

A few days ago I made a vegetarian dinner from the Weight Watchers Turn Around Program book. It’s called Tex-Mex Mushroom Ragout and this is how it’s made:

Makes 2 Servings:

1 onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 lb fresh cremini or white button mushrooms, quartered

1/2 lb fresh portobello mushrooms, stems removed and diced

1 (15oz) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained

1 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chiles

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 fresh ground pepper

4 tsp fresh lime juice

In a pan, cook onion until soft, about a minute. Add the garlic and stir constantly for about 20 secs then add the mushrooms. Cook until mushrooms have released their liquid and then reabsorbed it, about 5 mins. Stir in the beans, chiles, spices, and salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened (I’m not sure what they mean by this because I didn’t notice any “thickening”) for about 15 mins. Serve and squeeze some of the lime juice on top. I sprinkled some shredded Havarti cheese.

It was tasty and flavourful…but not as fantastic as I thought it could be. It’s more of a side dish than as a main meal as the book says it should be. It’s very good because it has lots of protein and fibre but if you’re eating a whole bowl of the stuff, it can be a little boring. Needless to say I didn’t eat a full serving and I put the rest away in a container.

Two days later my little sister came over and she was hungry. “You have food at your place right? I’m reeeeeaaaally hungry.” Unfortunately I hadn’t done any groceries yet and I didn’t have much in my fridge except the leftover ragout. I brought out the container and told my sister to try it but she didn’t seem too keen on it, “Hm, smells spicy…do you have anything else?” Sigh.

1/4 of a jar of Classico pasta sauce

3/4 of a can of diced tomatoes

generous splash of heavy cream

1 1/2 servings of leftover Tex-Mex Ragout

Make 2 servings of whatever pasta you like, I used angel hair. Heat the ragout in a pot along with the tomatoes and pasta sauce, stir. Once it’s heated, add the cream and stir until it’s all blended and heated through. Serve over noodles.

So very yummy! I think I’ll be making more pasta sauces like this one.

Bean Burger

Pops De Milk — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:28:49 +0000

I was flipping through my vegetarian cookbook, waiting for something to grab my attention. My eyes were drawn to a bean burger recipe I knew I had to try. Not only was I attracted to the photo, but I was also happy to note the cooking and prep time were minimal.

Bean Burgers

Makes four patties (so the book says)

1 tbsp sunflower oil, plus extra for brushing

1 onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

4 oz white mushrooms, finely chopped

15 oz canned pinto or red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

2 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (I used cilantro)

salt and pepper

all-purpose flour, for dusting

hamburger buns

Preheat broiler to medium high. Heat the oil over medium heat and add the onion, stirring frequently for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, coriander and cumin and cook for another minute. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until all the liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Mash the beans with a fork and then stir the beans into the mushroom mixture and add salt and pepper. Divide the mixture equally into 4 portions, dust lightly with flour and shape into flat, round patties. Brush with oil and cook under broiler for 4-5 minutes on each side. I served the burgers with a side of McCain Xtra Crispy Superfries, which by the way are awesome.

Here’s what I did wrong:

1. When I tried to mash the beans with a fork I quickly realized it would take an hour to mash them that way so I brought out my magic bullet and put it to work. I may have pureed the beans a little too much though. They were too soft, like bean dip.

2. I made the patties too thick. I probably could have made 6 patties.

3. I forgot to grease the baking sheet.

What came out of the oven were a couple of very soft bean cakes. They looked nothing like the burger in the book; juicy and meat-like. However, they smelled incredible so I ignored the fact that they didn’t look amazing and I proceeded to scrape, slide and nudge the resistant patties onto burger buns. I dressed the burgers with cheese, tomato and pickled peppers. Essentially I was eating bean dip in a burger bun. Really, really amazing and delicious bean dip. Jay said they were more like Sloppy Joes. He has given me an idea for a future project to make these bean burgers again but they will be Sloppy Joes with pico de gallo. Mexican Sloppy Joes?