Tomato Braised Beans with Feta and Oregano Pesto
like, but not at all, a pizza
things you’ll need: large white lima beans (from dry or substitute canned white beans), onion, garlic/shallot, 28oz can of tomatoes (whole or diced), oregano, parsley, optional chili flake, olive oil, feta or your preferred cheese, salt and pepper.
Deb Perelman, of Smitten Kitchen and of my heart, came up with the name Pizza Beans to sell her young child on a tomato braised bean gratin. The rest is history. It is something like Gigantes Plaki, but felt more like an eggless bean shakshuka. Bon Appétit has a great guide to various riffs on pizza beans (no paywall). I took most of this from Laurence Jossel’s recipe at Food & Wine and then left off the bread crumbs, deciding to eat it directly on the bread, like Deb’s pizza beans. I reheated the leftovers with a little cream and turned it into a pasta sauce with farfalle and wilted spinach, which I also HIGHLY recommend.
incidentally gluten-free (if you don’t eat it on bread), vegetarian, and vegan (if you leave out the cheese or use a vegan substitute)
Chapter 239
Either you have thought about giving up meat or have already. It’s a solid choice for so very many reasons. The politics, the ethics, your health, and your budget all seem to be pushing you in that direction. As someone who may love bacon and Bolognese, it’s not an easy choice.
Maybe you just dial back. Maybe you stop looking at meat as a centerpiece and start serving it on the side where tiny iceberg salads used to live. Maybe, as with all habits you wish to break, you just start placing healthy limits.
Maybe you’re not into labels or the word “flexitarian”. Maybe you stick to fish or declare one entire meal Meatless. Maybe declare several days. Maybe make them all meatless other than the specific days you set aside for particularly delicious and dearly missed meats.
You don’t have to be a full vegetarian. You don’t have to go completely vegan. You don’t have to cut everything out if you don’t want to. You’ve embraced a lot of spectrums in your lifetime and have gotten much better and boundaries, self-care, and all that healthy adult stuff that you are supposed to be doing.
However you decide to approach your relationship with meat, you know that beans are always there for you. They don’t mind if you cook them with Bacon or Kombu, they will continue showing up to the party in your belly with all their nutritional love and care.
You used to think that a pot of beans was a big production. You are glad that you got over it. Obviously, your love affair with Rancho Gordo helped make beans a regular part of your culinary landscape. You are glad to know that any dried beans can be made 1-4 days ahead of their use. It changed your whole bean game when you started freezing cooked beans in 2-cup portions so you could have them when you need them, without the wait. Maybe you even bought an electric pressure cooker for its bean-making magic.
Make a pot of large white lima beans however you make beans (or the way Steve Sando makes beans) on the stove, in the oven, using a pressure cooker, or crockpot.
Reserve 2-3 cups of beans in their broth (about 1 ½ - 2 cups of broth) and freeze or store the rest for soups and bean salads.
In a sizable oven-safe pan, sauté onions in olive oil until translucent. Add garlic/shallot and cook until fragrant. Strain a 28oz can of tomatoes and reserve the juice for some other use (chop whole tomatoes or use diced). Sauté the tomatoes until they begin to darken a little in color. Add the reserved bean broth, deglazing the pan, and a few tablespoons of chopped oregano (and parsley, since you have it). Bring to a boil, then simmer until reduced to a thick sauciness (maybe an hour).
In the meantime, freeze the strained tomato juice in an ice tray to use later or don’t. If there is extra bean broth, freeze it in an ice tray to add in place of stock… or don’t.
Once things are mostly put away and almost done simmering, preheat the oven to 425. Make a quick pesto in a blender/food processor/mortar and pestle using a couple of Tablespoons each of oregano and parsley, a little garlic/shallot, and a ¼ cup of good olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste.
Once the tomato/bean broth mix has been reduced to 2ish cups (or as reduced as it pleases you), toss in your beans and then salt and pepper to taste. If you realize that your pan might be too small for all of your beans and sauce, feel free to mix it all in a small baking dish.
Crumble feta all over the top and bake on the top-ish rack until the cheese has browned, 20-40 minutes.
Drizzle the pesto all over everything. Serve with crusty bread for scooping or rice for spooning. Eat almost all of it in one sitting while not missing meat even a little bit.
If you haven’t noticed already, most of the dishes I write about are vegetarian/vegan or easily adaptable. I am absolutely an omnivore but have generally been easing away from meat for a variety of reasons including environmental impact and health. Honestly though, mostly for budgetary reasons. Whatever your reasons, here are some other bean and/or balanced vegetarian dishes to consider:
I adapt and use these recipes in my very regular rotation:
Lentils and Eggs (which is what I do with the leftovers from above)
Sweet Potato and Black Beans with Rice or this one with Cauliflower and Cashew Crema that I LOVE
Cauliflower and Coconut Curry (there is a quart in my freezer right now)
Lentil and Butternut Squash Stew (I just made this recently with brown lentils, no chickpeas, and used ras el hanout. I cooked it until it was almost a soup and served it with mint, cilantro, and yogurt. It’s now the only thing I want to eat.)
Other ideas:
If you are looking for hearty show-stoppers, try Mushroom and Kidney Bean Bourguignon or Lentil Shepherd’s Pie.
Any suggestions? Let me know!
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