English Peas, Spring Onions and Roasted Almonds

Just cooked English peas, sautéd spring onions and roasted, salted almonds are a delicious combination of tender sweet, sweet pungent, and crunchy just salty. You can set this side dish next to grilled fish or chicken or mashed potatoes and a roast. It's...

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Black Bean Soup

The black bean--the black turtle bean--may be small but it is meaty and flavorful and can be nearly turned into a meal on its own. It is the same frijol negro of the popular Mexican-American black bean burrito. The black bean is a staple in Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian, Cuban, and Caribbean cookery as well.

The black bean--Phaseolus vulgaris--is kidney shaped and just short of blocky looking with a cream-colored flesh, and, of course, a matt to shiny black skin.

Why is the black bean found in so many cuisines? Two reasons: it holds its shape when cooked, and its floury texture absorbs the flavors of other foods making it an easy match and complement to so many other dishes: vegetables, beef, pork, chicken, and fish.

The flavor of the black bean has been described as both sweet and earthy, like a mushroom; you decide. The turtle bean's distinctive color definitely adds drama to soups, salads, and casseroles.

Besides black bean and turtle bean, you may find this bean called Mexican black bean, Spanish black bean, and turtle soup bean.

You will never be at a loss for a black bean soup recipe. There are many, and they are all variations on a theme. Some recipes include fresh tomatoes or celery: ideal for summer when those add-in vegetables are in season. In the winter, substitute a root vegetable.

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How to Prepare and Cook Dried Beans

Dried beans eaten fresh meaning during the season just after they have been harvested and dried--will undoubtedly be the best tasting.

But a big plus for dried beans is that they have a long shelf life if stored in a dry, cool, airtight container away from sunlight. Quite easily, you can keep dried beans on hand for more than just a season or two after they have been dried.

Beans are packed with protein, vitamins, minerals and fiber, and they are low in fat. Beans--which are also known as pulses and are the edible seeds from plants belonging to the legume family--readily absorb the flavors of other foods. That means you can use beans as the base for many cooked dishes. That's why beans have been adopted by so many of the world's cuisines.

The preparation and cooking of dried beans is not difficult. It's worth trying as many different varieties of dried beans as you can. They don't all taste the same!

Here's some starter tips for preparing, cooking, and serving dried beans:

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Chickpeas

The chickpea can be used in appetizers, mixed salads, soups, main dishes, puréed, and ground and made into flour.

Garbanzo bean in Spain, pois chiche in France, ceci in Italy, hummus in the Middle East, gram in India, chickpea in the United States: by any name, the chickpea is a staple in cookery throughout much of the world.

The nutty flavor and creamy texture of the chickpea make it a robust and hearty addition to many dishes.

Whole chickpeas can be fried, roasted, and boiled. Fresh or dried chickpeas can be used like peas or beans, added to soups and stews. Shell then steam or boil chickpeas like peas or roast them like peanuts. Chickpeas can be used with grains as a protein-rich substitute. They are the main ingredient of hummus, the thick sauce usually served as a dip with pieces of pita.

Split chickpeas are known as chana dal in India. Mature chickpeas are canned in brine and used in salads in the United States, usually called garbanzo beans. The chickpea has more texture than other legumes and does not fall apart as easily.

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Piquant Wax Beans

Piquant is a flavor that can be spicy, tart, or pungent.

In this recipe that combines wax beans with chopped pimiento, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, and dry mustard, I think we are on the border between spicy and pungent.

The wax bean is a pale yellow variety of green bean. Sometimes called yellow snap bean, the wax bean gets its name from its waxy textured skin.

There are two varieties of wax bean you might want to try in your garden: ‘Mellow Yellow’ is crisp and sweet tasting—it’s not a big plant either; ‘Gold Mine’ is ultra-sweet and a big producer. Both produce beans that measure from 5 to 6 inches (13-15 cm) long.

The pimiento is a red heart-shaped sweet pepper that is sweeter, more succulent, and more aromatic than the red bell pepper.

Both the wax bean and the pimiento are late summer and early fall vegetables so they should be easy to find at your farm market this weekend.

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Green Beans with Garlic

Here is a simple recipe for les haricots verts à l’ail or green beans with garlic.

Both fresh green beans and garlic will be an easy find at the farm market this week. Serve this simple side dish with pasta, chicken, steak, or salmon.

This recipe comes from La Cuisine du Comté de Nice by Jacques Médecin. If you are from Nice, France the name, no doubt, rings a bell. Médecin was the mayor of Nice and also a chef in that city for many years. (We won’t go into politics, but Médecin did spend some time in prison after being mayor. He died in 1998.)

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Beans

green bean

Beans, beans, beans!

If there were a "best of beans" award, which would you pick?

End of summer is truly the culmination of bean season. Even the wax bean--which prefers cooler weather than most other beans--is about at the farm market now.

How to make sense of all these beans and all those bean names? Here's a bean primer to help you through bean season:

Beans are legumes whose seeds or pods are eaten, but are not classified as peas or lentils (which are also legumes). For the record, legumes are plants with double-seamed pods containing a single row of seeds.

Beans can be divided into two main groups: those that can be eaten pod and all, called green or snap beans, and others that are shelled for their seeds and eaten either fresh or dried, called shell or dried beans.

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Yard-long bean

If you wait for the yard-long bean to become a yard long, you will probably have waited too long.

The best tasting yard-long beans are usually about 18-inches (45 cm) long, which means the best tasting yard-long beans are young. Even so “tender” and “sweet” are not adjectives that are commonly used to describe even young yard-long beans. Rather the yard-long bean—which also goes by the name asparagus bean and Chinese long bean—is a bean that is dense and solid at half its size, not crisp and juicy. The yard-long bean, simply put, is not a substitute for the green bean.

Fall is the peak season for yard-long beans which is perfect because these are beans well suited for deep-frying, stir-frying and braising. On a brisk autumn day, yard-long beans are good eating with vegetable or meat stews, with fried rice, black beans, sausage, roast pork, curry or chili sauce. The taste of yard-long beans intensifies with cooking; they become nutty, chewy and firm.

Where exactly the yard-long bean got its start is unclear. It might have been Africa; it might have been Asia. That the yard-long bean is sometimes called a Chinese long bean tells us that it has been a staple in that country for thousands of years, probably to pre-historic times. Today, you will find yard-long beans at Asian produce markets and probably at your farm market as well.

When choosing yard-long beans, pick those that are thin and relatively long to 18 inches. The peas inside should not be developed, so avoid beans that are bulging. Yard-long beans will not be crisp like a green bean, but they should not be limp either.

There are both pale green and dark green yard-long beans. The paler bean will be sweeter tasting and more tender than the dark green variety. The dark green bean is stronger flavored and more firm. So you can choose the bean best suited to your taste and to the meal you plan to serve

Before cooking, cut off both ends of the bean then cut it into lengths of 2 to 6 inches (5-15 cm).

Yard-long beans will keep in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days. They should be wrapped in a paper towel and placed in a plastic bag. Beans that have grown too old will turn limp and rusty colored.

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