Showing posts with label broad beans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label broad beans. Show all posts
Monday, June 2, 2014
QUICK, LIGHT AND LEMONY GREEK-STYLE ARTICHOKE HEART AND BEAN STEW
I bought a couple of jars of Kirkland artichoke hearts in water at Costco last week. (We regularly buy their marinated artichoke hearts-- so good! They aren't as acidic as other brands I've purchased.) I had in mind some sort of Greek vegetable stew. At first I was thinking of Veganized Italian Sausages, Potatoes & Artichoke Hearts in Tomato Broth (recipe here), but I felt like something lemony.
This recipe is a new, easy, lighter take on a classic Greek dish. The traditional version would contain about 1 cup (!) of extra-virgin olive oil. We just can’t consume that much fat in one meal, so I used just a little oil for flavour, and simmered the stew in a rich vegan broth (like Better Than Bouillon No-Chicken Vegan Soup Base) instead. This stew is full of nutrition and flavour and takes only about 30 minutes to make. It's very satisfying, too.
NOTE: Green fava or broad beans are traditional in this stew, but, if you don’t have access to them, I find that green garbanzo beans (see this post) or green soybeans (edamame) make good substitutes in many recipes. (I used green garbanzo beans this time.)
This recipe is a new, easy, lighter take on a classic Greek dish. The traditional version would contain about 1 cup (!) of extra-virgin olive oil. We just can’t consume that much fat in one meal, so I used just a little oil for flavour, and simmered the stew in a rich vegan broth (like Better Than Bouillon No-Chicken Vegan Soup Base) instead. This stew is full of nutrition and flavour and takes only about 30 minutes to make. It's very satisfying, too.
NOTE: Green fava or broad beans are traditional in this stew, but, if you don’t have access to them, I find that green garbanzo beans (see this post) or green soybeans (edamame) make good substitutes in many recipes. (I used green garbanzo beans this time.)
BRYANNA’S QUICK, LIGHT AND LEMONY GREEK-STYLE
ARTICHOKE HEART AND BEAN STEW
Serves 4 as a main dish
2 tablespoons olive
oil
16 artichoke hearts (bottoms) in
water from a jar or can (or frozen, thawed),
drained and cut in half
4 medium carrots,
scrubbed and sliced into 1/4-inch “coins”
2 bunches of green
onions (about 12-14), trimmed and thinly sliced
3 cups frozen shelled
broad (fava) beans OR green garbanzo beans (see this post) OR edamame (green soybeans), thawed
and drained (Or use any of these beans in
their fresh form, but blanch them in boiling water for a minute or two and
drain.)
1/2 a bunch of fresh
dill, stripped off stems and finely-chopped OR 1 tablespoon dried dill weed
2 cups really good
vegan “chicken” broth
Juice of 2 lemons
1 tablespoon flour
Salt and
freshly-ground pepper to taste
Garnish: Lemon slices, sprigs of dill
Heat the oil in a large sauté pan or deep skillet. Add the artichoke heart halves and the carrots and sauté over medium high heat for about 5 minutes. Add the green onions and the beans of your choice. Sauté the mixture for about 2 minutes. Add the dill and broth. Bring to a boil, lower heat to a simmer, cover and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the carrots are just tender enough.
Whisk together the lemon juice
and flour and stir into the pan. Stir
until the broth thickens a bit. Taste
for salt and add pepper as desired.
Nutrition (per serving): 302.6
calories; 22% calories from fat; 7.7g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 485.0mg
sodium; 1064.3mg potassium; 49.7g carbohydrates; 15.0g fiber; 7.7g sugar; 34.7g
net carbs; 15.2g protein.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
FOOD PHOTOS AND EXPERIMENTS FROM THIS WEEK
I made the following white bread loaf (it does have some oat bran in it) just as an experiment to see how little yeast I could get away with (most bread machine recipes call for WAY too much yeast, which does NOT improve the flavor!). For this loaf, I used only 1/2 tsp. yeast in total. I made a sponge (loose batter) with all of the water, yeast and some of the flour and let it rise in the ABM container for 6 hours, before adding the remaining ingredients and baking it. Look how it rose! The crust was nice and crunchy.
It tasted good for white bread, but was actually a little TOO fluffy for my liking! Here's the recipe:
Printable Recipe
BRYANNA’S “NOT QUITE WHITE” BREAD MACHINE BREAD
2 lb. (sponge method)
This can be used as basic bread for many variations. NOTE: This is the machine I have.
Sponge:
Mix for 5 minutes on dough cycle, then unplug and leave overnight, or for 6-12 hours:
1 and 1/2 c. water
1/2 tsp. dry active baking yeast (or 1/3 tsp. instant yeast)
2 c. unbleached flour (use bread flour in USA)
After rising the sponge, add:
4 tsp. brown sugar
2 T. plus 2 tsp. oil
1 and 3/4 tsp. salt
2 c. unbleached flour (use bread flour in USA)
1/3 c. whole wheat flour (or oat bran)
Set on the Basic Cycle, Dark Crust. Check the dough during the first knead to make sure that it is neither too dry, not too wet. If it’s too dry, add water by the tablespoonful, letting it knead in, until it looks right. If it’s too wet, do the same with flour.
If you want a more attractive top crust to the bread, 5 minutes before the bread is due to bake (I set my kitchen timer to remind me of this), you can make a decorative slash in the top of the bread with a razor blade, and you can also glaze the bread with some soymilk, using a pastry brush, or sprinkle the top with flour.
Cover the “window” in the top of your machine with foil, so that the top of the bread will brown properly. Remove the bread immediately from the machine when done, placing on a rack to cool thoroughly. This will insure a crisp crust.
Dinner the other night was Swiss chard from our garden (yum!) and tofu kebabs with peppers, mushrooms and onion. I had soaked the extra-firm tofu cubes in the Breast of Tofu (or Crispy Marinated Tofu from World Vegan Feast) marinade for several days, anticipating a meal such as this. I just threaded them on skewers with the veggies, slathered on barbecue sauce (my Bourbon BBQ Sauce ) and grilled them, serving them on a bed of Basmati rice.
I just had to post yet another picture of a wonderful organic, fair-trade soy cappuccino made with my homemade soymilk! I always get such lame foam when I order soy cappuccinos in restaurants! I'm wondering if it's maybe because I use a cheap plunger-type milk foamer? I'm thinking that maybe foaming with steam dilutes the foam???
Last, but not least, two incarnations (above)of my experiments with Egyptian Felafel (ta’amiyya), which is made with fava or broad beans instead of chickpeas. Spice Island Vegan raved about the recipe from Canadian author Habeeb Salloum's EXCELLENT books, "From the Lands of Figs and Olives" and "Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & North Africa".
I have a hard time getting dried favas, but I often use split yellow peas instead of dried favas in soups, etc., because, when they cook down to a puree they taste very similar. So, I substituted split yellow peas (cup for cup, and I did soak them) in the felafel recipe and it was great. However, next time I go to Vancouver I will get some fava beans and compare. These felafel are very light, quite different than the chickpea ones. Actually, I could not shape the batter-- it was too runny-- so I just dropped little spoonfuls of it into the oil.
Enjoy!
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