Mixed Bean Salad

This week I paged through my Jerusalem cookbook for some inspirations, and landed on this lovely yellow and green bean salad that includes lots of garden herbs and capers. It was delicious and would make a really great salad to bring to some kind of potluck event because in addition to being tasty and herbacious, it looks really good and is best served at room temp. 

My general go-to for green beans is to steam them, coat them in butter, salt and nutritional yeast, and eat. This was a bit fussier, which I found pleasant. My mom sat at the table and prepared the herbs and green beans while I chopped the peppers, dried the capers, and boiled the beans for the appropriate number of minutes before "refreshing" them in ice water. (My mom is also working on a puzzle, which you can see in the corner of the photo. These are good activities for someone who cannot put weight on one leg and is currently confined to my 600 square foot house due to stairs at each door!)

Bean salad along with open faced BLT on my tiny pieces of Teff sourdough toast!

I followed this recipe pretty closely, except the following: I did not want to turn on the oven, so rather than roast the red peppers I sauteed them on the stove top; I used my garden peppers, which were 2 banana peppers and 1 mini red pepper that was a bit spicy; I did not have green onions and instead dug up green onion too-big bulbs from the garden and chopped those up. :)

Serves 4

• 10 oz yellow beans, trimmed (if unavailable, double the green bean amt)
• 10 oz green beans, trimmed
• 2 red peppers cut into 1/4" strips
• 3 T olive oil, plus 1 tsp for the peppers
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
• 6 T capers, rinsed and patted dry
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1/3 c tarragon, coarsely chopped
• 2/3 c chervil leaves, or a mix of dill and parsley (I had the latter)
• grated zest of 1 lemon
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pan with plenty of water to a boil and add the yellow beans. After 1 minute add the green beans and cook another 4 minutes, until cooked through but still crunchy. Refresh under ice-cold water, drain, pat dry, and place in a large mixing bowl.

Meanwhile, toss the peppers in 1 tsp olive oil and saute on a cast iron skillet until tender, about 5 minutes. Add to the bowl with the cooked beans.

Heat the 3 T olive oil in the skillet, or a small saucepan. Add the garlic and cook for 20 seconds; add the capers and fry another 15 seconds. Add the cumin and coriander seeds and fry another 15 seconds. The garlic should have turned golden by now. (If, like me, you used a cast iron, these times are too short and the garlic is not yet golden. That took a lot longer.) Remove from the heat and pour contents over the beans. Toss and add the onions, herbs, lemon zest, a 1/2 tsp salt and black pepper. Serve, or keep refrigerated for up to a day. Bring back to room temp before serving.

Basmati, Wild Rice, Chickpeas & Herbs

My dinner tonight was definitely inspired by my current Top Chef obsession/distraction/enjoyment. I cooked three different recipes for dinner - including one that involved lightly (GF) flouring some thinly sliced onions and frying them. Omg. They were amazing. Three dishes for one meal is very fancy, especially when cooking just for me. But totally worth it - I will make this meal, or something similar, when I am able to eat with other people again.

So - the three dishes are all sort of middle eastern themed, and two are from the Ottolenghi cookbook Jerusalem, which I have on loan. Thanks, mom. And thanks auntie Mary for buying my mom this cookbook (which I have previously pined after, along with their first cookbook, Plenty.) I made a schwarma style burger (which I actually made last night), roasted sweet potatoes with tahini sauce, and a basmati and wild rice dish with chickpeas. Yum. The rice dish was the star of the show and I kind of couldn't stop eating it. It is worth frying those onions and I made my basmati exactly as specified. (I only had parsley, and used dried dill and no cilantro. I also didn't have currants, so used raisins instead. Am including the original recipe below.)

Basmati & Wild Rice with Chickpeas, Currents & Herbs Serves 6
1/3 c wild rice
2 1/2 T olive oil
rounded 1 c basmati rice
scant 1 1/2 c boiling water
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1 1/2 c cooked chickpeas (I used canned)
3/4 c sunflower oil (I used coconut oil with no discernible taste issues)
1 med onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 tsp flour (I used an all purpose GF flour mix)
2/3 c currants
2 T chopped flat leaf parsley
1 T chopped cilantro
1 T chopped dill
salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Start by putting the wild rice in a small saucepan, cover with plenty of water, bring to a boil, and leave to simmer about 40 minutes until the rice is cooked but still quite firm. Drain and set aside.
2. To cook the basmati rice, pour 1 T of olive oil into a med saucepan with a tightly fitting lid and place over high heat. Add the rice and 1/4 tsp salt and stir as you warm up the rice. Carefully add the boiling water, decrease the heat to very low, cover the pan with the lid, and leave to cook for 15 minutes.
3. Remove the pan from the heat, cover with a clean tea towel and then the lid, and leave off the heat for 10 minutes.
4. While the rice is cooking, prepare the chickpeas. Heat the remaining 1 1/2 T olive oil in a small saucepan over high heat. Add the cumin seeds and curry powder, wait for a few seconds, and then add the chickpeas and 1/4 tsp salt; make sure you do this quickly or the spices may burn in the oil. Stir over the heat for a minute or two, just to heat the chickpeas, then transfer to a large mixing bowl.
5. Wipe the saucepan clean, pour in the sunflower or coconut oil, and place over high heat. Make sure the oil is hot (a small piece of onion thrown in should sizzle vigorously). Use your hands to mix the onion with the flour to coat it slightly. Take some of the onion and carefully place it in the oil. Fry for 2-3 minites, until golden brown, then transfer to paper towels or a paper bag to drain, and sprinkle with salt. Repeat in batches until all of the onion is fried.
6. Finally, ass both types of rice to the chickpeas and then add the currants, herbs, and fried onion. Stir, taste, and add salt and pepper as you like. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Schwarma burger with Tahini-"yogurt" sauce (my "yogurt" was lemon juice & coconut milk)