Today we’re cooking primarily with cans – restaurant-size cans for restaurant or home use.
We’ve selected the following: I’m going to give you the brand along with the ingredients and size can, just to give the people who produced the product some credit for a job well done.
102 oz. can Dunbar’s Sweet Bell Pepper Mixed Strips (mixed means multi-colored – they contain 0 fat and 0 sodium so of course are packed in water)
102 oz. can Gordon CHOICE Sliced Stewed Tomatoes (contains 0 fat)
117 oz. can BUSH’S Bean Pot Vegetarian Baked Beans (contains 0 fat)
1st RECIPE
1st Recipe > STEWED TOMATO BEAN POT
Vegetarian baked beans mixed with caramelized red onion, multi-colored pepper strips, stewed tomatoes, green beans and carrot matchsticks. A light-flavored and colored sesame seed oil teamed with Balsamic vinegar and garlic create the rich foundation that brings together all ingredients, elevating them in one simple yet elegant main dish.
Makes 11 cups
1/4 c. light-colored sesame oil
3 med. size red onion, sliced (cut off ends, cut in half from end to end, peel each half, place each half face down on board, cut each lengthwise from end to end into 1/4 inch wide strips, separate layers)
1 t. pink Himalayan salt
fresh grind black pepper
2 c. bell pepper strips with a little liquid from the can (a couple of tablespoons)
3 c. stewed tomato slices with about 1/4 liquid from the can – transfer to bowl where you will cut the slices into smaller pieces
2 t. garlic powder
1 t. additional pink salt
4 c. beans with liquid
1/4 c. Balsamic vinegar
2 c. froz. cut green beans
1 c. fresh carrot matchsticks (peel carrots, cut off ends, slice into thin planks, stack planks, cut into thin sticks – remember, matchstick-size)
pumpkin seed snow as garnish (optional) – grind salted raw pumpkin seeds in coffee grinder till snow-like
additional fresh-cut matchstick carrots (optional)
a drizzle of sesame seed oil (optional)
fresh black pepper grind (optional)
In large pot, over medium heat, melt sesame oil. Add onions and salt, then saute till wilted. Pepper to taste. Stir often to prevent burning.
Add 2 c. pepper strips with a little liquid from can. Stir.
Add the cut stewed tomatoes with a little juice from can, garlic powder and salt. Stir well. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring as needed.
Add beans followed by Balsamic vinegar and cut green beans. Stir well. Cook 3-5 minutes or till very hot.
Add carrot matchsticks. Stir to submerge. Cook all on lowered heat, uncovered, for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and adjust for salt and pepper.
Serve family style, in individual bowls as is, or perk it up a little by topping with pumpkin seed snow, additional fresh-cut matchstick carrots, a drizzle of sesame oil and sprinkling of fresh grind black pepper.
Notes: An elegant tasting dish need not require many ingredients, steps nor hours to prepare. Yes, beans can be elegant. Rich too.
1st RECIPE is completed and we still have lots of contents in all three cans left to make another dish.
To keep costs down restaurants like to use the same main ingredients in several dishes, then vary the peripheral ingredients, seasonings and procedures to create dishes for different categories.
This is a low-fat dish. 1/4 cup oil = 120 cal./T. x 4 = 480 fat calories to a 11 cup recipe yield = 43.6 fat calories per cup.
2nd Recipe > DONKEY BEAN SAUCE
Use as sauce or soup. You can’t really taste the tomato or the beans or the pumpkin and sesame seeds – not distinctly. Even the texture throws you off for a bean soup. Nobody will connect this sauce to beans – unless they are a bean aficionado.
Makes 4 cups sauce
PASTA:
8 oz. box ORGANIC EDAMAME & MUNG BEAN FETTUCCINE, cooked in sufficiently salted boiling water 6-8 minutes or till tender to your liking, drain in colander – while still in colander drizzle with 2 T. extra virgin olive oil, fresh grind black pepper, pink Himalayan salt and 1 t. garlic powder, using hands toss gently to evenly disperse (a stirring utensil will break apart the fettuccine)
BEAN SAUCE:
2 c. BUSH’S Bean Pot Vegetarian Baked Beans
3 -4 lg. peeled garlic cloves
12 oz. jar sweet red roasted peppers including liquid from jar
1 t. smoked paprika
2/3 oz. or 10-14 lg. leaves fresh basil, broken into pieces
2 T. pumpkin seed snow (pumpkin seed ground in a coffee grinder to snow consistency)
2 T. white and black sesame seed snow (white and black sesame seed ground in coffee grinder to snow consistency)
1 t. pink Himalayan salt
fresh grind black pepper to taste
1 t. ground rosemary
1 t. ground fennel seed
1 c. stewed tomatoes including some liquid
1-2 T. liquid smoke (add 1 t. at a time while tasting the result)
Place beans and garlic in blender container and blend till very smooth. Only after you have achieved the smooth of the beans and garlic do you add the roasted peppers and liquid from the jar. Blend again till very smooth.
Add smoked paprika, fresh basil, pumpkin seed and sesame seed snows, salt, pepper, rosemary and fennel. Blend till as smooth as you can get it.
Add the stewed tomatoes, liquid smoke and do the same. Till smooth.
To serve: Heat the sauce to very hot. Saute some kind of sliced veggie meat that you like in a little oil. I used HOOD SOY FIVE SPICE TOFU NUGGETS (it’s a meat sub that can be used right out of the box.) Plate individual servings of pasta. Top with sauce followed by meat, then garnish with fresh chopped basil, fine grind black pepper and, if desired, 1-2 teaspoons drizzled extra virgin olive oil.
The total dish was a total success from first to last bite. Like I say, nobody will connect this dish to beans – unless they are a bean aficionado.
It also tastes good cold the next day.
For the 3rd recipe we use the 2nd recipe to make a soup.
To a portion of the bean sauce add an equal amount (or less) of almond milk. I used unsweetened original Almond Breeze at 30 calories per cup. Stir, heat till very hot. Transfer to serving soup cup, sprinkle with chopped fresh basil, fresh grind black pepper and, if desired, float a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil on top. De-e-elicious!
I don’t know what to call this soup. Call it anything you want. Call it Donkey Soup. Donkey Ass Soup. It doesn’t taste like any one ingredient defines it. The customer depending on the name will say they can’t taste the tomato or the beans or the pumpkin and sesame seeds. They’re right, you can’t – not distinctly. Even the texture throws you off for a bean soup. Donkey Ass Soup it is.
Cup-size is the way I’d go with this soup. Appetizer-style. It’s elegant yet substantial enough to introduce a meal without wanting more of it.
4th Recipe > another soup using the bean sauce > CURRY BEAN SOUP Makes 3 cups
2 c. bean sauce
1 c. Almond Breeze Original unsweetened almond milk
1 c. BUSH”S Bean Pot Vegetarian Baked Beans
1 t. sweet Madras Curry
salt and pepper to taste
pumpkin snow as topper (use coffee grinder to process raw, salted pumpkin seeds to snow consistency)
Heat the bean sauce, almond milk, baked beans and curry in saucepan over medium-low heat till very hot. Spoon into soup cups and top with Pumpkin Seed Snow and black pepper.
5th Recipe: DONKEY APPLE BEAN SALAD 1 Serving
1 red apple, cored and cut into cubes
1/2 c. BUSH’S Bean Pot Vegetarian Baked Beans
1 T. Balsamic vinegar
1-2 t. dark brown sugar for topping
Combine in bowl apple, beans and Balsamic vinegar. Toss, then plate, then top with brown sugar.
A simply composed fruit and bean salad – tart, sweet, soft, crunchy, fluid. I love this simple dish, so easy to make for lunch.
ANIMAL-FREE SOUS-CHEF™ 