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1 can of garbanzo beans. (I prefer using organic dry garbanzo beans; they absolutely taste better than canned ones. I cook them for 40 minutes in my smart pressure cooker. You can also soak them in water overnight and then boil for an hour or two before you start cooking)
1 onion, diced
2 green peppers, chopped
1 can of diced tomato or
2 grated fresh tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato or pepper paste (or 1/2 tbsp pepper + 1/2 tbsp tomato)
2 tbsp oil (olive, corn, butter)
salt & black pepper
any other spice you want--to spice up garbanzos: crushed peppers, green or red chili powder, etc.

optional:
1 carrot, chopped in half rounds or diced
stew beef

-Heat the oil in a pot and then add first onions, then green peppers (if you want carrots, add them with peppers). Stir on medium heat for 4-5 minutes
-Add the paste. After two minutes of stirring, add tomatoes and cook for 4-5 minutes
-Now its time for garbanzo beans, salt & pepper, other spices, and hot water (enough to cover)
-Cook for 20-25 minutes on low heat. If youre using a pressure cooker, cook for 10 minutes.
-Serve with rice.

If you want to try this recipe with stew beef or lamb, add the meat in between onions and peppers and cook until the meat changes its color; it would be probably between 5-7 minutes.

Still in love with braising... its just the thing for cold weather meals.

I braised 4 lamb shanks, since thats how many come with a lamb. If you are buying them as their own thing, you could put up to 6 on this amount of beans and vegetables. There were 3 of us to dinner, and the leftovers were turned into soup by removing the meat from the last shank and shredding it, and adding a bunch of broth. That was another 2 meals for the 2 of us. So plenty of beans and veg here, is what Im saying. If you were going to braise 6 shanks, you will need a very large dish or - probably a better idea - divide it all amongst 2 baking dishes.

4 to 6 servings
1 hour prep time, not including cooking the beans
4 to 5 hours to braise


Cook the Beans:
1 1/2 cups dry pea (navy) beans
1/2 teaspoon salt

Rinse and pick over the beans and put them in a pot with water to cover. Bring them to a boil, then turn them off and leave them, covered, to soak overnight. The next morning, change the water (fresh cold water to cover them by about an inch) and add the salt. Simmer until tender, about 1 to 2 hours. This can be done a day ahead, if you like.

Braise the Lamb Shanks:
2 medium leeks
2 cups peeled, diced celeriac
2 medium carrots
1 cup peeled, diced rutabaga
2 tablespoon mild vegetable oil
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup tomato paste
the juice of 1 lemon
3 or 4 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dry rosemary leaves, ground
1 to 2 cups lamb or beef broth, or water, or some portion of this in wine
salt & pepper to taste
1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil
4 to 6 lamb shanks

Put the cooked beans in a large, shallow baking tray with their cooking liquid.

Wash and trim the leeks, and cut them in half lengthwise, then into thin slices. Peel and dice the celeriac. Peel and dice the carrots. Peel and dice the rutabaga.

Heat the oil in a large skillet, and cook the vegetables until softened and browned in spots. Turn them frequently. While they cook, peel and mince the garlic. Add the garlic once the vegetables are ready, and cook for just a minute or two more, stirring frequently.

Put the vegetables into the baking dish with the beans. Add the tomato paste, lemon juice, bay leaves, ground rosemary, the broth and the salt and pepper. There should be enough liquid to come to the top of the vegetables, but no more. The amount of salt will depend very much on how salty your broth is.

Preheat the oven to 300°F.

Add the remaining oil to the skillet in which you cooked the vegetables, and heat over fairly high heat. Brown the lamb shanks on all sides. They need to be quite dry when they go into the pan to brown well.

When the lamb shanks are browned all over, nestle them into the bean and vegetable mixture. Cover the dish, with foil if it does not have its own cover, and bake for 4 to 5 hours, until the meat is very tender and coming off the bone.




Last year at this time I made Leek & Brussels Sprout Soup.

While baked beans with wieners is a classic winter comfort-food dish, its usually made with canned beans. Never mind that, its much better made with dry beans from scratch. Its still pretty simple to put together; it just needs some advance planning.

I used some Snowcap beans I grew in the garden summer before last, and which needed using up. Its the first time Ive eaten them; that was the year we had bean mosaic virus, and the Snowcap beans did not stand up well to it at all so the harvest was quite small. However, Im going to have another try at growing them after this. They were absolutely beautiful beans when dry, and still looked quite nice once cooked, in two tones of brown. More to the point they were a good big bean with a good meaty texture and mild flavour.

However, any light coloured dry bean will work fine for this; navy (pea) beans, pinto beans, or kidney beans for example.

4 to 6 servings
3 days... but only about 30 minutes prep time


Cook the Beans:
2 cups (1 pound) dried navy or other beans
water
1 teaspoon salt

Rinse and pick over the beans, and put them in a pot with plenty of water to cover. Bring to a full rolling boil, then cover and turn off the heat. Let them soak for several hours to overnight.

Change the water, and bring to a boil again. Reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook for about 1 hour, until tender. Stir frequently. Alternatively, continue to bring to a boil, then cover and soak for several hours. Two or 3 times more will leave them almost cooked, and they can then be simmered briefly to finish.

This should be started up to 2 days in advance of finishing the dish.

Finish the Beans:
1 large onion
1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil
450 grams (1 pound) wieners
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons Sucanat OR dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 cup tomato sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Peel and chop the onion. Slice the wieners into bite-sized pieces. Heat the oil in a large skillet, and cook the Wieners until browned in spots. Add the onions to the pan and let them soften and brown somewhat as well.

Meanwhile, mix the mustard, Sucanat, vinegar, tomato sauce, and salt in a 2 1/2 quart baking pan. Mix the drained beans into the sauce, adding about 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Add the wieners and onions when they are ready.

Bake at 350°F for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Stir once in the middle of the baking.





Last year at this time I made Lima Bean Soup.

Carrabbas Green Beans with Romano Crumbs
Copycat Recipe

Serves 4

1 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch lengths
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup Italian-style dried breadcrumbs
1/4 cup freshly grated Romano cheese
 salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add salt to taste. Add the green beans and cook just until crisp-tender and bright green, about 3 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold running water to stop the cooking. Drain well and pat dry with paper towels. Toss the green beans and oil in a large bowl. Add the breadcrumbs and Romano cheese and toss again. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Spread in a 2-quart shallow baking dish. Bake until the crumbs are golden brown, about 20 minutes. Serve hot.