Chicago Slow Food Bean Supper Recipes

Featuring Arikara Yellow Beans

From Abra Berens: Grist: a Practical Guide to Cooking Grains, Beans, Seeds and Legumes. “This is my favorite way to use up bean pot liquor from cooking a pot of beans.”

Yields 2-3 qts. soup

• 2 lb. sweet potatoes or any mix of root vegetables (carrots, squash, parsnips work well), cut into chunks
• roasted sweet corn kernels (optional)
• Neutral oil
• salt
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 4-6 c. bean pot liquor
• 2 c. cooked beans
• sour cream (optional)
• chopped herbs (cilantro, basil, parsley or marjoram work well depending on the flavors you are going for)

1. Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Toss the vegetable chunks with a glug of neutral oil and a big pinch of kosher salt, then. roast until caramelized on the outside and tender on the inside, about 20 minutes. 
2. In a medium stockpot, heat a glug of neutral oil over medium heat and sweat the onions and garlic with a pinch of salt until soft and tender, about 7 minutes.
3. Add the reserved pot liquor and thing with 2 cups of water or stock, then bring to a boil
4. Add the roasted vegetables. Bring to a simmer to heat through.
5. To serve, portion the soup into the serving bowls, top with a dollop of sour cream if using, and sprinkle with a handful of the chopped herbs.

(This recipe is an outline)

Featuring Santa Maria Pinquito Beans

1 qt pinto beans (ideally Santa Maria Pinquito Beans)
1/4 ea medium sized onion
2 ea clove of garlic
4 qt water
1 ea medium sized bay leaf
5 slices bacon, chopped
3/4 cup diced onion
1 ea diced jalapeno
1 1/2 cup diced tomato
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
water/ stock if preferred
salt to taste

Directions for cooking beans

• rinse beans under water, and remove any beans that do not look great, look out for any small rocks, or debris.
• add the beans to the pot you are planning on using, add water and agitate the beans one last time, drain water.
• Soak beans in water for at least 4 hours or overnight. If you don’t have time or you forgot to soak the beans, you can put them in a pot w/ 4qts of water and bring to a boil, then let sit for an hour, so the beans can be fully hydrated before cooking
• add the 4qts of water to the pot, 2 cloves of garlic, 1/4 of an onion, and bay leaf, and bring to a boil
• lower to a simmer then cook for 1.5-2 hours, until the beans are tender. (make sure to test at least 5 to enusre they are done.)
• add salt to taste.

Making Frijoles Charros

• in a seperate pot, cook bacon and render until crispy, separate half the bacon and allow to cool on the side.
• add the 1/2 cup onions, and all the jalapeno to the pot, and cook until translucent
• add 1 cup tomatoes, and cook until they just begin to break down.
• add the cooked beans and cook for 20 minutes.
• salt to taste
• add the cilantro 1/4 cup of onion, 1/2 cup of tomato, and the other half of the cooked bacon, for 5 minutes
• serve and enjoy

Featuring black chickpeas

Yields: 8.5 quarts (22 – 12 fl oz servings)
Shelf life: 7 days (optimal to make 1-2 days ahead)

6 cup Black Chickpeas
1/3 cup Coconut Oil
2 tbsp Mustard Seeds
12 Curry Leaves (sprigs)
16 cup Red Onions, julienned
4 tbsp Green Chili serrano, deseeded and minced
4 tbsp Ginger, minced
4 tbsp Garlic, minced
255 gm Dry Grated Coco, dry roast until tan, then grind
2 tbsp Coriander Powder, dry roast
2 tbsp Kashmiri Chili spice blend
6 tbsp Meat Masala spice blend
1 tbsp Turmeric spice blend
1 tbsp Black pepper, Ground spice blend
12 cup Tomato small dice, and sprinkle with salt
10 cup Chickpea Water
3 cup Coconut Milk
Salt

Equipment Needed:
Fryer or dutch oven for deep frying, spider, spice grinder

Procedure:
PRE SOAK: clean and soak black chickpeas in water for at least 4 hours or ideally overnight. Allow for space for chickpeas to expand to up to 3x.
Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Fill instapot with chickpea: water ratio 1:2 by volume, then add salt.
Pressure cook for 25 minutes and naturally release pressure.
Drain chickpeas. Reserve cooking liquid (aquafaba).

SPICE BLEND: Dry roast coriander powder. Combine with Kashimiri chili, meat masala, turmeric and black pepper.

Dry roast coconut until tan in color, then allow to cool. In a spice grinder, grind toasted coconut until it becomes a coconut butter.

In a 12 quart pot, over medium heat add coconut oil and allow it to heat up for a minute. Once oil is hot, add the mustard seeds.
Once the mustard seeds begin to splutter, add onions and fry until dark brown, almost carmelized.
Add the coconut butter to the pot and cook until the oil separates.
Add green chili, curry leaves, ginger, garlic until the raw smell disappates.
Add the rest of the spices and stir-fry for 30 seconds, then add tomatoes and cook until they break down.
Add aquafaba (chickpea water) gradually to avoid burning, as tomatos continue to cook down.
Add chickpeas and simmer. Check chickpeas for softness; turn off and remove from heat as soon as you like the texture.
Stir in coconut milk.
Salt to taste.