The Thoughts of a Frumpy Professor

............................................ ............................................ A blog devoted to the ramblings of a small town, middle aged college professor as he experiences life and all its strange variances.

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Garbanzo

From a cullinary perspective, I am on a huge bean kick.  I think my family would agree that this has been a very successful and creative exploration that has added a helluva lot of goodness to our diet.  The two most abundant beans I have been using the last 5-6 months have been:

1.  Garbanzo Beans
2.  Black Beans

In terms of Garbanzo beans, I have been making many different Indian inspired curry dishes. I have made a variation on traditional beef stew (without any beef or beef stock due to some vegetarians who were part of the dinner group) using Garbanzo beans.  I have been making a wide array of different types of hummus.  I have made Chili featuring Garbanzo beans.

In terms of Black beans, I have had a similar array of foods, usually more with a slightly Mexican or Southwest flair.  Another avenue I have taken black beans in is to make facsimiles of some of my favorite Ethiopian dishes, and I have been getting pretty decent results in mimicking those flavors.  However, I have also made from dried black beans one of the best bean dishes I have ever had the opportunity to taste.  It is a "fusion" dish combining Caribbean and more traditionally tropical spices in what is akin to a magic food with shockingly good flavor!  

Those are the two beans I have been using the most lately.  But, hell, no bean I can lay my hands on lately goes unexplored.  Perhaps in another post I will try to talk about some of the things I have been trying to make with pinto beans, or lima beans, or Cannelini beans. 

PipeTobacco

4 Comments:

Blogger jenny_o said...

I would be interested in those posts if you decide to write them. My biggest problem with beans is that I can't eat spicy food. A lot of bean recipes count on spices to cover up the blander taste of the beans.

Thursday, 22 November, 2018  
Blogger PipeTobacco said...

Jenny:

Fortunately for me, I have never met a spice I did not relish! I add spices to everything, sometimes to the chagrin of my wife. :)

Thursday, 22 November, 2018  
Blogger Jacqui said...

I occasionally decide I need to start making full use of pulses, beans etc and learn lots of recipes. I have a go, make something that takes rather a long time to do, then I go back to convenient ready meals. I've had a tin of red kidney beans, that I bought with good intent, languishing in my cupboard for several months now. It looks lonely each time I open the cupboard door. I did make some dhal with chickpeas some time ago, but the chili in it aggravated my stomach so I didn't make it again. I would be interested to see your recipes, Pipe, as my good intentions to be inventive with simple ingredients are still here.

Thursday, 22 November, 2018  
Blogger Liz Hinds said...

That all sounds wonderful. I'm not very adventurous with beans; I should try some more.

Friday, 23 November, 2018  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home