I think beans and greens are a classic combination that some people are just noticing. In recipes where I am eating beans whole (as opposed to refried), I almost always add chopped kale, spinach, collards or whatever I have in my garden during season. My kids just think this is the way beans are done. If I have some smoked pork (ham bone, bacon, pancetta, etc) I think it really rounds out the flavors.

One thing I like is a sauce made with leeks, white beans, tomatoes and greens served over polenta. Italian sausage goes well in the sauce as well.

'Eat your greens' isn't new really, but adding greens to everything is recent. More-so is chia everything. (with dehydrated greens and kelp.)...Quinoa is seeming so 90's.
: )
Sprouted grains are everywhere all the sudden. In flours and dried whole.

If it is a trend, i don't mind it. In the past we had dumplings and pasta filled with flavorless mixes said to be meat or seafood but often uses fillers of breadcrumbs. Like bad crab cakes...use veggies as fillers instead of dough if the 'meat' is expensive.

I do like that our palates in the past 10yrs or so seem to want better and fresh. Or just seemingly more nutritious?
I've had some mediocre meals out recently. And some outstanding ones. Pea shoot dumplings. Marinated toasted chick pea and raw kale salad. A beet salad at Odeon has been a favorite for years...baby arugula, (a wild variety that i grow) and use in everything and freeze for soups...
use fresh like you do because of its meaty spicy bacon flavor...on pizza, etc.
I don't think you are missing it...it just is a competing chef situation and all about love. I think i've said more often recently..."that was made with love"....not just a meal produced out of boring habit. From a menu with way to many items, like a standard mediocre Diner.

A meal made with love has fresh flavor and made with care.

A restaurant will be successful if they keep exploring. Or if a classic one does not change too much, ..if successful, do not change at all. : )
Only a few in NYC fit that program.

Oh, I have no recipe for your kitchen. But i did add sautéed chard/onions/kale to the top third of my holiday tomales a few years ago thinking, "what was i thinking?'....so good and have done it since....(and no lard! jerky) . Rich stock instead in the masa. It is all about the love.

I do explore toasted garbanzos with toasted greens. A base for scallops or shrimps. Or in the blender as a 'hummus'. With peas, etc.

I'm certainly NOT a trendsetter by any means, and typically what once was old is "new" (or rediscovered) again in the culinary world. Just read your older cookbooks.

I've been following a whole foods diet for so long, beans and greens (along with a grains) are regular and "normal" fare and what our diet is built around, not meat. And to prove it's not a new trend, Thomas Jefferson said, [eat meat] "as a condiment to the vegetable which constitute my principal diet."

I've been sprouting grains/seeds/beans for decades (real Hippy food from the 60's), including those I dried and milled into flour. I followed the information of sprouting greats like Ann Wigmore and Steve Meyerowitz (aka The Sproutman) after finding their books at the local library in the early 80's. Once the garden is done in the fall, a large percentage of our "fresh" foods are grown indoors in the form of wheat for wheatgrass juice, sprouts (your little garden in a jar), micro-greens, and pots of herbs. I also have a large assortment of lettuce growing in my AeroGarden this year.

I haven't used chia seeds as long as other grains/seeds/beans in my home food storage, only since 2005 or 2006, but chia is an ancient seed. Flaxseed is another ancient seed that is "new" again.

The 70's was all about books like "The Rodale Cookbook", "Rodale's Naturally Great Foods Cookbook", "Laurel's Kitchen" (a handbook for vegetarian cookery and nutrition), etc., and this was when I first started using whole wheat flour and got my first yogurt maker. I was adding powdered milk and gelatin to yogurt (for additional protein) and draining the whey off of it decades before Greek Yogurt came into stores (and made it for a fraction of the price). Kefir I've been making for about 15-years.

I got my first sourdough starter in 2003 from a women who was in her early 90's and it was from her mother when she got married and in continuous use, so well over 100-years old. Both of my grandmothers used a starter until after WWII.

I made Tuscan Rosemary Chicken and White Beans last night as an example of adding beans and greens to a recipe. I tossed in some sprouted/cooked black beans (instead of cannellini beans called for in the recipe), since I had black beans in the freezer, and a big handful of fresh spinach along with the normal sliced carrots, celery, and sun-dried tomatoes called for in the recipe. It's a recipe where I can "stretch" the more expensive protein from chicken (using only about 1.5 oz. of chicken per person) and adding low-costing vegetable protein - the beans and spinach (1-cup has 5 g. protein) to make up the remaining protein for a full serving.

I've been dehydrating all kinds of greens from my garden for years, and they are added to seemingly "everything" from soup to smoothies. Maybe greens are considered food poor people consume since many of them are foraged. Before I grew my own amaranth, in the country growing up we used the young leaves from it's "cousin" - pigweed - cooked as a green. It wasn't until 20-years ago that I learned how to use the amaranth seeds for a high-protein cereal and as a flour in baking, and now I grow it in my garden enjoying the leaves as well as the seed.

I started using dried sea vegetables (kelp, kombu, wakame, nori, agar agar, dulse, etc.) when I was following Macrobiotic dietary recommendations in the 1980's and continued adding them to our diet. Beans and sea vegetables compromised about 5-10% of a meal.

So I don't think there is anything that is all that "new", it's just new to us.

-Grainlady

Trend?? Ha. That's too funny, in that case I've been cool all my life and didn't know it and I'm in my 60's! I was raised on beans and greens and back then no-one else thought we were trendy (they had some other choice terms for us I'm sure) but truthfully it's only been in the last few years that I have started to combine them all in one pot. In fact last week I made a big pot of pinto and great Northern bean and vegetable soup and went out to the garden and picked kale to add to it.

Okay, I guess what I said was too broad. I didn't mean both on the same plate or in the same soup. I've always done that too. The soup I linked uses garbanzos to thicken a spinach soup. The paté filling of the pasta used beans instead of meat, cheese or crumbs to make the kale stick together.

I didn't mean to start a discussion on what's new or not (kale and chard are old as the hills and always in the store, but they are trendy now and there are always at least three varieties now, rather than one), but to ask for other ideas on how to make dishes that are primarily beans and greens.

I'm going to try to make something like Tishtoshmom's sauce. That sounds good!

This is my hometown's name sake! I've always used Northern beans and not cranberry beans, but to each his own!

Here is a link that might be useful: Utica Beans and Greens

yup, I'm in the Utica/Rome area.... Every Italian restaurant has always served 'greens and beans' (usually escarole and cannellini beans) and every restaurant of any kind has their own "famous" variation of Utica Greens. They even have annual competitions around here for the restaurant with the best 'Greens'!

This post was edited by party_music50 on Tue, Jan 27, 15 at 19:59

Another combination I hope to try once my arugula starts growing is tartine's made with a slice of baguette or french bread, white bean puree topped with arugula with a vinegar dressing. Or, I may try it with the beans, some arugula and marinated mushrooms.

Here's my favorite beans and greens soup, which uses mashed beans for thickening. Once the prep work is done, it's quick to make but tastes like it's been simmering for a longer time.

SHORTCUT HEARTY BEAN SOUP

1/ 4 lb. cooked ham, in one piece
2 medium-size celery stalks
2 medium-size carrots, peeled
1 medium-size onion, peeled
1 medium size yellow squash (about 8 oz.) (can substitute zucchini)
1 (40 oz.) can cooked Great Northern beans or 2 cans white kidney beans
1 Tbs. olive oil
1/ 2 tsp. dried basil leaves
1/ 4 tsp. pepper
1 (14 to 16 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (14 oz.) can chicken broth
1 cup fresh spinach, packed, stems removed, and chopped
2 cups water
Grated Parmesan cheese

Cut ham into 1/2 inch cubes, dice celery, thinly slice carrots, chop onion, and dice squash. Drain and rinse beans. Remove 1 1/2 cups of beans to medium bowl and mash into a smooth paste with a fork or potato masher. In large pot, cook ham, celery, carrots, onion, and squash in oil over medium heat until vegetables are tender and begin to brown, about 15 minutes. Stir in basil, pepper, tomatoes, chicken broth, spinach, bean paste, and water. Over high heat, heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 15 minutes to blend flavors. Stir in remaining beans; heat through. Add salt to taste. Sprinkle each serving with Parmesan cheese if desired.

Note: Ham can come from the deli section and spinach from the salad bar at the grocery store.

Thanks, Ruthanna! That soup sounds yummy. I'm not a big fan of bean soups, but I think I'd like the greens soup with beans. :)

Tishtoshmom, I've made something similar. Multigrain baguette, red bean puree (yum!) and wild arugula. Very good. :)..

Booberry and Party Music, thank-you for introducing me to Utica's dish. I had no notion! It's given me ideas for something a bit different, too. :)

It occurred to me that other than Boston style baked beans, which people here typically serve at barbecues or with hot dogs, and hummus which has become ubiquitous, the local bean dishes are generally some kind of Latin flavor. There are lots and lots of ways beans are served, but they're mostly made with chilis and onions, in some way, and the closest they come to greens might be some shredded lettuce garnish. :) The more I think of it, the more I'm convinced that the current upswing in greens and beans here is for the vegans. We have lots of them. Greens and beans is more nutritious, and can be more interesting for the chef, than the standard pasta primavera that every vegan gets stuck with.

I eat meat. :) I'm trying to eat more beans as a way of cutting down cheese, which we eat too much of. Thanks for the great ideas, everyone!

Here's a pic of beans 'n' greens I posted on a WFD? thread years ago. No recipe but main ingredients are beans, collard greens, tomatoes, leeks, white wine and marjoram.

Beans are a blank canvas whose versatility is limited only by your imagination. Some of the ways I use beans are: black beans mixed with a red onion and fresh mango sauce, kidney beans with and onion and almond butter sauce, and beans with soy sauce, brown sugar and star anise.

plllog, here's a link to a recipe for traditional 'Utica Greens' (sans beans).

Once you've tried traditional greens, you'll have to try Utica's Chicken Riggies. lol!

PS: if anyone decides to try Utica Greens... they're great with a splash of balsamic vinegar. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Utica Greens

This post was edited by party_music50 on Wed, Jan 28, 15 at 11:06

plllog-

A way to reduce cheese in your diet is to use Nutritional Yeast.
--Sprinkle it on your pizza and use it instead of grated parmesan.
--Make bean and pea dips using nutritional yeast instead of using cheese dip.
--Faux cheese: 1/4 cup nutritional yeast, 2 T. olive oil and a little hot water (use the boiling water from your pasta if you are using the faux cheese on pasta) and mix to the consistency you need.
--Use nutritional yeast in place of cream in soup to thicken it.
--Mix nutritional yeast with a little tahini and find any number of ways to use it.
--Sprinkle nutritional yeast on steamed vegetables.
--The one place I don't use nutritional yeast is when the dish has a tomato-base product in it because it gets "lost" in the tomato-based sauce tends to overpower the flavor of nutritional yeast; although it's great sprinkled over fresh tomato slices.

TUNA & WHITE BEANS
I add cannellini beans (sprouted and cooked) to canned tuna (a good way to stretch a high-costing protein), plus a lot of chopped parsley (a wonderful green), lemon pepper, lemon juice, or a sprinkle of True Lemon.
--Rough chop parsley. Drain tuna and break-up into pieces. If using canned beans drain first. Mix together and sprinkle lemon juice over mixture and add a splash of vinegar. Serve on toast or use as a salad.

Beet greens are my favorite, but very hard to come by. Wonder why they're not included in the frozen section with all the other greens?

I've always made beans and greens the traditional Italian way, but the Utica greens sound great.

Grainlady, right now I'm not supposed to eat anything involving wheat or milk products, but I have to say that my only stumbling block is that I simply can't seem to learn to endure nutritional yeast. I've tried telling myself it's not a cheese substitute, just another ingredient, but I still don't like it, even in something like pesto where there are plenty of other flavors to help hide it.

Incidentally, the British tend use avocado instead, which I find more palatable.

Grainlady, Thanks for the recipe! It sounds good and is different from any I've seen so far.

There was a discussion of nutritional yeast last Summer, which I found very interesting because I was making vegan treats. I found some for which I liked both what they said about the way it was made and the flavor--Bragg's. They're a local company who are best known for their liquid amino acids. All of your suggestions sound like great ways to use nutritional yeast, but not what we would eat as substitutes for cheese (I don't put cheese on vegetables, for instance). Beans seem to fill the correct niche, and so long as they're not made with sugar, they're nutritious and guilt free. I will definitely save your ideas and use them for feeding the vegans (who need it for nutrition). :)

Writersblock, have you tried a variety of nutritional yeasts? Brewer's yeast is bitter and sour, and a number of nutritional yeasts have some commonality with that and taste kind of awful.

Even though there's no sodium, Bragg's evokes a salty, mildly cheesy taste, and isn't bitter at all. (It's actually "Bragg", but locally is always called "Bragg's", though if you don't specify which product, it's a synonym for amino acids.) It tastes good right out of the jar. You still might dislike it, of course. Just offering that it might be the particular brands you've tried that you don't like. :)

Avocado is delicious. :) The ones from the garden, not so much. :( It's a good sub for cheese (and/or mayonnaise) in a sandwich with other stuff, but not so much when cheese is the star. I'm not saying that other people can fill that niche with beans! But it works for me. :)

Hi, plllog. Thanks, but unfortuntely, the ginormous vat of nutritional yeast (can't buy anything smaller around here) that I have is Bragg's.

Rats!

:D

Well, if you don't like Bragg's, it's time to quit. :( Sorry about the ginormous vat. Surely you can find a palid vegan down on his luck would would take it off your hands...

I eat a lot both of greens and of beans, frequently in combination: the bitterness of one and blandness of the other are complementary. Our grocery list today includes chicory, which I intend to saute with onion and garlic and add to my pot of cannelini beans and broth along with chopped sage, in which I'll then cook pasta. This vegetable is called "cicoria lunga" or "catalogna", is shaped something like a head of celery, and is bitter. I also like it in bean-vegetable-pasta soups and stews. I also use radicchio (the round, red-and-white one) often, roasting it in the oven as a vegetable or using it in minestrone (it also works in frittatas and in sauce over pasta). Roasted radicchio is mildly bitter to sweet and pairs well with mashed potatoes or with beans served in their broth with olive oil and bread.
I developed a taste for greens as I got into my thirties, and now in middle age I eat a lot of them; I suspect they supply nutrients my slowed-metabolism aging body needs. Here in Italy I don't find collard greens, unfortunately: they're wonderful cooked Indian style, sauteed with a clove of garlic, cumin, a bit of hot pepper, and lemon juice. Kale mania seems also to have passed us by. My cooked greens here are mostly of the chicory and head cabbage clans. I adapt my cooking to what's available locally. Cabbage is hard for me, in the sense that I like it but don't have satisfactory recipes for it. Best are Indian-style sautees, alone or with other vegetables, served with rice and lentils in various forms: again, beans and greens, if cabbage qualifies. Bean-vegetable-pasta stews and cole slaw make a satisfactory combination.
Yes, I'm a vegetarian. This is all hearty simple food, eaten with pleasure by the non-vegetarians who come to my table, which includes all my family and most of my friends.

I missed plllog's later comment on the limits of his enquiry. Still it fun writing my post.

Melissa_thefarm-

If you like chicory (it's a rare find here, and I usually have to use a substitute green), you might like this recipe, minus the small amount of ham and use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock, since you are a vegetarian.
-Grainlady

WARM LENTIL AND CHICORY VINAIGRETTE
(serves 4)

1-1/3 c. green lentils, sorted and rinsed
1 carrot, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 bay leaf
1 T. red wine vinegar
1/2 t. ground black pepper
2 T. olive oil
1/2 c. diced onions
2 oz. lean smoked ham, cut into 1"x1/4" slivers
1 pound chicory, thinly sliced
1/4 c. defatted chicken stock

In a 3-quart saucepan, combine the lentils, carrots, celery and bay leaf. Add cold water to cover by about 2". Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 20-minutes, or until the lentils are just tender. Drain; discard the bay leaf. Return the mixture to the pan.

In a cup, mix the vinegar, pepper, and 1 T. oil. Drizzle over the lentils and toss lightly to mix. Set aside.

Meanwhile, in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat, warm the remaining 1 T. oil. Add the onions and ham. Cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes, or until the onions are tender. Add the chicory and stock. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, or until the chicory is wilted. Add the lentils and toss lightly to mix.

Melissa, I enjoyed your post! I didn't mean to limit the discussions of food! Just that it had wandered into a tangent about trendiness and I really wanted to talk about beans and greens. Your contribution was right on target!

We don't get chickory often here, so I've never learned to cook with it. OTOH, we do have a few kinds of chard most of the time. :)

Grainlady, thanks for the lentils recipe. Great variation on the theme. :)

I missed thanking Ruthanna for the appetizing picture!

Also thanks to Party Music for furthering my education about Utica cuisine. It's fascinating that such a distinctive set of dishes grew up in such a small area.

I've never cooked escarole...thanks for the inspiration...definitely on my list now.

I did some catch-up reading at The Prudent Homemaker blog this morning and she had a new recipe that shows a good way to add beans to your diet, or increase the protein without adding meat. Now I have to consider other recipes to use this method. ;-)
-Grainlady

PASTA WITH WHITE BEAN ALFREDO SAUCE
2 c. cooked white beans
1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese
1 12-oz. can evaporated milk
1-1/2 t. granulated garlic

Blend these ingredients with an immersion blender in the pan. Cook over medium heat.

Enough sauce for 1# pasta.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Prudent Homemaker

plllog, are you interested in a recipe for Black Bean & Mango salad? I LOVE the stuff!!! and the recipe is very forgiving with substitutions!

Thanks, Grainlady! I like alfredo sauce, but can only face about a teaspoon of it because it's so rich. I love the idea of using beans and evaporated milk instead of butter.

Party Music, thanks for the offer, but I'm allergic to mango and have a bad memory of being told the black bean salad didn't have any, when it did. I know it would be fine if I made it myself, and subbed butternut or something, but just the thought makes me itch. :)

Maybe someone else would like the recipe? Hopefully they'll speak up.

plllog, I often substitute papaya or even mixed tropical fruit, but I understand.

Party, I'm waving my hand......I'd love your recipe. Mango isn't my favourite fruit, but we love black beans, and I'm sure they'd be great together.

Yes, please, give the recipe to Jasdip!

I'm allergic to papaya and coconut too. Mango is used for these mixed recipes because they taste sweet and acidic, and they kind of melt into the bean/grain, giving a sauce-like texture. I said butternut squash because it has the sweet part, and does some of that mushing into a saucy consistency. Mango works better, but butternut and a little lemon juice is usually a good substitute.

I'm thinking now that it was a black rice salad, rather beans, so maybe I could get over myself, if I could bring myself to make it.

plllog, I've never heard of an allergy to mango, papaya, etc., but they aren't exactly main-stream fruits around here. lol! I just searched and found it on-line, so that's even better! My sister found it many years ago on the label of a can of Bush's black beans.

I love this salad as a quick and healthy meal!!! I usually eat it with some tortilla chips. lol! It is VERY forgiving with substitutions! Here are some substitutions that worked great for me:
- use red, orange, yellow or green pepper
- sub red or sweet onion for the green onions
- sub papaya or mixed tropical fruit for the mango
- sub balsamic vinegar or lemon juice for the lime juice
- omit cilantro -- and/or add some parsley
- use pickled jalapeno peppers (LOTS! my personal 'must have'! :)

I find that it's best when served freshly made. I may have to make some later today!

*BTW: For some reason, fresh mango that isn't processed in any way (heated?) tastes like turpentine to me! I either use canned mango, or if I have fresh mango I chop it and then drop it in a small amount of hot simple syrup. :O)

Here is a link that might be useful: Bush's Black Beans and Mango Salad

This post was edited by party_music50 on Fri, Jan 30, 15 at 9:15

>For some reason, fresh mango that isn't processed in any way (heated?) tastes like turpentine to me!

That has nothing to do with processing. It's the variety of mango. There is actually a kind called the Turpentine Mango. There are thousands of mango varieties with very different flavors. Turpentine mangoes are usually grown for the leaves rather than the fruit.

Mango allergy is very, very common, but usually it's only to one aspect of the plant. I'm highly allergic to the pollen, but the skin and fruit don't bother me at all. Other people get blisters on handling the tree or the unpeeled fruit but can eat the pulp without problems. Poor plllog, to be allergic to the fruit itself!

Most people are allergic to the mango tree, I think. Half of a student group I belonged to spent a month picking mangoes (I was spared, luckily, and had a nice indoor job--scut labor, but nice because it was indoors). They all were covered with huge blotches of "mango rash".

I don't have a lot of food allergies, and they're mostly not life threatening. Mostly because you never know when that itchy thick feeling in the throat and eyes is going to turn into full on swelling and anaphylaxis. I'm pretty sure mango is the worst of the three though. I don't know that there's a real commonality. We think of them as "tropical", but I'm not allergic to guava, passion fruit, pineapple, avocado, etc.

A friend just shared this relevant video on FB and it totally cracked me up! It's a very short video and audio is required for full appreciation. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: astronaut video

LOL..... I have to send that to my daughter who wanted to be an astronaut when she was 14-years old. -Grainlady

Dunno if you don't like soup, but l just made a unique and tasty beans and greens chili, Black bean, kale and hominy stew, from
"Cooking Light" Feb 2013 issue. I didn't futz with roasting a poblano, just used canned chilis and canned tomatillos. It was a snap to make. Would probably be even better if you were a chili roaster!

If you like big strong flavors, try this one with chicory. It's good with crusty French bread.

Italian style escarole and beans
2 10.5oz cans chicken broth
1 10.5oz cans cream of mushroom soup
1 or 2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 tsp grated Romano cheese
Combine in 5 quart pan and heat.

1 medium potato, diced, raw
1 large onion, chopped and sauteed
5 cloves garlic, chopped and sauteed
½ - 1 pint shredded cooked pork or ½ lb fried Italian sausage
1 pint dry lima beans or Great Northern beans, cooked
Add to liquid in pan and simmer.

2 medium heads endive ( or 1 head endive and 1 head chicory)
Add to wok and cook until tender. Drain liquid out of wok. Add cooked greens to other ingredients in pan, cook another 5 minutes. Salt, sugar, pepper to taste.

I grow my own chicory, since it's impossible to find it at the store. Use it before it gets too big. It does well as a fall crop. Seeds are easy to find.

PM, thanks for the giggle. :)

LPink, thanks for the link. That stew looks great. I think I'd change it around a bit to suit (sub stuff from the garden for the poblanos and cilantro), but it's very different from a basic pot of beans, while having a similar texture. Definitely a direction to try.

Lilydude, thanks so much for posting! Too many of your ingredients are not things that I cook with. How does it come out? Is it a variation on the idea behind the Utica beans and greens? Stew-like? Soupy? Do the potatoes reduce to thickening, or do they stay as cubes? I worry that it wouldn't be nearly the same after I substitute.

Here's a photo of that chili. The flavor combo of tomatillos, kale, hominy and something roasty is very delish. Plus sour cream! If you make it you really need something in there to deliver the unami taste, even bacon or ham if you don't have roasted pepper. Chipotle I guess if you like it, I don't care for it, too hot for my taste.
{{gwi:2134043}}

Beans and greens I eat at least once a week, so I have a ton of ways to fix them. It is just about my favorite "good for me" flavor combo. Here's one for a bean sauce I love but haven't made in a while. It is from my friend who developed the recipe to mimic her son't favorite dish at the local Thai noodle place. If you don't like cilantro you can sub parsley or even spinach, but then use some corriander for seasoning. The flavor ingredients are pretty essential. Without cilantro or corriander I don't think it would come together. I serve this on rice penne or rice corkscrew pasta, but my friends who are not as wheat shy as me serve it with shell or snail or conch shaped semolina pasta. You could use another kind of nut butter if you're allergic to peanut butter but I don't know how that would come out or taste.

Carolyn's Tahini Sauce

1 can of white beans
6 large garlic cloves (or less, if you are garlic-averse like me)
2 TBLSP of fresh grated ginger (can sub 1 TBLSP dried)
2 cups fresh cilantro (basically a large bunch. Can sub parsley but then add a tsp. of corriander or so. Could also sub frozen spinach I guess)
1 TBLSP Chinese sesame oil
1 TBLSP hot chili oil or sauce. If you don't have that, sub 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper dissolved in 1 TBLSP sesame oil
1/2 cup peanut butter or half tahini and pb or all tahini, depending on your taste. I like the roasted flavor of the pb, so use roasted tahini, not the raw. Tahini always seems to go rancid on me so I don't use it much. I keep raw sesame seeds in the fridge and toast and grind some when I want that flavor.
1/2 cup soy sauce or tamari
2 TBLSP sugar (I use brown for the color)
3 TBLSP rice vinegar or rice wine (can use cider but it isn't the same)

Put all this in a food processor and process until smooth. Serve over hot pasta. Garnish with chopped scallions, cucumbers and sesame seeds. I rarely have cucumbers so have never done that part.

Peppers aren't a problem. Even if I don't have any in the house, there are always serranos in my garden, and they're easy to sub for other kinds of peppers (easy to adjust for different heat levels, that is). Plus plenty of dried.

The tehini recipe kind of blows my mind. I can't even imagine what tehini tastes like with peanut butter (tehini was common in my childhood, but PB was very rare! I only have some from making cookies). I have rice wine vinegar, coriander and a fresh bunch of parsley, plus sesame oil, chili oil, etc. I might even have some canned beans! (I have plenty dried and a conversion table.) This sounds like something I can just leap in and try. Over einkorn or black bean pasta. :)

Thank-you!

First I have to make clean the fridge soup. :)

Any kind of white bean will work, and all tahini would be fine if you like the taste of it. I use peanut butter because it is less expensive and I almost always have it on hand. Tahini tends to go rancid on me since I don't use it that much. I tend to associate tahini with a bit of a bitter taste which is probably the rancidness. I use the pb for peanut butter and jam sandwiches which I eat quite often, and other sauces so it is not as likely to go bad on me. I threw out a lot of tahini in my day so I tend not to buy it anymore. I just keep some sesame seeds on hand in the fridge if I want tahini. But I just threw out two whole cups during my move since I know they had been in there for at least six or seven years and weren't worth devoting packing space to.

I was just thinking that this would be a great thing to feed my Celiac. Her husband doesn't eat meat or poultry and I don't eat fish, and she, of course, doesn't eat gluten... Served over black bean or lentil pasta, which are both yummy, unlike some of the GF cardboard stuff, and with some vegetables or salad on the side, I think this would be a nice dinner, and nutritionally sound. :)

Thanks, again, for sharing it!

(My all time favorite flavor is sesame...)

pillog, I cook my escarole and greens just long enough for everything to be tender but not mushy. I just barely simmer and don't boil. I don't like overcooked food. But it's a matter of personal taste.

Note that I precook the greens in the wok. I believe this gets rid of the oxalic acid that is in some greens.

The flavor is pretty strong with chicory. If you want a more delicate flavor, use endive.

"Trendy" isn't a pejorative. It doesn't mean "twee" or "silly". It just means that lots of people are doing it, talking about it, using it, sporting it, or whatever. Saddle shoes have been trendy twice during my lifetime. It's not that they ever leave. It's not that people don't know they exist, or that there's anything different about them when they're on trend than when they're just there. It's just sometimes everybody's showing them, making them, wearing them, and sometimes it's just the people who always did.