Down Home Beans & Greens Sauté and Corn with Green Chile Cream

Monday, February 3

Down Home Beans & Greens Sauté and Corn with Green Chile Cream

Rating: 4.5

Not too long ago I saw a post on-line that asked, “Who really needs a recipe for a bean, a green, and a grain?” Well, the answer is, “This girl, that’s who.” Seriously. As much as I love to cook, I’m a follow instructions kind of cook most of the time. Sure, adding some spices to spinach or broccoli while steaming it or just mixing up some veggies in a wok with tofu I can do on my own, but I confess, I am confounded by beans. If you don’t tell me precisely what to do with them, they’re going to be awful. Same for leafy greens, except spinach – spinach I’m fine with on my own. So, a few weeks ago, I bought a copy of The Great Vegan Bean Book. We’ve tried a few recipes from it now, and we’ve really liked most of them. Seth loves pinto beans and he loves greens, so this recipe sounded perfect. It actually calls for collards, but I don’t like collards so I swapped lacinato kale for them instead. I chose lacinato instead of curly kale since it’s easier to cut, in my opinion. The recipe is really simple, pinto beans, greens, onion, garlic, carrot or sweet potato, broth, and liquid smoke. I added a little salt because I was really afraid it was going to be bland. I also had the cumin & chili powder at the ready, just in case, but I didn’t need it. I have to say, I was surprised at how tasty this simple and easy to make dish actually was. I was hoping for leftovers for a couple of Seth’s lunches, but we liked it so much, there was really only enough left for one. Next time I'll make a larger batch. As for the grain part of dinner, I wanted corn. We made the Summer Corn with Green Chili Cream from the Vedge cookbook a couple of weeks ago, and oh holy yum. The first time, I made it with corn on the cob I found at Whole Foods. This time, I used frozen corn. It was just as good as it was with the fresh corn, but I think once the summer rolls around and amazing corn is in season, I’ll use that instead. This recipe is one that will become a part of our regular rotation. It’s very easy to do and is so tasty. It’s really just corn, Poblano pepper, onion and salt & pepper all roasted together and then mixed with vegan sour cream and cilantro. (I only put cilantro in Seth’s. I don’t really like that soapy-dirt-tasting herb.) Dinner in no-time flat, that was super yummy? Yes, please!