Last weekend I had a friend coming over for dinner. A few days before I'd carried out a not so strategic supermarket sweep and grabbed anything I thought I should stock my pantry with. After 8 months away, using different ingredients and discovering mouth watering new vegan food, it was to be a fresh start.
After 5 minutes of picking and poking around to get inspiration I thought...a) I want it to be quick b) I want it to be simple c) It has to be DELICIOUS d) and it has got to be filling. I pulled out a few ingredients and made a decision. The smokey scent of a jar full of dried smokey chipotle chillies meant just one thing. RICE AND BEANS.
Smoky chipoltle Black beans & Brown rice with avocado & slaw salad, sauteed garlic kale, vegan sour cream & home made low fat mustard hummus.
Serves 4-6
You will need to gather...
Black beans soaked and cooked vigorously for 10 mins and then simmered for 35-40mins. (or buy pre-cooked in a can..simple)
*Top Tip: to save time & energy I cook a whole 500g bag of dried beans with the following finely chopped to flavour - 1 small leek, 1/4 green cabbage. Pop what beans you do not use for this recipe in the freezer and you have a ready store of beans with which to create other dishes. IF you just use a can of beans then add a leek to the recipe.
200g (dried weight) or a can of black beans
1 med/large onion
1/2 can chopped tomatoes
1 large clove of garlic
1 1/2 tbs tomato puree
1 small fresh green chili - mild
1 dried chipotle chili (keep whole)
1/4 tsp asafoteda powder (optional...reportedly good for digestion and adding a depth of pungency)
2 tsp Apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar
1 tbs tamari or soy sauce
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp freshly roasted & ground cumin
Salt & Pepper
oil for cooking onions
How to..
finely chop the onion (add the leek if not already added from cooking dried beans) and fry on a low heat for 5-10 mins until edges are caramelising nicely.
add finely chopped garlic and stir for 2-3 mins. Take care not to burn.
Add the remaining ingredients but keep the chipotle chili whole to remove at the end of cooking. Unless you love it hot then go for it and chop the little fella.
Simmer on low heat for 30 mins. For best results leave to cool before reheating then serving. This seems to really strengthen the flavours.
Check for seasoning
The rest....
Salad - Two large Kos lettuce. Finely sliced red cabbage.
Sauteed kale - allow 2 handfuls of kale (washed and torn into pieces) per person (it shrinks alarmingly). 1 tbs olive oil, 2 sliced garlic cloves. Bung all into a pan, bring up the heat to medium and stir fry for about 3 mins, or until the kale goes dark green and glossy and the garlic is golden.
Dressing - 4 tbs soya cream. 2 tsp vegan Parmesan or nutritional yeast. juice of 1/2 lemon. 1tsp pink salt. Finely ground black pepper (i love it so I added 1/2 tsp, you may want to show more restraint than me). Mix well. You can use a cashew cream instead but I had no cashews handy.
Getting dressed...
To create the whole ensemble like in the photo, do the following (of course you can plate them in separate dishes to be served at the table)
Place the two Kos lettuce leaves on a plate, criss-cross. Add some raw cabbage, then the kale, and a helping of brown rice, spoon the hot beans over the top and then drizzle over a spoon or two of the dressing. I also added half an avocado and a sgenerous poon of my divine, hot mama, low fat homemade mustard hummus.
It was, according to my dinner guest, 'bloody marvelous, luv' in a Cockney accent'. I hailed it a success and reminded him he was from Surrey and not born within the sound of Bow Bells.
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