Beans appeared in Europe after Columbus' second trip to the West Indies and since then has firmly entered the culinary books of many nations. It turned out that this bean culture is very unpretentious, and now it is grown everywhere from Brazil and India to 58 degrees latitude. Beans and in their homeland - in Central America - had many species that differed both in size and in appearance and color. And now completely new varieties have been developed - resistant to frost and drought. People eat not only beans, but also its young pods. This leguminous crop is very beneficial for the body. And besides it is inexpensive. Anyone who doesn't like bean dishes just doesn't know how to cook it. In this article you will find a selection of the best recipes in which this garden crop is the main ingredient. Beans and pods can be boiled, stewed, baked, fried. Let’s see how to make beans delicious. Let's start with salad recipes.
Five-Minute Snack
To make this dish really ready very quickly, the beans must be canned. The only disadvantage of this garden crop can be considered a long cooking process. Therefore, no matter what bean dish you cook, you need to soak the grains overnight. The exception is only young pods. They can be cooked right away. Yes, and soaked beans are not cooked so fast. In soups, it should be introduced earlier than other vegetables. And Pyatiminutka salad from canned beans (a jar of 400 grams is required) is prepared like this. Finely chop the red onion. It is better that she belong to sweet salad varieties. Two pickled cucumbers cut into small cubes. In the same way we grind three hard-boiled eggs. From the jar of beans, strain the liquid, rinse the beans under running water. Add to the salad. Also cut there fresh green parsley (half a bunch). Salt to taste, season with pepper. Add sour cream. Such a salad can be seasoned with mayonnaise.
Red Bean Lobio
Not a single feast in Georgia is complete without this snack. The word "lobio" is translated - "beans". Georgian gourmets soak a glass of these legumes of red color in cold beer (but also in plain water). After this, the liquid is not drained, but put on a very small fire. While it is boiling (in no case should you allow a boiling boil!), We chop the onion finely, bake and chop a glass of walnut kernels, cut a bunch of parsley, cut three or four cloves of garlic. Express the prepared beans a little, add other ingredients. Salt the dish and season with spices, among which red hot pepper is required. Boil it all for another five minutes. Now the red bean lobio needs to be cooled and served. Sprinkle this dish with fresh chopped cilantro.
Peasant soup
Soak 400 grams of beans in the evening. Then boil it until cooked over low heat. As with many other bean dishes, we need an extra hour. During this time, we can peel three potatoes and cut them into cubes. We will prepare other vegetables. Chop the onion finely, peel the two carrots and rub with large chips. Rinse a quarter cup of rice several times until the drained water becomes clear. Pour three liters of water into the pot and put on fire. When it boils, drop the beans. Leave on fire under the lid. Let’s wait for the boil again and add potatoes and rice to the soup. Put the pan on the fire. Pour some vegetable oil into it. When it warms up, add carrots and onions. Fry until golden brown. After five minutes, add a tablespoon of flour. Stir, hold it a little longer in a pan. Put the frying in the soup. Salt and season with your favorite spices. We continue to cook for another ten to fifteen minutes. Sprinkle the finished dish on a plate with fresh chopped herbs.
Lean borsch with beans
This dish is a frequent guest on the tables of Ukrainians, when, according to religious rules, you can’t eat meat and other non-fat foods. Then beef or pork is replaced by red beans. A glass of these beans should be soaked in the evening. Then drain the liquid, and put the softened beans into a saucepan with 2.5 liters of water and put on the stove. When it boils, reduce the heat. Two medium potatoes are peeled, washed, cut into small pieces, and sent to the pan. Now let's get the beets. One tuber can be peeled, cut into strips and fry in oil. But there are people who do not like slices of beets in borsch. Then you need to cook the unpeeled tuber separately, remove the skin, grate the pulp. We will return to beets at the end of the process of preparing lean borsch with beans. Chop the onion, spasser until transparent in vegetable oil. Add the carrots cut into strips, fry. Put the root vegetables in a pan. Now their place in the pan should take two sliced ​​tomatoes and three finely chopped cloves of garlic. Let them stew a little under the lid. We shred half a cabbage and one bell pepper in the soup. Add a couple of spoons of tomato paste or a special dressing for borsch to the pan. At this stage, the dish should be salt, add spices and herbs. Pour grated beets with hot broth, let it brew under the lid for half an hour. Then we express the ruby ​​liquid into the pan.
Fasolada
This Greek soup is prepared much faster than Ukrainian borsch. And if we are interested in simpler recipes from beans, then this dish will help you out. However, the beans should be cooked or at least swollen from soaking. Pour them with fresh water, add bay leaf, thyme and other herbs and set to cook. After about an hour, chop the onion and carrot, make the frying in a deep cauldron. Scalp four tomatoes with boiling water, remove the skin from them, add to root crops. We pour out three cloves of finely chopped garlic and a teaspoon of sugar. With a slotted spoon, we catch the beans and transfer it to a cauldron. Pour some broth where it was cooked. Season with salt and spices. This bean dish is delicious both hot and cold. Serve it with sour cream.
Hot dishes: chicken with vegetables
We cut three hundred grams of breast into medium-sized strips. Sprinkle with salt and cayenne pepper. In a deep pan, we heat a spoonful of olive oil. We spread the chicken fillet, chopped one Bulgarian pepper, sliced ​​onion in half rings and two garlic cloves squeezed through a press. Cook, stirring occasionally, ten minutes. Canned beans (a jar of 400-500 grams) are decanted, washed, laid out in a pan. Add a glass of ready-made rice cereal there (brown parboild is ideal). Add a little, with a quarter cup, chicken stock. Season with cumin and other spices. Bean stew with chicken meat served with lime slices.
Gratin
This French dish is made from various products. Gratin is a casserole under a mouth-watering cheese cap. And now we will learn how to cook beans and cauliflower in French. Immediately preheat the oven to 200 degrees. In a saucepan over a small fire, melt a spoonful of butter. Remove from the stove, mix in the same amount of flour. Dilute it with a quarter glass of milk, stir. Put it on the fire again. Add a glass of milk. We begin to whisk until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat, add a pinch of sweet paprika, salt and black pepper. Spicy hard cheese (preferably cheddar) rub to get a glass of crumbs. Add half of this amount to the sauce. We mix in it and two teaspoons of Dijon mustard. A large head of cabbage is boiled in salted water, we will analyze it for inflorescences. Canned beans are decanted and washed. Put it together with cauliflower in a mold. Pour the sauce. Send to the oven for a quarter of an hour. Five minutes before cooking, sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
Side dish "Winter"
The recipes for independent hot legume dishes were given above. Now it's time to learn how to cook beans for a side dish. The winter version involves the use of champignons (250 g) and boiled potatoes in their uniforms (two medium tubers). You can pre-boil a glass of red beans or use a canned product. Shred the onion finely, pass two cloves of garlic through a press. We fry it on a mixture of butter and vegetable oils (two to one proportions). After five minutes, add the peeled mushrooms. Peel and cut the potatoes in medium slices. Add tubers and beans to the mushrooms. Fry until cooked. Serve sprinkled with herbs mixed with mayonnaise.
Pork with beans
Boil until ready two cups of legumes. Four hundred grams of pork cut into small pieces. We chop the onion and carrot. In a pan with high walls, heat the vegetable oil. Spread pork, onions and carrots. Fry for five minutes. Add the beans. Salt, season with spices. Add two tablespoons of tomato paste. Fill with water so that it covers the entire contents of the pan. Stir under cover until pork is cooked. This will take about two hours. Bean stew, with meat, sprinkle with fresh chopped dill.