Here is a really good recipe we tried recently. It has been a desire of mine to expand our repetoire of bean recipes since beans are such an economical way to feed a large family. Usually I use dry beans but we recently had a sale on canned beans at the store and I thought it would be a good opportunity to try beans we have never had before. As I opened the cans of beans and caught a whiff I worried this was all a mistake. Later though as my husband looked at the empty pot with ladel in hand I realized I shouldn't have worried.I guess beans just don't smell good in a can.

Gather your ingredients:

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp. fresh sage leaves
• 1/4 tsp. ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• salt to taste
• 3 c. drained, cooked, dried cannellini beans (I used 3 cans)
• 2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, minced (omitted)

In a large saucepan heat the olive oil and saute the garlic for one minute. (Garlic burns fast) Add remaining ingredients except parsley to pot. Simmer  for 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Serve parsley at table to sprinkle on soup.

Source: The Versatile Grain and The Elegant Bean by Sheryl and Mel London (out of print)

My Notes: I didn't drain the tomatoes as this looked a lot drier than we are used to bean soups being. I probably should have  used another can of beans but I had to substitute great northern for one can as it was (the pictures looked the same.)We left out the allspice- hubby had a bad experience with allspice in the Navy. I think next time I will put the shaker on the table because I bet the allspice would have been really good. I didn't bother with the parsley at all. The recipe says it serves six but as a main dish it didn't go that far- next time I might make it half again as much.

I just had to share. I have this vision of going out  to my garden and choosing fantastic herbs to add to my dishes. Reality is that so far my gardening efforts have proven laughable and the few herbs that have survived me tend to get forgotten about when it comes time to use them. But not this time; we had fresh sage out of the garden for this recipe:

• Post A Comment! • Send to a Friend!