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I had a couple of cans of adzuki beans but was a bit loathe to use them. The last time DH ate them he felt they were a bit flavorless. Also, internet research tells me the adzuki beans are used in Japanese sweets, and I wasn’t sure if they might be too sweet.
So here’s what I did:
2 cans of adzuki beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup chopped red and yellow bell peppers
6 green onions, chopped
1 large carrot, grated
Toss all this in a bowl and dress with:
In a lidded jar, add
3 tbls walnut oil
1 tbls red wine wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
fresh ground mixed peppercorns
1 teaspoon salt
Shake to emulsify and pour over the salad. Into the fridge to let the flavours meld.
Fab with any leftover BBQ or just over some fresh spinach leaves.
Some days, life just gets busy and taking time to do anything for lunch is hard. I don’t have the luxury of being able to eat two meals a day out, where all I have to do is order and eat. Those days I start looking in the fridge for something, anything, that I can be spooning up in under 5 minutes. Having said that, it has to be tasty – I am simply not prepared to “waste” calories on something that doesn’t satisfy on the way to my tummy!
So we BBQed some pork loin chops the other day, with the green pesto and lemon marinade. I chunked one of the leftover chops, stirred in another teaspoon of pesto and a 1/2 can of cannelli beans. In the microwave for 2 minutes on 50% power, more to take the chill off than to really COOK it, and dumped it over some torn lettuce leaves. I quite like warm topping on cold leaves, and this hit the spot. All in under 5 minutes.
This was simplicity itself and cooked up in less than 15 minutes – gotta love that.
2 small pork loin chops (boneless), pounded thin
1 tlbs olive oil plus 1 tsp butter
thyme
salt and pepper
juice of 1/2 a lemon
can of butter beans
Heat the oil and butter in a small frying pan. Strip the leaves from a few sprigs of fresh thyme and toss them in. Fry the chops on one side, then flip them over, salting and peppering the cooked side. Fry the pork loins till they are just done through, crispy on the outside but not dry on the inside – this is very quick, maybe 3 minutes a side (assuming you have pounded them very thin!) Squeeze over the lemon juice and remove the pork to a warmed plate.
Dump in your can of drained and rinsed butter beans. Stir them around in the pan juices until just warmed through – check your plate of pork and tip any juices that came out of the pork into the beans. Roughly mash them with the back of a fork. Add a bit more oil to give them a more creamy consistency, if they seem dry.
Plate up and eat – it looks like a lot but this is actually a small salad plate!
I finally got some Besan (Gram flour in the UK, but basically ground chickpeas) and made a recipe I had seen for dosa (a sort of flat bread) which was nice enough but it was a bit bland. I wanted to tart it up and got to thinking there must be a LOT of things I could add to it to make it more interesting. I wanted a lighter texture so I though maybe an egg would help. It did. Then I browsed thru my fridge and in the end this is what I did:
1 cup of besan flour
1 cup of water
2 finely sliced green onions
2 tbls garlic
salt and pepper (more than I would usually add – the besan flour seems to need it – about 1/2 tsp of each)
little bag of defrosted mixed veg (corn, carrots, broccoli) but any leftover veg would be good
3/4 to 1 cup of minced cooked chicken
Whisk the besan and the water and let it sit for 10 minutes or so so the flour soaks up the water. Mix in all the rest of the ingredients.
Heat a large skillet with a bit of oil – I used too much to begin with, as the besan really soaks up the oil, but the next couple of batches I used only a tbls. or so of garlic-infused olive oil and it was fine (although I WAS using a non-stick skillet!)
With a 1/3 cup measure (or 1/4 cup if you want smaller fritters) drop the batter into the hot pan. Let it cook till the edges are a bit brown and clearly dry. Flip them over. Using your spatula, press down on the top. You may see a little bit of liquidy batter oozing out. Keep pressing lightly till the fritter is firm. You can flip them a couple of times to get a uniform golden colour all over.
These are best if you eat them right away, while they are still slightly crunchy on the outside, as if then sit they become a bit more like pancakes, softer on the outside.
Amazing what a bit of natural light does for my photos!
As it was just pancake day I am thinking this mix, minus the veg and chicken, but with the egg, might cook up a bit like a crepe, thin, pliable, and slightly chewy, which would be perfect for wrapping meat and veg, a bit like a fajita, in. Although I suspect it would need a knife and fork for eating rather than just your hands!
Although it probably fits the slow-carb lifestyle, they as heavy on the chickpeas (and don’t tell me they are a domino food! that applies, so far as I can tell, only to the roasted chickpea snacks that you can get carried away with, munching through a bag in seconds!) so this, like the yummy kale and bacon casserole, is an every so often treat if you are losing weight well, not an every day lunch!
I think there is room for much experimentation here – if I could find, for example, a nice sugar-free syrup, and added cardamom and cinnamon to the besan and water then I think these could almost become something like pancakes. Again, like the diet drinks, once a week would be my enforced limit.
The fritters are lovely with a small dollop of sour cream on the top. And I don’t see why you couldn’t add an additional egg and cook this in the skillet in the oven for more of a frittata sort of thing, although I suspect a you would want to halve the batter so it cooked evenly through, crunchy on the outside, but not burnt.
I was at a loss as to what to have for lunch. So I whipped this up in a flash.
bacon lardons
can of cannelli beans
fresh spinach leaves
Fry off the bacon lardons. I fried up a whole pack but only used maybe a 1/4 cup. Four bacon rashers would do if lardons aren’t easy to find. Drain the bacon on paper towels and tip out most of the bacon fat. Add a drained and rinsed can of beans – I used cannelli beans but lentils would work, or butter beans. Toss the beans in the pan til they are warm, and add back in the bacon. When it is all warm dump the whole mess onto some fresh spinach leaves and dress with balsamic vinaigrette. Eat.
OK, so I like to cook, most days, but sometimes real life makes it hard to take the time to prepare and actual meal, especially for lunch. The other day I was in a real rush to get something made to eat, looked in the fridge and thought What the heck am I going to do in 3 minutes? Well, I had some meat sauce left over from cheat day (I nearly ALWAYS have pasta with meat sauce, usually with marscapone cheese in the sauce, but last week I had sauce with nothing “bad” in it because I just bought a little tub of pre-made fresh meat sauce) so I looked at the “bean shelf” (just stacks nd stacks of canned beans of all varieties) and grabbed a can of cannelli beans. Drained and rinsed them, then stirred in the leftover meat sauce, maybe 1/2 cup, maybe a little less, then popped it in the microwave for a few minutes till it was all hot. Sprinkled a couple of teaspoons of good quality Parmigiano Reggiano over the top (technically a no-no but I do use it fairly often, I have to admit, just never much) and lunch in under 5 minutes!
All it needs is a nice salad of mixed leaves and a little balsamic vinaigrette over it for a full slow-carb meal.
Looks a bit of a mess but very tasty – so much so this week I am planning for it, rather than depending on leftovers.
This was a total experiment that I think worked well.
1/2 cup thawed frozen spinach or fresh spinach, wilted. Squeeze out as much water from the leaves as possible
1 cup cottage cheese
6 whole eggs
1 bag black lentils
4 sliced spring onions
1 tbls pesto (made with olive oil, fresh or jarred)
Mix the bag of lentils with a tbls of olive oil then mash them slightly into the bottom of a 9 inch pie dish. Mine in glass and has sloping sides but I’m not sure it matters.
Mix the rest of the ingredients together until well incorporated. Pour into the pie dish gently, trying not to disturb the beans on the bottom. You can sprinkle a tbls of Parmesan cheese over the top if you like.
Bake in a 180C/350F oven for 30-35 minutes. Check it a 30 minutes – if a clean knife inserted in the middle comes out clean it’s done!
Great served with tomatoes for breakfast. but a dollop of salsa would also be nice. A bigger wedge for lunch maybe with some marinated tomatoes, in olive oil, balsamic vinegar and italian herbs would be fab.
Other beans would work well for the crust – as a jumping off point this is easy to adapt. If you keep with the basic idea (mashed beans for the “crust” and the egg-to-cottage cheese ratio) then the additions can be anything:
- black beans for the crust and chopped or shredded chicken or pork, especially anything cooked with Mexican spices, red onion instead of spring onions and served with cilantro and salsa
- Puy lentils for the crust, chopped cooked bacon or ham with shallots and thyme or tarragon
- cannelli beans for the crust and tuna! maybe with, if allowed, some sliced black olives
- omit the spinach and substitute a load of fresh herbs in any combo you like – dill, thyme, tarragon, basil, cilantro, chives
Obviously the cottage cheese is an occasional addition, as although it is mentioned in the book, the clarification from Tim says not every day. Basically only you know how well things are working for you. If you are stalled you may want to give this a go MINUS the cottage cheese – my feeling is it will still work, although it may need a different cooking time.
You can reheat this in the microwave to, so make on Sunday and you have at least 2 breakfast or lunch meals for two people!
Well, here it is, my first recipe.
How it came about: Canellini Beans and Tuna is a classic Italian antipasto recipe. When I first thought of making this, as a fast and easy lunch for DH and I, I didn’t HAVE any cannelli beans so I grabbed a can of Puy Lentils instead and went ahead. When I told DH I had made this for lunch the next day the look on his face said it all: That sounds disgusting. Then he tried it. Now, it is the single most requested lunch-time meal from him – good thing it is fast and easy to make, with minimal kitchen prep, and endlessly variable. This recipe should serve two very comfortably, depending on your appetite!
1 400g can of Puy lentils
2 x 250g cans of tuna (in brine or water) I use one can white tuna, one cheap tuna)
1 small red onion, chopped fine
6 x 15ml tbls fresh squeezed lemon juice (substitute bottled lemon but it isn’t as good!)
3 x 15ml tbls good olive oil
20 big leaves fresh basil, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Mix the olive oil, lemon juice and onion together in a small container with a tight lid. Add some salt and pepper (maybe 1/2 tsp. of each) put on the lid, hold it tight and shake it all up to emulsify into a dressing.
Drain and rinse the can of lentils and let the water drain.
Flake the tuna into a bowl. Add the drained lentils. Pour over the dressing and combine.
Chop and mix in the basil leaves.
Let sit overnight in the fridge, taste and correct the seasonings, then serve over fresh spinach leaves, with a slice of lemon to spritz on at the table.
Alternatively, feel free to dump everything into a big bowl and stir then eat.
Options: There are so many options for this dish!
- substitute cannelli, borlotti, butter, or even black beans for the lentils
- serve over a mixture of rocket, watercress and spinach, and add hot sauce for a bit more bite
- substitute lime juice for lemon, use avocado oil instead of olive, and add chopped coriander (cilantro) instead and…
- serve a few scoops piled into a halved avocado
- you could try it with canned Salmon, but I never have!
So there you go! If you try it, do let me know if you like it – and any variations you may have discovered!
