This came together gratifyingly quickly. The longest part was pressure-cooking the beans, but that gave me time to dismantle the chicken and mise-en-place all the ingredients.

Quick Green Chicken Chili

Cook's Country August/September 2018 (recipe card)

Ingredients

• 1.5 C mixed dry black and great northern beans
• 6C half-strength chicken or vegetable stock (or 6C water + 1 stock cube)
• 2 tsp (~0.5L worth) Better than Bouillon stock concentrate or equivalent
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• ¾ tsp pepper, ground
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tsp cumin, ground
• 1 C premade green salsa
• 1 grocery store roast chicken, skinned and shredded
• ½ C fresh cilantro, chopped
• Yoghurt and hot sauce (for serving)

Directions

1. Add beans and stock to pressure cooker. Pressure cook high for 40 minutes.
2. Depressurize and drain beans, reserving 1L of cooking water. If you have less than 1L, top up with tap water.
3. Stir stock concentrate into the bean water; set aside.
4. Heat oil in a dutch oven over medium heat.
5. Add onion and pepper and cook until translucent and softened, ~5 minutes.
6. Stir in garlic and cumin and cook until fragrant, ~1 minute.
7. Stir in beans, bean water, and salsa. Increase heat to medium high and bring to a boil.
8. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer 10 minutes.
9. Mash some of the beans against the side of the pot for thickness, if desired.
10. Stir in chicken and cilantro and cook until warmed through, ~2 minutes.
11. Serve with yoghurt and hot sauce; we found that this tomatillo-based sauce worked nicely.

This has been a very busy week; lots of appointments and running around. I was tired today and really didn't feel much like cooking, but I know that tomorrow is going to be another busy day and I may not get a chance to cook, so I figured I'd better cobble something together for dinner tonight.
I had some ready-made pie crusts in the freezer that really want used, so I decided to peruse the Book of Old Tarts to see if it held any inspiration. I've been buying Beyond Meat sausages whenever they go on sale and stashing them in the freezer for later use and I've finally restocked on cream as well, so this sausage and mustard tart caught my eye. I didn't have the right kind of beans, but I figured I'd swap in gigantes and give it a try anyway.

The original recipe calls for a "shallow 9-inch tart tin". I have a shallow 9" tart tin, so I baked it in that. This worked fine, but only, I think, because I was a little shy on the beans and didn't press the sausages down into the filling as directed. The sausages were also a bit too long to fit neatly in the tin. I think I'd be inclined to try it with a 10" tin next time.

As you can see, the tart lacked some structural integrity. I'm not sure if the filling was too wet or the crust was too thin or if it needed more time in the oven or what. That said, the flavour was excellent!

Sausage and Mustard Tart

Slightly adapted from the Book of Old Tarts

Ingredients

• 175g pastry
• 4 c. cooked butter beans or great northern beans (haricot beans)¹
• 3 Tbsp. Roman Mustard, divided
• 2 Tbsp. ketchup
• 3 Tbsp. table (18%) cream
• salt and pepper, to taste²
• 8 chipolata sausages or 4 mild Italian sausages, halved
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Directions

1. Roll out the pastry and use it to line a 23 or 25cm (9 or 10") shallow tart tin.³
2. Blind bake at 200°C (400°F) for 15 minutes. Ideally you would then remove the pie weights, brush with egg, and bake for another 5 minutes. I skipped the brushing with egg step.
3. Meanwhile, purée the beans with 2 Tbsp. of the mustard, ketchup, cream, salt, and pepper.
4. Pour the bean purée into the baked pie shell.
5. Place the sausages (or sausage halves) on top in a wheel spoke pattern, pressing them down into the filling.
6. Cover the pie with foil and bake at 180°C (350°F) for 35 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, combine the remaining 1 Tbsp. mustard, brown sugar, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce and mix well.
8. After 35 minutes, uncover the pie and brush with the mustard mixture.
9. Return to oven and bake for another 10 minutes.
10. Serve with fried onions, gravy, and/or creamed kale.

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Variations

Vegetarian Version

This makes for an easy vegetarian meal. Just use vegetarian sausages and Worcestershire sauce.

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¹ I didn't have either, so I used gigantes (mature lima beans). I cooked them in mixture of water and chicken stock with onion, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns, chili flakes, and a Parmesan rind. ^Back
2 I didn't add any salt and pepper since there was already some in the cooking liquid from the beans. When I drained the beans, I removed the bay leaves and the Parmesan rind but left the peppercorns in. ^Back
3 The original recipe calls for a 9" tin, but that size seemed a bit small to me. I'll probably use a 10" tin the next time I make this recipe. ^Back

This dish is so close to being vegetarian already, I always feel a bit guilty buying the pancetta for it. I mean, the chicken stock is easy: Just swap it out for vegetable broth. I don't really just want to omit the pancetta though and I don't feel like vegan tempeh bacon will cut it here. So I started Googling around for ideas. I found lots of suggestions for various types of tempeh and tofu bacon. There were also recipes for coconut, chickpea, and eggplant bacon. None of these felt quite right though.

What turned out to be more useful were the pages discussing the flavour profile and different attributes of bacon (and pancetta). Flavour-wise these pork belly products pack a huge wallop of both salt and umami. Bacon also tends to come with a certain amount of smokiness as well as notes of sweetness and a tiny hint of sour. Pancetta, being unsmoked, doesn't bring the smokiness that bacon does. And, although no one really discussed this, I feel like the sweet and sour elements are less evident in pancetta as well. Someone did point out though that pancetta often carries faint notes of nutmeg and fennel as these are sometimes used during the curing process.

Salt and umami can be provided by things like soy sauce and (vegetarian) Worcestershire sauce. Sweet can come from maple syrup or brown sugar. Sour can be in the form of apple cider vinegar or tomato paste. And smoke (if you're going for the whole smoked bacon experience) can come from things like liquid smoke, smoked paprika, chipotle chiles, or... actual smoke, as in you can grill or smoke your food to add some char and/or smoky goodness. Different recipes recommend these things in slightly different proportions, but the basic idea is the same.

So, I have some ideas of how to handle the flavour side of things now, but there's also the issue of texture. Tempeh is great. I really like tempeh. But I don't think it's got quite what I want in the way of texture for this. Tofu is probably a bit closer to what I'm looking for. In a pinch, I'd probably slap a marinade on some tofu, fry it up and chuck that in. I feel like it might still be missing something though. Then one of the pages I was browsing suggested olives as an idea for something that would provide some of the same texture of pancetta (albeit with a decidedly different flavour). I like that idea! Olives. Brilliant! I think we now have a plan for how to make these beans vegetarian!

Please note: I haven't actually tested this recipe yet. I just think it sounds like a good idea. I'll test it and report back the next time I'm making γιγαντες πλακι.

Vegetarian Gigantes Plaki

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 4 onions, chopped
• pepper, to taste
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 6-8 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 150g green olives in brine, drained or 75g green olives and 75g cubed tofu bacon
• 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. fennel seeds, ground
• 1 (828mL) tin whole San Marzano tomatoes, broken up
• 450g dried butter beans (aka jumbo lima beans) or great northern beans (if you can't find the others)
• Parmesan rind
• 8 c. vegetable broth
• Parmesan and crusty bread, to serve

Directions

1. If you feel like being fancy you can saute your onions and garlic in the olive oil first and then toss in the spices and olives/tofu and cook them a little bit. If you're not feeling fancy, just dump everything in the pot in one go and set it to low for 10-12 hours. It'll be delicious either way.
2. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Serve with extra Parmesan grated on top and a piece of crusty bread on the side.

Γίγαντες Πλακί (Giant Baked Beans)

I found this recipe during some aimless Internet wandering. It looks to be a slow cooker adaptation of γίγαντες πλακί (gigantes plaki) or giant baked beans. Apparently dried runner beans (γίγαντες) are traditionally used for this. I couldn't find any, so I tossed in some great northern beans instead. And wow! Did they ever come out nice! This one is definitely a keeper. This was both easier and more delicious than any other baked bean recipe I've ever tried. Seriously good.

Γίγαντες Πλακί
~450g great northern beans (or gigantes if you can find 'em)
2 bay leaves
~1 tsp. red pepper flakes
6-8 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
4 onions, chopped
1 (28 oz.) can San Marzano tomatoes, smashed/broken up
a few sprigs of thyme (or maybe 1 tsp. of dried)
~1 tsp. dried oregano (optional)
~150g cubed pancetta
1 good-sized hunk of Parmesan rind
8 c. chicken stock
2 Tbsp. olive oil
pepper, to taste
crusty bread, to serve

Apparently with the traditional method, you cook the pancetta and vegetables first and build a fond and all that good stuff. I think the beans are meant to be soaked overnight as well. However, this slow cooker version just has you throw everything in the pot at once and cook it on high for six hours. My slow cooker is currently out of commission, but letting it simmer on the stovetop all afternoon certainly seems to have done the trick. I did have to add a bit more water partway through cooking, but that was no trouble. And other than that brief intervention, it was completely hassle-free!

And did I mention that this is probably the most delicious bean dish I've ever tried? Ever. Seriously. This made a huge pot of beans. We've been eating them for a week. And I'm okay with this! I'm not tired of them yet and I will certainly be making more in the future!