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beans-spinach recipe



Date:    Sat, 23 Apr 94 17:27:59 EDT
 From:    muriel kranowski (DOC@VTVM1.CC.VT.EDU)
 
         WHITE BEANS WITH BREAD CRUMBS AND SPINACH
 
    1 lb small white beans
    1 cup soft home-made bread crumbs (see below)
    lots of garlic - I used 4 big cloves
    1 box frozen spinach
    salt, pepper, and herbs (see below)
 
 (The night before, I put the frozen spinach in the fridge to thaw.)
 
 Soak and cook the beans in your standard manner, adding a bay leaf
 to flavor them as they cook.  This batch took about 1-3/4 hours to
 get real tender after a 2-hour soaking following a 2-minute boiling.
 When they're done, mostly drain them -- the recipe said
 to leave them almost covered with their cooking liquid, which I
 thought was too wet.  Your call.  I saved the cooking liquid when I
 drained it so I could add some of it back after adding everything else
 if it seemed dry, which indeed it did.
 
 I made the bread crumbs by tearing up two thick slices of (previously
 unsliced) white bread -- next time I will try whole wheat -- and
 whirling them in the Cuisinart.  After a few whirls, I added in the
 cloves of garlic and pulsed them until the bread was in crumbs.
 (What a wonderful aroma from the combined bread and garlic!)
 I put the crumb/garlic mix in a bowl.
 
 I put the spinach in a pan (my new Circulon wok, I love it!  thanks
 to y'all who mentioned it and inspired me to buy it!!) and heated it
 up uncovered for a couple of minutes -- didn't try to get it "cooked",
 just "hot".  I added salt (about 3/4 tsp), white pepper, oregano and
 thyme, mixed it up, then pureed it in the Cuisinart -- this was the
 olive-oil substitution so I made it as flavorful as possible.
 
 Finally, I added the crumbs and 1/3 cup of the spinach puree to
 the beans (in a large bowl), mixed well, added back some of the
 reserved bean-cooking liquid, and tried not to "taste" too much
 of it -- it was really tasty.  I refrigerated it overnight.
 
 Before serving it I warmed it up gently -- you could serve it cold
 but I think warming it brings out more of the flavors.  It was
 well received and I will do it again.  It also looked real nice
 with the white beans and the green spinach.  And since it was (as
 usual) the only fatfree item at the lunch, I was glad there was
 lots of it!
 kwvegan vegan