Fresh chickpeas and wax beans with baby artichokes

I will admit, I got excited when I saw containers of fresh chickpeas at my produce market. Yes, I do realize that I’m a total food nerd. Anyways, I abandoned my plan for a butter lettuce salad and immediately starting thinking about what to do with the chickpeas. There was a pile of wax beans sitting next to the chickpeas, so I picked some up because I liked the color contrast.

I wanted a third vegetable to go in the mix, so I wandered around the store looking for inspiration. I thought about fava beans, I considered English peas. Then I spotted baby artichokes, and my mind was made up.

This dish was a little bit time consuming – the chickpeas needed to be shelled, and the artichokes needed to be prepped. Once I got through that, I blanched each type of vegetable and put them in the fridge for later.

When it was time to eat, I melted some butter in a pan and added a minced shallot. After the shallot had cooked through, I added the vegetables and a generous dose of salt and pepper. I finished the dish with some fresh tarragon from my garden.

This was a great way to enjoy spring vegetables, and worth the extra effort. The fresh chickpeas had a very different taste from their dried counterpart. I especially liked the color and texture contrast between the different vegetables.

Spring vegetable medley
Serves 3-4

½ pound wax beans, trimmed
1 cup of shelled fresh chickpeas
12 baby artichokes, trimmed and quartered
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium shallot, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon fresh tarragon

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the wax beans, blanch for 2-3 minutes or until tender. Transfer the wax beans to an ice bath. Place the chickpeas in the boiling water, cook for about 10-12 minutes or until tender. Add the chickpeas to the ice bath. Put the artichokes into the boiling water, blanch for about 3-4 minutes or until tender. Place into ice bath. Remove all the vegetables from the ice bath and pat dry with paper towels.

Melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add the shallot, sauté until the shallot is translucent and tender, about 3 minutes. Add the rest of the vegetables, toss to coat with the shallot butter and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the vegetables have warmed through. Stir in the fresh tarragon at the end.

Ingredient spotlight: fava beans

I’ve started to see fresh fava beans popping up in the markets around here, so I thought it would be fitting to highlight them as this month’s ingredient spotlight.

Fava beans have a nutty flavor and buttery texture, and are commonly found at farmer’s markets. They come in bright green pods that are approximately 6 inches long - each pod contains about 3-5 beans. When you open a pod, you’ll notice that the beans are a dull green color. The beans are actually covered by a thick shell that’s not very pleasant to eat. Fava beans also come in dried form, but are definitely not interchangeable with the fresh version.

Preparing fava beans is not difficult, but involves a little bit of time and patience. The first step is to remove the beans from the pods. I do my shelling in front of the tv, it goes much quicker.

After the beans have been removed from the pods, they need to be blanched. I blanch the beans in boiling salted water for about 2-3 minutes, depending on size. The next step is to transfer the beans to a bowl of ice water to cool. Once the beans have cooled, those thick outer shells will be wrinkled and easy to remove. It takes a bit of practice to get the beans out of the shells in one piece. If your beans split in half, it’s not a big deal, they’ll still taste great.

Once you’ve removed all the outer shells, you’ll end up with a pile of vibrantly colored beans that are ready to eat. My favorite ways to eat fava beans are in salads or pasta. The beans can also be pureed and served on bread or as a topping for fish.

I used these fava beans in a salad recipe that I adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques. The beans are paired with salty oil cured olives, meyer lemon and endive for a beautiful and delicious salad. The original recipe says to instruct your guests to eat the slices of meyer lemons, peel and all. I don’t think I’d be able to convince my family and friends to eat lemon slices, so I’m making it an optional garnish, because they sure look pretty in the salad. I added chive flowers because I have them in the garden, but they’re also optional.

Endive and fava bean salad

Adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques

Serves 6

5 belgian endives, cores removed and leaves separated

juice from 1 meyer lemon, plus extra lemon slices for garnish

3/4 cup shelled and cooked fava beans

1/3 cup oil cured olives, pitted and cut into quarters

1 tablespoon chives, finely chopped

1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

chive flowers for garnish

salt and pepper to taste

For the dressing, combine the shallot, cream, olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Arrange the endive spears on a platter, toss with dressing. Sprinkle the fava beans, olives and chives over the top. Garnish with lemon slices and chive flowers if desired.

Arepas with black beans and avocado salsa

I had never heard of arepas until a Venezuelan food stand opened at the Oxbow Public Market in Napa. Every time we’re in the area, we stop by for a snack. We actually don’t go to Napa that often though, so I knew I needed to learn to make some items from their menu so that we could get our fix in between visits.

Arepas are essentially cornmeal patties that can be grilled, baked or fried. There are a few different versions; some are thicker and get sliced in half and stuffed with a variety of fillings, others are thinner and served with toppings. This recipe is for the thinner arepas, which are topped with black beans, avocado salsa and cheese.

To make these arepas, you’ll need to procure some harina precocida, which is a precooked corn flour. For this particular version, nothing else will do. I found my harina precocida at a Mexican market. The arepas are cooked first in a pan, then finished in the oven.

The patties are topped with a black bean mixture and an avocado salsa. The avocado salsa is uniquely flavored with onion, red bell pepper, tomato, Dijon mustard, olive oil, vinegar and cilantro. The arepas are finished with a sprinkling of queso fresco. This dish isn’t particularly difficult to make, but it is quite time consuming because of all the different steps. It's totally worth the effort though, so if you can find some harina precocida, take the time to give this a try.

Black-eyed peas in a spicy goan curry

I received the book 5 Spices, 50 Dishes as a birthday present last month. It's a book of simple indian food recipes with a focus on 5 spices: coriander, cumin, mustard seeds, cayenne pepper and turmeric. I've been using this book for quick weeknight meals when I feel like making something a little more exotic. Last night I made black-eyed peas in a spicy goan curry. The recipe is pretty simple. An onion is sauteed over high heat until dark brown. Four of the five spices are added, along with fresh tomato, ginger and garlic. About four cups of black-eyed peas go into the pot with some water and coconut milk. The whole thing is left to simmer for about 25 minutes to let the flavors meld. Add a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkling of cilantro, and you're done! The book says you can use canned black-eyed peas, or soak some dried peas and increase the cooking time. I used black-eyed peas that I had cooked a few weeks ago and froze. This was a nice blend of flavors - creamy from the coconut milk, spicy from the cayenne. I would suggest serving this with a side of rice or naan and some steamed broccoli.

Maple baked beans

I have been on a dried bean kick recently. I usually buy canned beans for the convenience factor, but after reading about cooking dried beans, I decided to give it a try. I've been cooking up large batches of chickpeas, black beans and white beans and storing them in the freezer. When I saw this recipe for maple baked beans in Barefoot Contessa at Home, I had to give it a try. I used a pound of small red beans, which worked perfectly. The beans are soaked overnight and cooked until tender. Once the beans are soft, they are combined with a sweet and tangy sauce that includes ketchup, brown sugar, ginger and maple syrup. The recipe calls for chinese chile paste, which I didn't have. I substituted hot sauce, and it worked fine. The beans, sauce and some diced bacon go in a low oven for 6 to 8 hours. I cooked mine for about 8 hours. This is definitely not a recipe that you can make on a whim, but I must say it was worth the effort.

Cranberry beans

When I saw a huge pile of cranberry beans at the grocery store, I couldn't resist.

Aren't they pretty? I shelled them while watching Barefoot Contessa and ended up with this:

The beans are slightly bigger than a pinto bean with a little bit of a grassy flavor. To serve, I blanched the beans in salted water for about 15 minutes. Next, I browned about 2 teaspoons of butter in a saucepan and added a finely minced shallot. I sauteed the shallot for a minute, and then added in the beans, salt and pepper and fresh thyme. Chives would probably be good too.

Fresh black eyed peas

I saw these pods of fresh black eyed peas at Berkeley Bowl yesterday, and I couldn't resist buying them:

I shucked them while watching Sex and the City; a half pound yielded a little over a cup of peas:

As you can see, they came out of the pods green. I tried one raw to see what it was like - it was tender with a grassy flavor.

To serve them, I decided to blanch them in salted water for about 90 seconds. Next, I sauteed one finely minced shallot in a little bit of olive oil. I added a handful of frozen white corn kernels to the pan and sauteed them until they were thawed. I added the cooked peas back to the pan and finished the dish with salt and pepper, quartered cherry tomatoes, chives and a squeeze of lime juice.

This was really delicious, the flavors worked well together. The lime juice gave it a bit of a kick. I prefer these fresh black eyed peas to the frozen ones that I normally buy.

Curried lentil, chickpea and swiss chard stew

This is another recipe from Vegetable Harvest, and it was a winner. French green lentils, onions, chickpeas and swiss chard are simmered together in a broth flavored with curry powder, cumin and cayenne. The stew is garnished with a dollop of greek yogurt. The french green lentils really made the dish. The lentils can be hard to find in regular grocery stores, so I ordered them online. The swiss chard came from a plant in our garden which is about 6 feet tall!

Barefoot Contessa at Home - Guacamole salad

I've made quite a few variations of black bean salad, but this recipe was particularly good. Grape tomatoes, yellow bell pepper, jalapeno, red onion, avocado and black beans are tossed in a slightly spicy lime dressing. I think that the avocado and lime zest were the ingredients that really made this salad. I used avocado oil in the dressing instead of olive oil.