White Beans and Cabbage

This is such a great recipe. I love it for snacking or for lunch. Its hearty and super healthy, so if you eat like me, you can eat a ton and not feel guilty.

Here is what you need:
2 tbs olive oil or butter
2 small potatoes (or one big one)- cut in to tiny cubes
1 onion - chopped
2 cups cooked and cooled white beans*
1 cabbage head (shredded - use your Cuisinart for fast shredding)
Grated Parmesan for sprinkling

Heat the Olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
Add the potatoes and onion and a big pinch of salt
Cook potatoes (like hash browns) for about 15 minutes (you can do less, but i like them cooked through and well done)
Be sure to scrape the pan (it will get sticky) and toss the potatoes once or twice along the way to get them cooking evenly across all sides
Stir in the cooked beans and let it all cook until the beans get a bit crispy on all sides(just a few minutes)
Stir in cabbage and cook for another minute or two - you can throw in some extra olive oil and salt if you want (I do)

You can serve it dusted with parmesan - or just plain.


*You can use any beans for this. I love cannelloni beans, but have used kidneys too. you want to start with dried beans, let them soak overnight in water. In the morning (or when you are ready), drain the beans, and add them to a big pot with new water. Cook them for anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours. Be sure to keep checking beans. And when you think they are done, taste a few more to make sure.

Black Eyed Peas with Poached Egg

I made this over the weekend and it was a huge hit. Its really simple, and very satisfying.

Here is what you need:
2 cups dried black eyed peas (soaked for 4 hours or overnight)
1 onion - chopped
3 tbs butter (or olive oil, whatever you have)
eggs (I use one egg per person)
cayenne pepper (or Paprika)

Cook the beans for about 45 minutes (or until done - be sure to check a few beans) You can cook these ahead of time and throw them in the fridge until you are ready for them.

Brown Butter in a pan
Add Onion and a pinch of Salt
Saute onion in the butter until transparent (and smells delich)
throw in the beans and let it all cook a bit - maybe 5 minutes.
Feel free to add whatever you want here - rosemary, lemon - whatever you have and want to use for extra flavor. I like it with just Salt And Pepper

While this is cooking, we need to poach the eggs.
In a pot of almost boiling water, add a tsp of vinegar (white usually, but whatever you have is good).
Put each egg (don't cook more than 2 at a time)in a small bowl. Lower the bowl into the hot water and let the egg slide into the water. it will start to solidify and resemble a 'poached egg.'
Let the egg cook for 3-5 minutes (depending on how hard or soft you want)
Remove the egg with a slotted spoon.

Put the beans into a bowl, add the egg on top of the beans and sprinkle with paprika.

So good.