Warm Bean Salad
This recipe is all about dressing up a few cans of beans with trusted pantry/crisper ingredients, and transforming them from something monotone and bland into a textured and layered, warm bean salad.
Warm Bean Salad
serves 4
olive oil
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
chile flakes
sea salt
1 shallot, sliced
3-4 garlic cloves, sliced
1 1/2 teaspoon capers
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes (preferably oil-packed)
3 cups (2 15 oz/425 g cans) white beans
a few handfuls spinach
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and add enough oil to lightly coat the bottom. Add the pumpkin seeds, turmeric, chile flakes to taste, and a pinch of salt. Toast the pumpkin seeds, stirring frequently, until they become golden and begin to pop, 3-5 minutes. Transfer the pumpkin seeds to a bowl using a slotted spoon, leaving the oil behind, set aside for now.
Add a little more oil to the skillet if needed. Add the shallots, garlic, capers, and a pinch of salt. Saute for about 5 minutes, until the shallots are golden. Add the tomatoes, beans, and another pinch of salt if your beans are unsalted, let the beans warm through. Add the spinach and stir it in to wilt. Turn off the heat and add the vinegar and mustard, stir to coat. Add the pumpkin seeds. Taste the beans for salt and adjust if needed. Serve the bean salad warm or at room temperature, as is or with a side of avocado, bread, grains, or a green salad.
Note
If you can’t find oil-packed tomatoes, you can use the regular, dried kind here. If they seem particularly tough and dried out, soak them in hot water for about 15 minutes to rehydrate.
The oil from oil-packed sun dried tomatoes can be used as cooking oil in this recipe, or any other time you’re cooking something, where a tomato infused oil would be a welcome flavor.
Intuitive Cooking Takeaways
You can look at this bean salad recipe as a basic framework, which can be built on endlessly and taken in all kinds of different directions. Experiment with the kinds of beans you use - chickpeas and cranberry beans come to mind as great options. Other nuts or seeds can be used in place of the pumpkin seeds, and the toasting spices can be switched up as well. All kinds of other dark leafy greens can stand in for the spinach here, just be mindful of the fact that the tougher ones like kale will need more time to cook.