1.28.2012

fava or lima beans with artichoke hearts and peas, mmmmmmm

last weekend we had some people over for dinner and i tried out this new recipe that was a smash, bang, boom HIT! i don't know if i've really talked about this on here, but our house is 33% vegetarian (the hubs, a better man than i, or you know what i mean anyways) and so we eat vegetarian meals pretty frequently. almost always, actually, with sides of chicken, turkey, or fish for otto and sometimes me.

anyways, i've been aspiring to work more beans into our dinners menu. i didn't grow up eating many beans and when i did, it was gag town, usa, so this has been a real challenge for me. but i am determined, and finding that i actually do really like bean dishes when they're done right. and so, after all that jabber, here is an easy one that is just super delish!
what you need...

1/4 cup evoo (that's extra virgin olive oil for the recipe uncool)
1 yellow onion, cut into thin half-rings
1 2/3 cups frozen lima or fava beans (aka broad beans) (i used lima)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup water
2 cups frozen peas
14oz artichoke hearts, drained and cut into halves or quarters
2 Tbsp chopped dill
1 Tbsp chopped mint
4 scallions chopped
salt & pepper to taste

what you do...

1. heat the oil over low-medium heat, add the onion and cook about 5 minutes til it's soft and browning
2. add beans, lemon juice, water and bring to a boil
3. reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 5 minutes
4. add peas, artichoke hearts and herbs. stir. simmer, covered, another 5 minutes.
5. remove from heat, salt/pepper to taste, serve hot or warm

this isn't my recipe, in fact i just barely altered it by replacing the broad beans with lima beans and cutting down on the onion content (the original recipe called for 2 onions, egad that seemed like wayyyy too much!) i found this recipe in a cookbook i picked up at CostCo last summer called Essential Vegetarian. so far it's been consistently decent with only one recipe that was pretty "meh" so if you come across it while thrifting snap it up!

speaking of thrifting, cookbooks and beans, i was really excited to find an old slow cooker recipe book while out thrifting with ot today. it's 365 recipes (::aside:: what's up with 365 being the magic # for crock pot books and blogs? so weird to me. that's far too much crock potting! my husband would kill me after day 3. but whatever.) anyways, i am dying to make the above orange-spice glazed carrots and a bunch of the soups and bean recipes, like all kinds of chilis and refried beans! i bought bags and bags of organic dried beans from the bulk bins at the grocery this afternoon. look out world my family will be riding high on magical fruit very soon!

if anyone has any awesome bean-y recipes they'd like to share, i would seriously love to hear about it. and hope everyone is having a great weekend. we're about to watch Drive with Ryan Gosling so my night is gonna be awesoooome (that last part said in a really high pitched voice) i hope yours are all at least as good!

xo,
lindsey

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