I’ve pretty much declared my love of a “beans, greens and grains” diet on this blog. Just go through my recipes.
Now that it’s summer the usual hot bowl of my favorite foods doesn’t sound quite as appealing. That doesn’t stop me from cooking up beans in the pressure cooker but I do pause to think about how I might serve them a bit differently.
How about a Chickpea Sandwich?
I followed my usual chickpea recipe. The next day I took about 1/2 cup of cold, cooked chickpeas and mashed them with a fork to make a chunky spread. I made a sandwich with whole grain bread, red romaine lettuce from my garden, the chickpea spread, a slice of tomato from the farmer’s market and a dollop of whole grain mustard. Beans, greens, grains all together in a delicious, cold sandwich!
Have you met my new favorite nugget of delicious? Say hello to the Eye of the Goat bean.
eye of the goat bean = eye of goat bean Notes: This heirloom bean stays firm and richly colored after cooking, so it’s great as a side dish or in salads. [SOURCE]
I was in my local health food store picking up some bulk grains when I spied this bag of new-to-me-beans. Can you say impulse buy?
I couldn’t find a pressure cooker recipe for theses beans. Some might conclude the best way to cook the beans, then, is a traditional stove-top method. Nope, not me.
JL’s Eye of the Goat Beans (PRINTABLE RECIPE)
Ingredients
- Kombu, stamp size piece
- Eye of the Goat beans
- Avocado oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- diced onion
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 sprigs fresh dill
- Sea salt, to taste
Instructions
- Soak Eye of the Goat beans and kombu in filtered water for one hour. Rinse and drain
- In the pressure cooker saute garlic and onion in avocado oil. Add the bay leaf, fresh dill, beans and enough water to cover the beans, plus a bit more. Cover and bring to pressure. Cook for 25 – 30 minutes at pressure. Natural release. Remove the pressure cooker lid, away from you. If the beans are not done, simmer for a few minutes with the pressure cooker lid off (add more water, if necessary). At this point, you can begin to add salt to taste.
Notice there are no measurements? Don’t panic, remember, I’m encouraging you to cook intuitively! Make whatever amount of beans you like and then think about how how much garlic and onion you want. (I tend to use 1 T of oil per cup of beans in the pressure cooker.)
Sticking with the theme of “refreshing” summer meals, I came up with this Eye of the Goat bean wrap
On a sprouted wrap I added an avocado spread (simply mash an avocado with a fork and spread on bread or a wrap) about 1/2 cup of cooked beans (cold), a few tomato slices and drained sauerkraut. I loved the crispy crunch of this wrap.
I did find another great use for the Eye of the Goat beans. If you follow me on Twitter you know that I’ve been eating a macrobiotic breakfast of late: veggies, grains, fermented foods (pickled veggies and/or miso soup). When I spied the leftover beans in the fridge I decided to add a little protein to my morning soup.
JL’s Eye of the Goat Bean Miso Soup (PRINTABLE RECIPE)
Serves 1
Ingredients
Instructions
- Bring water and salt to a rolling boil. Add onion, carrot and wakame. Bring back to a boil. Add beans and bring back to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 10 to 30 minutes. When ready to eat bring the soup back to a boil. Remove about 1/2 cup of the liquid and pour into a measuring cup. Add the miso and mix well with a fork. Pour miso mixture back into the soup and simmer (do not boil!) for two minutes.
Serve and enjoy!
How are you preparing your beans, greens and grains this summer?
13 thoughts on “Summer Beans, Greens & Grains (May I introduce you to the Eye of the Goat bean?)”
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I’ve never seen eye of the goat beans, I’m intrigued. I love that you’re having fun with you “impulse buy” JL!
Hey, JL! All of these recipes look great! Question for you though, could you translate cooking with a pressure cooker into cooking either stove top or possibly with a crock pot? For instance if it takes so many minutes in a pressure cooker, you would do it so many minutes stove topr or crock pot. Love your blog, you give me so many great ideas. Thanks!
Hi Fran! Thanks for the comment and the feedback. Your request is totally fair but I have to be honest — I’ve never made beans in the “traditional” way! LOL I wouldn’t feel comfortable suggesting a method unless I’ve tried it. So, I’m up to the challenge! In the future I’ll try my chickpea recipe in both the crockpot, and on the stove-top, and post those recipes. I appreciate the suggestion!
I’m going to have to keep my eyes peeled for those beans. I love a little crunch to mine and will typically cooke my chickpeas a bit al dente.
I want to try eye of the goat beans just because of the name! But first I will try your chickpea sandwich. Sounds delicious. I’ve been continuing to make bowls of steamed kale, whatever bean I have cooked, and quinoa or brown rice with some type of gravy or sauce, but I think I need to summer-ize mine like you did. Thanks for the suggestion!
Chickpea sandwich looks delicious! Never heard of that bean but I love all beans so I am sure that one wouldn’t be any different! 🙂
i have never heard of eye of the goat…i always learn something new from you
ps why do you use kombu? i bought some at WFs per lots of recipes i see and still wonder why a thumb sized or stamp sized piece is added?…sea salt? sea flavor? minerals?
Hi Eva! I use kombu as a form of sea salt, and yes, minerals, too. Using salt in the pressure cooker or rice cooker for beans can dry them out (which is why you should add salt, to taste, after cooking). Soaking the dry beans in water and kombu adds some flavor and, allegedly, tenderizes the beans.
Pretty excited. I ordered a pressure cooker! Should be on my way to having my own beans within a week. No more cans!
YAY! I can’t wait to hear how you like it!
Not fan of bean but love greens and grains and eat them almost every day 🙂
The chickpea salad looks great and I need to track down goat beans, they’re gorgeous. And the miso soup sounds right up my alley, yum!