Beans, Pepper, Cilantro, and Tomatoes (Spicy or Not)

You can make this recipe picante (hot spicy) or mild. I usually make it without the hot chili peppers and then add jalapeños or ground fresh chili paste (Sambal Oelek) on my own plate. It is a more versatile recipe and suits more palates if you leave the level of spiciness up to each individual eater.

Ingredients

15 oz. (one can) pre-cooked black beans
15 oz. (one can) pre-cooked pinto beans or kidney beans
15 oz. (one can) diced tomatoes or two large chopped fresh tomatoes
8 oz. nopales (cactus) chopped (about half a jar of nopales strips)
1 sweet red bell pepper chopped
½ c. onion chopped (or substitute 2 tsp. onion powder)
¼ c. olive oil
1 bunch cilantro chopped fine (use 2 bunches if you love cilantro)
2 tbsp. red wine (Merlot works well)
2 cloves garlic crushed
2 tsp. coriander
2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Chop the red bell pepper and onion, crush the garlic cloves, and sauté these together in the olive oil until just soft. Then mix in the tomatoes, red wine, and herbs and allow to simmer on low temperature, covered, for 7 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the nopales and beans. (If you love onions, you may wish to put more onions in the pot. And if you love peppers, try adding a half a green pepper also.)

I buy nopales strips in a jar. I have never attempted to cook with fresh nopales. The trick to nopales is to remove the slime from it and this is easy to do. Simply wash the nopales by placing it into a colander and running water over it while tossing it with your hands. You will be able to feel and see when the slime dissipates. Keep rinsing it until it looks and feels appealing, more rubbery than slimy. Then chop it into pieces about a quarter of an inch long.

You are welcome to cook your beans from scratch, but what a lot of work! This recipe tastes terrific with canned beans and they are so easy. There is a nifty trick to cooking with canned beans. You can reduce their gassiness by rinsing them. Just toss them into a colander and run water over them until they stop making bubbles. The human digestive system will produce gas from beans no matter what, but if you eat beans fairly often then you will experience less gas when you eat them. And if you rinse them before throwing them into the pot then you will reduce the gas even more.

So now you have your nopales and your beans ready for the pot. Toss them in and put the lid back on. Allow everything to stew together on a low temperature until the beans are nice and hot, about 5-7 minutes. Meanwhile, rinse and finely chop the cilantro. One bunch of cilantro will do the trick; however, if you love cilantro, you can do 2 bunches. When the other ingredients are all nice and hot, add the cilantro and put the lid back on to steam the cilantro down. This will only take a couple of minutes. As soon as the cilantro goes limp, but before it loses its bright green color, stir it into the beans and veggies. Now it’s ready to serve.

This dish goes well with a Mexican meal as a substitute for refried beans. These beans work well in a burrito, with quesadillas, or as a side dish for a larger meal featuring meat. This is a terrific dish to take to potluck dinners. You may choose to serve the beans with grated cheese to sprinkle on top, with sour cream, and/or with guacamole. As for spiciness, if you like spicy then try this dish with some ground fresh chili paste (Sambal Oelek), jalapeños, salsa, or chopped chilies. If you are preparing it for people who all like hot spicy food, then you can cook some chopped chilies into it or add a teaspoon of hot red pepper flakes.

Nopales Fiesta Salad

Happy New Year! Here is my first recipe. Let me know what you think.

Nopales Fiesta Salad

15 oz. nopales/nopalitos (cactus) chopped to pieces about ½ inch long
Corn kernels from 2 ears of corn (or 1 cup corn kernels)
3 c. shredded cabbage (green, red, or combined)
1 mango chopped large
1 tomato chopped large
½ sweet red bell pepper chopped large
2 mild green chili peppers chopped large
½ c. cilantro chopped fine
¼ c. chives chopped fine (or substitute onion if desired)
1 peeled and chopped fresh mango and/or ¼ c. dried cranberries
2 tbsp. olive oil
3 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

The trick to nopales is to remove the slime from it and this is easy to do. Simply wash the nopales by placing it into a colander and running water over it while tossing it with your hands. You will be able to feel and see when the slime dissipates. Keep rinsing it until it looks and feels appealing, more rubbery than slimy. Then chop it into pieces about a half an inch long. I buy nopales in a jar. I have never attempted this recipe with fresh nopales.

Once the nopales is thoroughly rinsed, combine all the ingredients except the cabbage. Let it sit for about 20 minutes to marinate. Always add the cabbage right before serving to make it crunchy. If you don’t like hot spicy food, then you might want to pass on the green chili peppers and if you like really spicy food then you can use a stronger chili pepper.

Other optional ingredients that you may wish to add include black beans, crumbled feta cheese or Mexican cheese, chopped pineapple, minced garlic, or pimentos. Fancy savory red cabbage gives the salad a beautiful appearance.

The Launch of the Cookbook

For years I've been saying I'm going to write a cookbook. It's about time I walked the talk. I have this idea of writing up recipes that can be transformed in several ways, recipes that become more of a constellation than a fixed formula, recipes that can accommodate many different diets and tastes and still be delicious. As the family story goes, my great-grandmother had seven children and she cooked each of them something they liked for dinner every night. I have become deft at revising recipes from The Joy of Cooking to suit my vegetarian diet, or my children's tastes, or my husband's dietary restrictions. I have converted recipes I love to be vegan, gluten-free, and non-dairy. My recipes can be transformed in many directions.

During 2010, I'm setting for myself the goal of writing up all my recipes, in all their variations and transformations, on this blog, in preparation for creating my own cookbook to be entitled Amy's Transformational Vegetarian Recipes. Please join me on this adventure.