Hello friends! I am happy to be back with an actual recipe today! This weekend during my meal prep bonanza, I actually remembered to take some notes while cooking. I had a feeling this bowl would come out nicely, despite not knowing what to call the final product.
Enter my dear pal Fiona. It's not quite a chowder, nor a chili, nor even a soup. Potpourri evokes too much of the cloying scent of dried flowers. But mélange sounded just right. Thank you Fiona for helping put a title to this bowl of goodness. Though everything might just be called a mélange now as I so often just put together a hodge podge of random seasonal ingredients and pantry staples to keep us well fed for the week. Ah well, a trained chef I am not, but it doesn't preclude me from sharing some good home cooking. ;)
One of the stars of the dish was yet another new variety of bean from Rancho Gordo: Ayocote Amarillo. I have enjoyed every variety of heirloom bean I have tried from RG so far! It is a joy to have the opportunity to experience such variety in my kitchen. Always fun to see how they transform from dried to cooked, as these deepened up so much in their hue. Though if you don't have these beans, you could easily substitute the more readily available red beans or white beans you can find in any local grocery store. If you really want to make it easy, grab a few cans if cooking them from scratch is too intimidating.
In addition to the gorgeous beans, I had gotten a nice haul of fresh celery, bell peppers, onions, corn and jalapeño peppers from the farmers market this weekend. I had a feeling they would all marry quite well with just a bit of broth and plenty of dried herbs and spices. A hit of lime at the end truly made the whole dish pop! Again, the corn here is absolute perfection when in season, but you can easily substitute frozen corn in a pinch.
Without further ado...
Mélange of Heirloom Beans, Corn, and Veggies
Makes approximately 6 servings
- 1 pound Ayocote Amarillo or other dried beans, cooked or 2-3 (14-ounce) cans
- 1 small onion, peeled & diced
- 1 heaping cup chopped celery (any leafy greens reserved for garnish)
- 2 large green bell peppers, seeded & chopped (~1 1/2 cups)
- 2 jalapeño peppers, seeded & minced
- 5 cloves fresh garlic, peeled & minced
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground celery seed
- 1 teaspoon fennel seed
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard seed
- 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
- 4 ears fresh corn, kernels or 1 (10-ounce) package frozen corn
- 4 cups low-sodium or homemade vegetable broth
- lime juice to garnish
Cook the dried beans according to package instructions. I soaked mine overnight, then cooked them the day before I made the full dish. Set aside. Alternately, rinse and drain a few cans of pre-cooked beans.
Heat a large stockpot over medium heat. Add the onion through the peppers. Cook, stirring occasionally to avoid sticking, for about 8 minutes or until the vegetables have softened.
Next stir in the garlic and the spices. Cook for just a minute before adding in the cooked beans, fresh corn kernels and broth. Increase the heat and bring to a boil, then reduce back down to medium low. Partially cover and simmer for at least 30 minutes, or longer to really let the flavors meld.
Once cooked to your liking, remove from heat and stir in some fresh lime juice and any chopped reserved fresh celery leaves. The celery from the farmers market always seems to have lots of leaves perfect for an herb-y garnish. If you don't have fresh celery leaves, you could also use fresh parsley or cilantro! I would say the lime juice is a non-negotiable as it really brightens the whole bowl up.
Despite the summer heat really coming on strong this week, we are still very much enjoying this bowl. We tend to eat a yummy meal like this closer to room temperature rather than straight off the heat. Very satisfying yet not overly heavy with the light, flavorful broth and sweet bite of locally grown sweet corn.
Happy to have this one down for the recipe bank to be able to make this one again!
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Delicious :)
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Thanks babe!
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That all looks so very delicious @plantstoplanks, I'm puzzled tho, in the images I see what looks like collards or Kale, some dark green COOK leaf. The only leafy thing you mentioned was the celery greens reserved as a garnish.
Did I misunderstand? Or did you forget to list an ingredient?
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Good catch Jerry! It actually is the celery greens. I had a little over a cup of them that I mixed into the whole pot, so they did end up wilting down in the broth! The celery from the farmers market is usually skinnier in the stalks, but has so much more of the leaves than the ones at the grocery store.
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I always use my celery greens in soups and stews, the flavor is there without the crunch.
This looks fantastic. I've been really getting into learning about some of the native foods eaten by the indigenous people in the desert where I live, and this is right in line with a lot of what I'm learning about. I'm trying to eat more locally sourced foods. Definitely going to make this at some point this week, even if I have to use different beans.
Oh awesome! You'll have to let me know what you think. I always try to remind myself how lucky I am with the availability of high quality local food around me. I've been frequenting the local farmers market for years now, and have developed great relationships with so many of my farmers. It's wonderful to know exactly where your food comes from and appreciate the hard work that was put in to get it to your plate. We try to grow as much as we can in our garden, as well, but so far it is still just a supplement to what I buy at the farmers market. Though I'm still up to my eyeballs in squash, since that's one thing we always seem to have good luck with growing!
So happy to see you back, we missed you!
As always your quality content sharing another one of your great recipes. And as always making me hungry haha.....
Hug! ♥
Aww, thanks @pavanjr! I've had so much computer work for my "day job" lately, that it hasn't allowed for much energy to be on here for fun. But happy to share this one and hopefully I'll get a chance to pop around to see what everyone else is posting lately, too!
Hope you are well!
It looks deliscious.
Thank you @rem-steem! I was quite pleased how this came out. Especially since it was so easy to put together!
Yep, @fionasfavourites definitely nailed the name for this! My suggestion was going to be, "Yummy stuff"... 😂
And it never occurred to me to use celery leaves as a garnish - had a real 🤦♀ moment when I read that! Thanks for the tip, and the yummy recipe.
And very clever use of fennel and mustard seeds for warm, deep flavour. I was interested that you said you ate this at room temperature because it had occurred to me that it could also have been a warm salad. The Husband would, of course want to eat this with rice or bread.
Glad to have helped, @plantstoplanks 🙂
Those little bites of fennel seeds added a lovely note for sure! And I agree, I do similar combos for warm or cool salads, as well. Often with a grain added in since I need my starches to keep me fueled on those long, active days! I'm sure it would be heavenly alongside your sourdough bread or rolls...
I had a another thought: have you considered potting putting meals like this, hot and in hot sterilised jars? Seals and then no refrigeration needed and if you're on the run, you can eat them from the jar. And longer shelf life.
I've been doing this with my soups for the market. Effectively canning them.
I'll butt out now!🤣
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Haha, yummy stuff works perfectly, too, Traci! I tend to revert back to "bowls of goodness" for a lot of things, thus the name of my little cookbook. But it makes it tough to differentiate between bowls. 😂
Happy to share the celery tip! You pay for the whole thing, might as well use it! Kind of like getting herbs and a veggie all in one purchase!
I would love to have a bowl of this glorious melange of deliciousness. Love the ingredients and I have never heard of those kinds of beans. I would love to find heirlooms. It's not happening here in this area as far as I know.😋
Isn't the plant world just so amazing? I always used to think beans were few and ordinary, but I have come to realize they're just like so many other wonderful plant foods--so plentiful we can never come close to trying them all! I'm very grateful to have been introduced to Rancho Gordo. They have such a wonderful variety, but do the important work of keeping these heirloom varieties growing. Hope all is well up there!
Nice. Now you know you've done a great job explaining what you're cooking and everything that's so good I don't really cook anymore I haven't really cooked since high school and that was in the classroom people seem to cook for me apparently or go somewhere else anyway I just love your post I'm going to reblog you my husband does all the cooking basically I never know what I'm going to have to eat and that's why I hate something that is already packaged but that looks really good and I wish I could talk to my uncle because he's a vegetarian but I'm sure he doesn't cook a lot I don't know he's old and we don't talk anymore oh I sound so depressing I don't mean that I'm just trying to be active you have a great day and enjoy
Haha, thank you for the comment! That's nice to have a husband who does the cooking for you. My boyfriend knows just how lucky he is that I keep him so well-fed. Though he occasionally will give me a break and put together a meal for us. I do enjoy cooking, though. I just wish I had more time to blog about it! Have a great day, as well!
we kind just started cooking in last 10 years. i get dizzy so i don't i got the dog to take care of . only husband drives there. he really good at learning 62 years old. he had quit drinking and all that was homeless for several decades. then he met me on the streets. He looks lot better now. He had jobs to pay for his thing he did that was not good for tho. so happy to free and responsible these days. :)
Looks amazing, love the spice mix too. You're also growing these beans too, right? If so, how are they coming along? Good to see you posting again, it's been awhile since I've seen a treat from you, but you certainly came back in a big way. Home run!! Nice work chef!!
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Thanks @justinparke! Always happy to make an appearance when I can. I am growing another bean from Rancho Gordo--the Christmas Lima Bean. I have a few plants that took a while to get going, but they're growing like, well, beanstalks now! There are some pods popping up all over, so hoping for at least enough to save more seeds to maybe try growing more. We'll see how many we get out. Still plenty of growing season left here in Atlanta. :)
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Oh my word, this melange sounds absolutely delicious and so full of goodness!
Thank you @lizelle! It's a good one for sharing. If only... ;)
Absolutely marvelous! Anytime I read your food blogs, I get to salivating. You are truly an amazing vegan cook. I love beans of any sort and with the corn in the mix even better. I have quite an assortment of fresh veggies as well as herbs ready to go, so off I go to get some beans to give this recipe a try, thanks for the inspiration.
Have a wonderful day my friend.
I take that as a high compliment! The corn right now is just stellar. Can't beat it when it is fresh and in season. Though that's the same for just about everything. I'm sure you're getting some good stuff out of your garden every day! Happy weekend!
Oh yes, best time of the year for fresh garden delights
You have a good weekend also.
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