I'm moving into the Middle East for the last week of MoFo and today I'm in Israel with a recipe for haricot beans served on Palestinian couscous. I found the Palestinian couscous when I was browsing in Real Foods on my way to work on Thursday. It's about 4 times the size of ordinary couscous and made from wholewheat flour. This is a really quick and easy recipe that I'll definitely be making again.
Israeli Breakfast Beans
225 g haricot beans, soaked and then cooked
1 onion, finely chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 large tomatoes, skinned and chopped
large handful of fresh basil leaves
1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Saute onion and garlic in vegetable stock for 3-4 minutes. Add chopped tomatoes and basil and saute for a few minutes more. Add cooked haricot beans with a small amount of the cooking water. Simmer for a further 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently. serve topped with chopped fresh parsley.
I thought I'd try another salad, this one using a combination of dried and fresh beans. The original recipe called for fresh broad beans but the only fresh beans I could find were chickpeas. Edamame would also be good in this salad. This is another lemon infused salad but this time the lemon is combined with fresh mint which gives a real freshness. This salad was ok but I much preferred the spicy combination of yesterday's lentil salad.
Minted Haricot and Chickpea Salad
125 g fresh chickpeas
125 g cooked haricot beans
50 g tomato. skinned and chopped
4 spring onions, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 Tbsp vegetable stock
Juice of half a lemon
2 Tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
Steam chickpeas until tender. Combine in a bowl with haricot beans, tomato and spring onions. In a separate jug or bowl mix together the crushed garlic, vegetable stock and lemon juice. Pour over the beans, add fresh mint, mix well and put into the refrigerator until cold. Serve on fresh green salad leaves, garnished with fresh mint leaves.
