Another Recipe (Mine this Time)

A sort of resolution I've made recently (not exactly but kind of a New Year's one, I guess), is to stop buying cans lined with BPA-containing plastic.  So I'm going through my extant cans of beans and tomatoes now, but buying only dried beans from now on.  Canned tomatoes are an absolute staple necessity around here, and I've been tipped off that Eden Organic tomato cans do not contain BPA, so I'm going to buy only those in future.

Anyway, this is all to say that I made the following recipe with canned beans, but will be trying it in the future with dried ones, which would change things.  If you're a dried bean user, please revise as necessary and add a tip in the comments about your revision, okay?

Black Bean and Collard Soup/Stew/Chili (it's pretty thick)

About half a clove of garlic

one onion (I used a red one)

a couple tablespoons of olive oil or thereabouts

one tablespoon of rice wine vinegar

4 or 5 large leaves of collards

one can of black beans (with the liquid)

one cup of broth (I used veggie, but chicken or beef would be good too)

salt and pepper to taste

In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil while chopping the garlic and onion.  Put the chopped onion and garlic into the hot oil and  sautee it for a few minutes (about 5).  I put the garlic in first then chopped the onion so the result was an almost toasty brown garlic.

While the garlic and onion is doing its thing, wash the collards, strip the big veins out then stack the leaves on your cutting board and slice them into thin strips the width of the leaf.

Add the collards to the saucepan, add the rice wine vinegar and a tablespoon of water.  Cover the pan and let the collards cook down a bit for about 5 minutes.

Add the black beans and the broth.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste. (Red pepper flakes are good in this dish, added to the garlic and onions in the first step, but I didn't do that because of toddler/preschool palettes.)

Serves about 4 adults or a mix of kids and adults.  I think it would be good with cornbread, but didn't do it this time.

YUM!

Comments

[Tracy]

Would you by any chance be able to start a recipe section of your website? When you post recipes, you always post these wonderful kid friendly things that turn out to be pretty economic too. Oh,could I get the site for your pictures of the girls? I always mean to ask and I forget!

[m]

Perhaps you have different sources, but according to this the tomatoes are indeed in lined cans:
http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/bpa-free-cans-44053008

although i can't offer an alternative, canned tomatoes seem indispensable to me as well.

[Shannon]

My source was just somebody randomly telling me this. Damn. Back to the drawing board. Someone recommended the box packs. I don't know if those have BPA, but I haven't seen any organic ones in boxes either. I'm growing tomatoes this summer, but I can't hope to grow remotely enough to put up for the year!