Leftover Turkey Chili
1 Dec 2014

Leftover Turkey Chili

by | posted in: gluten-free, Recipes, Soups & Stews | 5

I’m thankful for leftovers this week. A big day of eating has come and gone, and as usual, the fridge seems to be more full than depleted afterward. The prized item in this cache of Thanksgiving leftovers? The roasted turkey carcass. With it, the opportunities are endless. You can make a soup, or just stock to use for things like making risotto or braising vegetables. But along with that carcass—and with most leftover Thanksgiving meal caches—is plenty of leftover turkey … Read More

Black Bean and Swiss Chard Burger with Pickled Beets and Smoked Gouda
23 Mar 2013

Black Bean and Swiss Chard Burger with Pickled Beets and Smoked Gouda

by | posted in: Beans, Recipes, vegetarian | 4

I have been seriously craving hamburgers lately. Not the cutely compressed, miniature snack-cum-calorie-whoppers wrapped in grease-blotched paper, but the mean, towering, impressive type stuffed with fixins’ that might come with a steak knife at the side. Oddly, though, I was craving the whole big sandwich affair more so than meat, and wondered if that could be sated without.

Black Bean Soup (with the Kitchen Sink)
16 Feb 2012

Black Bean Soup (with the Kitchen Sink)

by | posted in: Beans, gluten-free, Recipes, Soups & Stews, vegetarian | 5

It’s very easy to hide a great deal of things in a pot of black beans. Good things, bad things, all kinds of things — and no one may notice. Cooked to a velvety sauce, with strange lumps that once used to be part of a bean suspended throughout, the soup is thick as tar and opaque brown-black as fudge. You don’t know what’s hiding in it.

Black Bean Ravioli with Cotija and Fresh Oregano
2 Jul 2008

Black Bean Ravioli with Cotija and Fresh Oregano

by | posted in: Beans, Pasta & Noodles, Recipes, vegetarian | 14

It doesn’t have quite the timeless ring of “black beans and rice,” but here we are anyway: black bean ravioli. Where cheap comfort food and painstaking pasta-making collide. And like many good twists on classic dishes, this one was difficult and time-consuming to make, even with my disregard to the uniformity of the ravioli’s shape and overall prettiness. But if you’ll recall my last kitchen disaster with black beans, at least these homemade raviolis were edible. Actually, they were delicious, … Read More

Turkey Black Bean Chili with Okra
20 Mar 2007

Turkey Black Bean Chili with Okra

by | posted in: Beans, gluten-free, Meat & Poultry, Recipes, Soups & Stews | 10

We all know that ground turkey is the new hamburger if you’re looking to go easy on your heart. But I never found this a satisfactory replacement unless it was used in a sauce or stew of some type — in which juices from all kinds of ingredients run free and wild as piglets in a pen. A turkey burger? Not even close… but ground turkey in chili? Seconds, please. Besides, you’re bound to end up draining most of the … Read More