Last night I made the best beans from a can…ever. Maybe not ever but certainly in the last few weeks. The funny part is (and by funny I mean disappointing but not that sad) that I was more excited to make the Riso Rosso, from Olive Trees and Honey, than the beans which were quickly thrown together. The Italian “red rice” was basically made by boiling beets and then making rice and adding some of the beet cooing water in to turn the rice red and adding the beets at the very end. What would have been better, I think, would have been to caramelize the beets and onions and then make the rice in that pot because it was pretty but boring. Next time!
The beans on the other hand were fabulous. I decided to use Roman beans to keep up the Italian theme. Since the rice recipe wasn’t using any garlic it seemed like a good idea to use a whole lot in the beans and then I added some spices and cooked them in a little brothy sauce They were fantastic, the garlic wasn’t totally overwhelming even though there was a lot of it because I cooked it for a while and the spices were perfect. I have to remember to make them again because they were so simple.
Roman Beans
1 can roman beans (or white beans) drained and rinsed
1 onion, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 cup of vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon of tarragon
saute the onion until it changes color in olive oil. Add the garlic and cook over very low heat for 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and cook at a slow simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Enjoy with the garlic sauce on top.
Lazy Smurf's Guide 
Don’t you love it when the thing you don’t really care about surprises you and ends up better than what you did care about? Ah, life… Those beans look pretty killer. I’m not a huge beet fan, so I’m more drawn to the beans anyway. I never really think to spruce up canned beans - thanks for the inspiration and recipe!
FUN! Beets on rice! I am going to have to do that next time I make rice. Maybe that would be a perfect way for my hubby to eat beets! 😀
Kim? How no likey beets? You crazy girl.
It all looks good, smurfy!
Looks amazing… and I love your blog name 🙂
Those beans do look amazing!!!
Wow, those beans do sound good! The “red” rice is cute too!
Love Olive Trees and Honey! The recipes aren’t always perfect, but I love the explanations and the thrust of the book itself.
I would love a giant plate of this! I’d never think to add beetroot to rice but that is such a good idea and I think caramelising it would be even better. And as soon as I saw the beans had tarragon in them I was sold!
And boo to taro chips not being as good as vege chips! I will send you some asap if you like 😀
I have a recipe for Italian White Bean dip that is very similar to this, except you puree everything. I’m not sure why it never occurred to me to leave the beans whole and eat it as-is. Thanks for the inspiration! 🙂
i can fo ‘sho see how caramelizing the beets ‘n onions would have made the rice dish that much more yummy. never thought to caramelize beets and i’m gonna try it, especially since beets are one of my favorites (which is funny to be because i used to abhor beets, but i decided one day i was going to like them and ate the for 3 months until i finally enjoyed their flavor. ah haha!). i’ve never heard of roman beans - i need to look ’em up, and i also need to make your dish. lots of garlic, tarragon, and onions - ooooh, yes, yes, yes!
Pingback: Red Rice and Roman Beans