Giant beans with Sundried Tomatoes
Legumes are a superfood when it comes to lent or vegan diets and it should be include on your menu at least twice a week. Belive me, there are incredible legume recipes out there that will truly surprise you and help you avoid the ordinary. One of my favourite is this one "Giant Beans with Sundried Tomatoes". Make it part of your Lent menu as a very easy and tasty variation of the traditional recipe.
- 500 grams Beans (giant beans)
- 200 grams Tomato (pressed juice)
- 2 Garlic (thinly chopped cloves or a tea spoon dried)
- 1 Onion (a bi one, thinly chopped or a table spoon dried)
- 3 tablespoons Tomato (Sundried)
- 1 tablespoon Paprika (half spicy and half sweet (optional))
- 2 cups Water
- 1 teaspoon Sugar (Brown)
- Salt
- 1 cup Olive Oil
- Pepper
- Thyme (dried, to garnish)
Place the giant beans in a bowl with water covering them at least 3 fingers above.
Let them rise from the night before or for at least 8 to 12 hours.
Rinse them and boil them for at least 20 minutes in a kettle or a regular pot until they soften, again with water covering them.
Check how soft they turn while boiling, wsince you don't want them to melt as they are going to be later cooked in the oven too.
Pre heat the oven at 200C degrees on the3 resistance setting, with more power on the lower part.
Place the boiled and strained giant beans in a pyrex or medium sized pan.
Add olive oil, water, the sundried tomatoes, concetrated tomato and spices.
Stir the ingredients well together and put them in the oven on the lower rack for about 45 minutes to an hour.
Make sure you stir once in a while, while in the oven so that all sides bake evenly.
While they're in the oven you might also have to add some water.
If you see that the sauce created has started to dry, that is the time for you to add a cup of hot water.
You could serve immediately or wait for a couple of minuites for your food to cool down a bit.
- You could speed up the procedure of beans ricing by adding about 3 teaspoons of coarce salt.
- if you want to, enrich with colored peppers or even sausage for a variation with meat.
- Be careful when boiling as you don't want them to get overly soft to the point they melt. But in case that happens don't through it away but turn it into a garlic sauce from beans.
- Chooce spices depending on your own preference. This food really turns out great when spicy.
- Accompany it with some strained yoghurt or Domokos katiki.
