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4/9/13

What to do with White Beans? Ina to the Rescue (Ina Garten That Is)


This is for now the last post I write about cooking from Barefoot Contessa's Foolproof. I can't believe I've made FIVE recipes from it already: not surprisingly, all turned out great!

I decided to make Ina's recipe for white beans to go along with the Four Hour Lamb. Ina said to use dry French flageolet beans, but I did not find them at my grocery store and used regular white beans, which had to be soaked overnight.


The recipe is pretty simple: you saute bacon, onions, fennel and carrots in a large pot. Then add garlic. I left out rosemary, but did use bay leaves. I also added a tablespoon of bourbon smoked paprika. A bit of broth and water got added and then in went the beans. My favorite part about the recipe was the fact that there was no celery involved.


My least favorite part about the recipe was that it took over an hour to cook in the oven. I think you can easily use canned beans and reduce the cooking time by half.


Here's the final product:


This recipe makes A LOT, so I ended up freezing more than half of it. Although I'm not a huge fan of fennel, it did not bother me in this recipe because garlic and bacon added enough flavor to mask that of fennel.

I'm putting Foolproof back on my bookshelf for now. I'll be posting a few of my own creations next, so come back ;)

3 comments:

Simone Van Den Berg said...

It's funny sometimes with cookbooks right? It doesn't happen often but everyone once in a while I have a cookbook that I just love every recipe and end up cooking so many of them...! This looks delicious Olga!

Megan said...

I do love fennel so everything about this sounds wonderful to me. It makes for a gorgeous-looking dish too.

Dixya Bhattarai said...

I love how beans are so versatile and full of fiber. I normally use canned beans- reduced sodium type to just avoid cooking time. Looking forward for many other creations :)