Sunday, December 09, 2007

Butter Beans and Peanut Butter Hummus

We’ll have our usual family dinner tonight, but I probably won’t be able to post it until Tuesday night. I’ve got a quick few things to share in the meantime.

V-con Mediterranean Baked Lima Beans


To me limas are green and small. I grew up calling these giant white beans “Butter Beans.” This was my first time to cook the dried beans, but I like the canned variety as well. Isa is right when she says lima haters will love this recipe. Butter beans are creamy and hearty, and these baked beans in tomato sauce reminded me of eating pasta. Alongside a nice bunch broccoli, a delicious dinner is at hand in no time.



ED&BV Peanut Sesame Hummus

I made this for Chase. He will go bananas when he eats this! Creamy hummus with a hint of peanut butter and sesame – what’s not to love!


Here’s a new food find.


Well now I've found the perfect food from a shelf - gluten and soy free AND vegan! When I opened them I was surprised and elated to find mini chips!


That’s a lot of chips in one cup. And they taste great. I’m baking with them now for tonight’s dinner. Stay tuned!

On the local front, Rachel Ray is here autographing and promoting a new cookbook. She’s been to Austin many times and today she’ll be just a couple of miles from where I live. I’d like to go take a look at her, but I just don’t have time (or any of her cookbooks or the desire to wade through the crowd).

It’s also Eat Local Week here. From their website:

What is Edible Austin Eat Local Week? Of course every week is "eat local week" in our book, but Eat Local Week, our winter fundraiser event, is an invitation to Central Texans to explore and celebrate the abundance of local food and to raise money for Urban Roots, a youth development program that uses sustainable agriculture to effect lasting change for youth 14-18 years old, and to nourish East Austin residents who have limited access to healthy foods. Young people will cultivate a local 2 - 5 acre, diversified organic farm, selling a portion of their harvest in the Austin area and donating a portion to local hunger relief programs. Through this process young people can connect to the land and learn the benefits of growing, eating, selling and donating organic food, as well as leadership, entrepreneurial and life skills, and the importance of giving back to their community. This will serve as a model for similar programs statewide.

Edible Austin Eat Local Week will kick off on December 8 with the City of Austin’s proclamation and with support from other Central Texas communities and the Greater Austin Restaurant Association. Check back frequently to see a growing list of participating restaurants, featuring locally-sourced entree and drink specials for the week, a portion of the sale from which will go to our beneficiary, Urban Roots. Participating markets will collect donations in other ways.

You are invited to dine out, shop, throw a dinner or cocktail party, or simply make a home-cooked meal using local foods and beverages. And you can share your experiences finding, cooking and tasting local food during this week on our
blog, or join our Eating Local Forum, and we’ll publish a collection of your tales and discussions in our Spring issue.


Another of the many reasons I love Austin. I missed the farmers market yesterday, but I hope to be able to participate in some way this week.

Till Tuesday.....

16 comments:

Ruthie said...

DiAnn~

Those are my favorite type of choco chips. I just wish they were organic/fair trade! I love how tiny and cute they are. :)

aTxVegn said...

You're right, Ruthie, if they were organic/fair trade, THEN they would be perfect.

Sheree' said...

That is an awesome event that your town has. Congrats! The chips are so cute. I have never seen them in my neck of the woods. Love the hummus.

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

we haven't been able to have family dinner night around here for a while, due to CRAZY-BUSY schedules :0( I hope you enjoyed yours tonight!

mmm, the baked-lima-beans and peanut-sesame-hummus (I've had my eye on that recipe!) look quite scrumptious; oh and those chocolate chips are made by Enjoy Life!! that's the brand of granola that I eat almost every morning (and I used to eat their cookies all the time too, but don't anymore since I know how to bake now, haha).

yeah, you would have been in line all night if you would have attempted to see Rachael Ray - good thing you didn't attempt it!!

wow, I wish we had an event like that here!! sounds terrific!! enjoy!!

Amey said...

cool!
I've made those lima beans too, and I thought they were delicious.

Also, when I was picking out which hummus to make for my xmas party, I took note of that Peanut Butter one. I am really loving that book - and I love the whole chapter of hummus!

And I love those little chips. I've used them once or twice to great effect. They are great in cookies, because it looks cool with so many little chips everywhere. Yum. Can't wait to see what you do with them

bazu said...

Yay for lima beans! Those look delicious, and I've never tried cooking with dried lima beans, so I must give that recipe a try eventually. Good find on the chocolate chips! Oh, and so cool about "eat local Austin." All my friends who live in or have lived in Austin agree with you that it's a lovely place. I hope to visit some day...

Alisa said...

OH, I looove lima beans, but have never actually used them in a recipe. That sounds great.

I had the same pleasant surprise about he Enjoy Life Chips being "mini." It is funny that they don't note it on the package or advertise them as such.

Anonymous said...

I've been using butterbeans as a substitute for chickpeas in hummus (due to chickpea allergy) and I was surprised at how mellow the flavor was. I just assumed they'd have a very beany flavor.

What a cool event - it definitely gets people thinking about their community/environment.

Judy said...

I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on Vcon - so many good things to make. And that hummus sounds right up my alley, I am totally digging peanuts lately.

Carrie™ said...

I am not a lover of lima beans. They are the only beans I could never cosy up to. Like you, I've never had them made from dried, so I would be willing to give this recipe a try. I'm hoping Santa will bring me that book for Christmas.
How was the hummus? We're going for Christmas dinner at Jim's cousin's and I offered to bring some pre-dinner appetizers and hummus is one thing I wanted to whip up. I want to wow them with something delicious.

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

I love those chips too... and I'm curious to see what you're making with them! Peanut butter hummus sounds like a great, creative recipe!

Rose said...

Peanut butter hummus sounds like an interesting food - I bet I'd like it since I love both hummus AND pb.

Emilie said...

I've been so tired and stressed out I assumed I was just misreading your hummus because I was sure that peanut butter hummus could not exist. Well, I've been back over it a couple times now and it seems that it does in fact. Wow! I'm impressed that you were so bold and experimental! Not that I'm surprised, you've always got something interesting and delicious up your sleeve, but this...well, I'll just have to trust in your judgment and give it a try sometime.

TB said...

Great post! You just turned me on to two recipes I want to try: the baked lima beans (a v-con recipe I hadn't even noticed but can't wait to try, since I love lima beans) and the peanut-sesame hummus! I can't wait to make both of them; you pictures make them look so yummy!

Vegan_Noodle said...

That peanut sesame hummus is awesome.... I want some right now...

jd said...

I'm glad to hear that the peanut sesame hummus is so delicious. I've been dying to try it ever since I picked up a copy of ED&BV...

Your picture looks great, too! Now I'm gonna have to make it for sure :)