I only cook recipes for my blog a few days a week, when my schedule permits. The rest of the time I make stuff up in the kitchen (without photographic evidence) or rely heavily on quesadillas, frozen soups, toast & eggs or sometimes cereal for dinner. Two nights ago I made Molly’s black beans for myself and added Kale to the mix. There I was, bouncing up and down at the dinner table! I was so delighted with my dish but had no one to share it with. Casey had a work dinner, which meant I ate a LOT of beans!
He was home for dinner last night, and despite having it two nights in a row I couldn’t wait to make it for him. Even though it’s kinda hippy/crunchy food, I knew he would enjoy the kick/depth of the black beans and the sweet & savory aspect of the roasted delicata squash & apples.
The light has been disappearing earlier in the evenings, so my cooking schedule is totally messed up as a result! I didn’t feel like whipping out my camera flash, so my trusty cellphone will help tell the tale 🙂
I chopped up 1 large delicata squash.
Then sliced up 2 Granny Smith Apples roughly the same size as the squash.
And chopped up 1/2 a red onion.
Tossed all of it together with olive oil, salt & pepper and roasted them in the oven at 425 for about 25 -30 mins.
(Rosemary or sage would have been good herbs to mix in!)
Every 10 minutes or so, I stirred the pan. I might have crowded the pan a little, but most of the delicata squash got browned-just the way I like it!
Some of the apples broke up and the skins separated, but they tasted pretty damn good!
While that was roasting, I sauteed 1 chopped yellow onion with 2 cloves of minced garlic in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until transparent.
I added 2- 15.oz cans of black beans with their juices, to the pot and simmered. I added 1 tablespoon of cumin, 1 heaping teaspoon of oregano, and sprinkled the top with salt & pepper.
While the beans sputtered about, I chopped up 6 fat kale leaves, finely.
I added the kale to the beans with 1/4 cup of cilantro and stewed it for a bit longer. I added a few splashes of hot sauce to add a little heat. If you are vegan or vegetarian you can stop here. You’ll love what has developed!
I took half of the beans and set them aside for my non meat portion. We had some leftover steak in the fridge, so I roughly chopped it and threw it in the beans and cooked it off for another 5 minutes.
Earlier that day, I ran out of brown rice in my pantry and cooked wheat berries instead! I tossed them in my rice cooker and used the QUICK setting. It turned out great! I’ll be doing more of wheat berry experimenting soon! You’ll find it super crunchy and hearty! Like al dente wild rice meets nutty brown rice.
I took a scoop of wheat berries and put it on a plate, added my roasted delicata squash & apples and spooned some of black beans to the side of the wheat berries.
I bet sour cream would be a good addition or some fresh squeezed lime juice. IYou could totally make your own burrito bowl out of this concoction.
And the next day I had leftovers (of the non meat portion) for lunch!
Playing around in the kitchen is FUN.
