Sweet and spicy harissa roasted carrots served with stewy dill-infused white beans – a hearty and comforting meal.
Just over here, waxing poetic about a plate of beans, AS ONE DOES. #thisisonedayuntil36
(I’m really fun to be around, I swear.)
In all seriousness, I really really love beans. During the early days of the pandemic when everyone was freaking out about food availability, I was like “we have like eight pounds of dried beans in the house, so we’re good for at least a month”. There is just so much you can do with a pound of beans!
My husband thought I was certifiable but I was right. We were good. (And we ate a LOT of beans.)
For almost a decade now I’ve been part of the Rancho Gordo Bean Club, which sounds super nerdy but is actually kind of amazing. Every three months, six pounds of beans are delivered to my door (along with a non-bean surprise item!) and I’d be lying if I said that bean delivery day is not the best. It’s such a fun surprise to see which beans they’ve selected for the shipment and even Remy gets a kick out of the unpacking (even though she basically refuses to eat any and all beans). I have my longstanding Rancho Gordo favorites but there is always at least a pound that is completely new to me. (Not sponsored, by the way, I am just obsessed with these beans.)
My bean “strategy” is to cook a pound of beans at least every other weekend and eat through it for the following one to two weeks. Sometimes I’ll plan my bean choice around a certain recipe I want to make and sometimes I’ll just do it Russian roulette-style and let the bean dictate the week’s menu! (See, I told you I was fun.)
The thing about Rancho Gordo beans is that most of them do not fall nicely into the common bean “categories” (loosely: chickpeas, black beans, pinto beans, cannellini beans, kidney beans, lentils) and so you need to improvise a bit when it comes to finding recipes that include them. I tend to group them by color rather than bean type and take a lot of liberty in substituting within those categories.
For example, cassoulet beans were on the docket this past weekend. If you’re not familiar, these are a classic French white bean traditionally used in – you guessed it – cassoulets. Since cassoulets tend to be pretty meat heavy, I’ve actually never used them in this dish instead opting for recipes that call for white beans including soups, stews, pastas, etc.
When I was scouring my cookbooks for inspiration, I stumbled upon this gem from Diana Henry’s Simple cookbook. I’m not sure what drew me to it since at first glance it seems pretty bare bones but I was so pleasantly surprised by how delicious it ended up being. Truly a case where the finished product is greater than the sum of its parts, and it was ultimately one of our favorite meals of the weekend (perhaps even of the past few months!).
This dish is comprised of a few separate components. First are the harissa-roasted carrots, which hit that perfect spot of sweet, spicy, and savory. Carrots are tossed in a mix of olive oil, harissa, cumin seeds, garlic, and maple syrup and then roasted alongside thinly sliced lemon rounds. If you can find them, carrots that are on the smaller side are ideal here because they will roast in a reasonable amount of time and caramelize enough to really concentrate their sweet flavor. Larger carrots can be used if they are all that you can find, but I would cut them down into either halves or quarters before roasting.
While the carrots are roasting, it’s time to prepare the beans. Aromatics are cooked down in a bit of olive oil and then the beans are added to the pan along with a bit of their cooking liquid and simmered to form a kind of brothy stew. A drizzle of olive oil along with a squirt of lemon juice and some fresh dill are added at the very end to finish them off. So simple, but especially if you start off with good quality beans, SO GOOD. Even if you can’t find these specific Rancho Gordo beans, pretty much any white bean will do. I favor beans that are cooked from scratch but canned beans will certainly work in a pinch.
The carrots and beans are plated together along with a dollop of a simple savory yogurt sauce to tie them together. We ate this with large hunks of homemade sourdough bread that were perfect for soaking up any leftover bean juice at the end.
- 1.5 lb slim carrots
- 1 meyer lemon, thinly sliced
- juice of ½ lemon
- 2 tbsp harissa
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 tsp cumin seeds
- 2 garlic cloves, grated
- 2 tsp maple syrup
- salt, to taste
- 4-6 tbsp olive oil, divided
- ½ onion, minced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 3 cups home-cooked or canned white beans*
- ¼ cup bean broth or vegetable stock
- salt and black pepper, to taste
- squeeze of lemon juice
- ¼ cup dill, minced
- 1 cup greek yogurt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ¼ cup buttermilk
- salt, to taste
- Heat oven to 400F.
- In a large bowl, toss the carrots with the lemon slices, harissa, olive oil, cumin seeds, maple syrup, and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt. Spread on a baking sheet and roast for 30-35 minutes or until the carrots are tender.
- Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic. Cook until golden, about 5-7 minutes. Stir in the beans, broth, and salt to taste. Simmer for 4-5 minutes, or until thickened. Stir in the olive oil and lemon juice, along with the dill.
- In a bowl, whisk together the yogurt, olive oil, and buttermilk. Season to taste with salt.
- Divide the beans among serving bowls. Top with the carrots and lemon slices along with a dollop of the yogurt sauce.
*I used Rancho Gordo cassoulet beans that I soaked overnight, then pressure cooked with salt and two bay leaves for 5 minutes with natural pressure release.
A plate full of goodness. YUM! I need to look into the Rancho Gordo bean delivery!