i failed to grab a shot of a finished bowl of beans

but i still have a delicious recipe to share with you for a simple creamy pot of garlicky, oniony beans, so it's all good.

I’ve tried to write about my love for beans and how much joy a pot of beans just-a simmering on the stove can bring at any time of year. I’ve found not one, but TWO drafts on beans in my Substack dashboard, which means today is the day to complete my bean post.

This pot fed 35 + some to save for later, so you definitely don’t have to go this big.

Today for lunch at Rural Studio, where I’m currently working as what I refer to as the “farm chef” because lunch lady doesn’t seem fitting enough, although that’s exactly what I am at this point—a glorified lunch lady sweating and shuffling away over hot giant pots of soups, pans of roasted potatoes, vats of house-made hummus—all to feed the mouths and fill the bellies of rotating students and a very grateful staff. Yet it’s done with a bit of flair and a deep love for our beautiful, organic farm on our Morrisette Campus where the majority of our ingredients come from. Therefore, farm chef seems much more appropriate.

This week has been filled with much chillier days that normal, so we welcomed pots of hot soup to the menu early in the week, and as we exit these dreadful, never-going-above-freezing days, I decided to slowly ease out of soups to “lighter” winter fare, which is why today’s transitional meal (before we get to green pasta Friday) involved a big pot of beans.

And while I had my hopes set on purple hull peas, it seems as though I’ve already run through our entire frozen stock from the farm. So we went with a classic staple—the Great Northern, prepared in my most absolute favorite way. Not so brothy, yet rich with a creamy brown garlic and sweet onion braise that’s just delightful and actually serves as the base to many of my most favorite dishes like Egyptian Browned Chicken and that delicious brown rice you find in Egypt’s most well-known street food, Koshari.

I unintentionally created this recipe last year and since then it has become a repeat dish throughout the year.

Beans are truly a form of comfort for me. Many of my favorite childhood meals involved a good bean, and when I met my husband Robert, during one of my afternoon hangs at his house, he offered me a bowl of beans, and that bowl was and will forever be my favorite bowl of beans. I was hungry and it was all he had to offer at the time, but it was perfect and delicious, and he even offered up a grating of parmesan cheese and a heavy sprinkle of fresh black pepper on top. I think subconconnciously I was trying to recreate that bowl of beans all while combining it with the flavors I remember most from my younger days.

The ingredients are so simple. Beans, lots of garlic and onion, a few spices, lots of black pepper and a squeeze of lemon. The result is a thick, creamy pot of beans that’s perfect over a slice of crusty sourdough or alongside a bed of rice (for that complete protein combo) with a green vegetable. And if you want to get real hearty with it, spoon it over your favorite pasta. The thick, creamy bean sauce would probably be really good on a bed of whole wheat noodles with a grating of cheese and a fresh squeeze of lemon. Maybe a bit of wilted arugula stirred in.

My brain has started wandering into one of my favorite modes, which is recipe mode, so let me steer back to this post…this creamy pot of beans.

This pot of beans uses whole cloves of garlic. They get a nice golden brown sizzle in some good oil or butter before the rest of the ingredients are tossed in for a good, long simmer. While most of the cloves cook down into a delicious mush, for lack of a better term, every once in a while, you’ll get a nice bite of beans with a perfectly golden brown clove, and that is one of my dearest joys of this specific recipe.

I use Great Norther Beans or Navy Beans for this specific recipe because we don’t have access to fun heirloom options here in rural Alabama, and I still haven’t put my order in with Rancho Gordo because I end up building a cart much too large for my budget, so until I can keep my bean spending in order, we’ll stick with the classics.

The beans are nearly there…

THE BEGINNING OF A PERFECT POT OF BEANS

Start with a good, long soak. Overnight will suffice. After a good soak, rinse those beans and set them aside for cooking. Another great addition to a pot of beans is a good broth, whether it’s veggie or meat based. But truthfully, especially with this recipe, water will work just fine as all that garlic, onion and spice (and bean water) create a pretty delicious rich broth all on its own.

Also, if you forget to soak your beans, that’s OK. You’ll just have a longer cooking time and will need to adjust accordingly.