Romesco Cranberry Bean Salad On Toast
Cook time: 40 minutes
Last week, I posted how to cook dried cranberry beans. That was just a technique, and now it is time to post some recipes for what you can do with those cooked beans! First up, this cranberry bean salad. These flavors are inspired by romesco sauce of Spain. In order to maximize the use of pantry ingredients, the only fresh things you need are a red onion, some garlic cloves, and flat-leaf parsley. Everything else is shelf-stable and hopefully things you already have on-hand. If not, do not worry! Heck, you can ever sub the home cooked cranberry beans with canned beans. Just use the techniques and you will have an excellent romesco bean salad that you can serve on toast or mix with salad greens.
To start, we need to toast some dried chiles and in that same pan we will roast some garlic. Dried chiles can be found in most major grocery stores, but if they are not stocked in your area, you can find that at Latin markets or order them online. I prefer to use kitchen scissors when working with dried chiles. While toasting the chiles only takes around a minute, it will take 8 to 10 minutes to roast the garlic in your pan. But, compared to roasting garlic in an oven, we are saving a lot of time.
But what the heck is romesco? It is a sauce from the Catalan region (think San Sebastian) of Spain. It often contains tomatoes, peppers, almonds or another nut, bread as a thickener, sherry vinegar, olive oil and parsley. We will use sun dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, the aforementioned chilis, sliced almonds, sherry vinegar that we pickle our onions in, and we will serve it on bread. I think that checks enough boxes to call this a romesco cranberry bean salad.
If you don’t want to eat this on bread, I recommend making a kale bean salad. Just follow Step 1 and Step 2 from this kale salad recipe and then add the beans.
As I like to say, recipes are guides, not blueprints. If there is another flavor profile you want to incorporate in your bean salad, go for it. I just hope this gets you excited about eating beans. I sure am excited to finish typing this so that I can go eat some romesco cranberry bean salad on some toast!
Servings/Suggestions
If you are super sensitive to heat, remove the seeds from the chile de arbol when you remove the stem. If you want it spicier, use 2 chiles de arbol.
Don’t use extra virgin olive oil in place of grapseed oil. Blending it will make it bitter. Finish each toast with a bit of extra virgin olive oil though!
Canned canellinni beans would probably be a good substitute for the cranberry beans
Have as a kale salad instead of on toast. Just follow the steps for “massaging the kale” from this recipe, then toss with the beans.
The small pot I use is like this one – a 0.5 qt “butter warmer.”
Special Equipment
Ingredients
3 or 4 cups of cooked cranberry beans, strained of their pot liquor
If you cooked dried cranberry beans, just leave as much behind a possible. If you bought canned ones, rinse them with water to remove the liquid they were with in the can
3 cloves garlic
1/3 cup sherry vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 red onion, diced
1/3 cup sliced almonds
3 sun-dried tomatoes, sliced
from a jar of sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil
1 teaspoon capers
2/3 cup grapeseed oil
10 stems of flat-leaf parsley, plus more for garnish
freshly cracked black pepper
2 roasted red peppers, diced
we will save 1/4 of the diced red pepper for garnish
jarred is fine!
Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling on at the end
Directions
Step 1
Heat up a small pan over medium heat. Add 2 unpeeled garlic cloves. Snip the stem off of the ancho chile, then cut it open lengthwise and remove the seeds. Add the ancho chile and the chile de arbol to the pan and toast, around 30 seconds on each side. They should be softer and pliable. Remove the chiles and add them to a bowl. Cover with hot water and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let sit for at least 20 minutes. Increase the heat to medium high and continue to cook the garlic, flipping every few minutes, until brown spots appear on the garlic skin.
Step 2
Meanwhile, dice the red onion and mince 1 clove of garlic. Add the sherry vinegar, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of sugar to a small sauce pot. Bring to a boil and stir to help dissolve the salt and sugar. Add the red onion and garlic, stir well, and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, stir again, and use the back of your spoon or fork to push down the onion to submerge it in the vinegar.
Step 3
After the chiles have soaked for at least 20 minutes, remove them. Cut the stem of the chile de arbol. Slice both chilis into strips and add them to a blender or food processor. Peel the garlic cloves. They should be soft, like roasted garlic. Add the garlic to the blender, along with the sliced almonds, 1 big spoonful of the pickled onions, the sun-dried tomatoes, capers, and the grapseed oil.
Step 4
If you are blending, start on low and then increase the speed. If you are using a food processor, start by pulsing all of the ingredients. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides and blend/process until a uniform, smooth mixture forms. Taste it!
Step 5
Now we have our “oil mixture” and we need to turn this into a dressing — that is, add vinegar! Place a fine mesh strainer over a small bowl. Add the pickled onion mixture. With the back of a spoon, press down on the onions to press out the vinegar. Add that vinegar to the oil mixture and blend to emulsify.
Step 6
Dice the roasted red peppers and save 1/4 of them for garnish. Chop the parsley, and make sure to cut the thick stem ends into small pieces. In a large bowl, add the cranberry beans, red peppers, parsley, 2 spoonfuls of the pickled red onion (we are saving some for garnish as well), the dressing, freshly cracked black pepper and 1 teaspoon of kosher salt. Stir well and cover with plastic wrap. If you are going to eat this in the next hour, leave it on the counter. If you are going to eat the beans later, refrigerate and remove them roughly 1 hour before you plan to eat so that they salad isn’t ice cold.
Step 7
Toast, or don’t toast, some slices of bread. Add the bean mixture, garnish with some diced roasted red pepper and some pickled onion. Add a few parsley leaves and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Enjoy!
ROMESCO CRANBERRY BEAN SALAD
Ingredients
- 3 or 4 cups of cooked cranberry beans, strained of their pot liquor
- 1 ancho chile
- 1 chile de arbol
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/3 cup sherry vinegar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- 1/3 cup sliced almonds
- 3 sun-dried tomatoes, sliced
- 1 teaspoon capers
- 2/3 cup grapeseed oil
- 10 stems of flat-leaf parsley, plus more for garnish
- freshly cracked black pepper
- 2 roasted red peppers, diced
Instructions
- Heat up a small pan over medium heat. Add 2 unpeeled garlic cloves. Snip the stem off of the ancho chili, then cut it open lengthwise and remove the seeds. Add the ancho chili and the chili de arbol to the pan and toast, around 30 seconds on each side. They should be softer and pliable. Remove the chilis and add them to a bowl. Cover with hot water and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let sit for at least 20 minutes. Increase the heat to medium high and continue to cook the garlic, flipping every few minutes, until brown spots appear on the garlic skin.
- Meanwhile, dice the red onion and mince 1 clove of garlic. Add the sherry vinegar, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of sugar to a small sauce pot. Bring to a boil and stir to help dissolve the salt and sugar. Add the red onion and garlic, stir well, and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, stir again, and use the back of your spoon or fork to push down the onion to submerge it in the vinegar.
- After the chilis have soaked for at least 20 minutes, remove them. Cut the stem of the chili de arbol. Slice both chilis into strips and add them to a blender or food processor. Peel the garlic cloves. They should be soft, like roasted garlic. Add the garlic to the blender, along with the sliced almonds, 1 big spoonful of the pickled onions, the sun-dried tomatoes, capers, and the grapseed oil.
- If you are blending, start on low and then increase the speed. If you are using a food processor, start by pulsing all of the ingredients. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides and blend/process until a uniform, smooth mixture forms. Taste it!
- Now we have our “oil mixture” and we need to turn this into a dressing — that is, add vinegar! Place a fine mesh strainer over a small bowl. Add the pickled onion mixture. With the back of a spoon, press down on the onions to press out the vinegar. Add that vinegar to the oil mixture and blend to emulsify.
- Dice the roasted red peppers and save 1/4 of them for garnish. Chop the parsley, and make sure to cut the thick stem ends into small pieces. In a large bowl, add the cranberry beans, red peppers, parsley, 2 spoonfuls of the pickled red onion (we are saving some for garnish as well), the dressing, freshly cracked black pepper and 1 teaspoon of kosher salt. Stir well and cover with plastic wrap. If you are going to eat this in the next hour, leave it on the counter. If you are going to eat the beans later, refrigerate and remove them roughly 1 hour before you plan to eat so that they salad isn’t ice cold.
- Toast, or don’t toast, some slices of bread. Add the bean mixture, garnish with some diced roasted red pepper and some pickled onion. Add a few parsley leaves and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Enjoy!
Notes
Remember to refer to the website for additional details!
