southerly

just a quick follow up on the dinner lauren and i made on wednesday. between mouthfuls of this super hearty and excellent southern inspired meal, we cheered on pitching wonderboy roy hallady and the rest of our boys as they soundly beat the saggy pants off the reds.

i'm typing this with my fingers crossed that they can do it again tonight! i'll just be eating leftovers instead of a killer home cooked meal, but there's only so much time in the day...

salt & pepper polenta topped with spicy beans, tempeh bacon & collard greens, and sweet potato fries

Spicy Beans
~makes 2-4 servings~
~takes about 15 minutes~

ingredients:
1 can of beans (almost any kind will do, we used roman beans), drained and rinsed
1-2 cloves of garlic, diced
1-2 hot peppers, chopped finely (we used sweet habaneros, but jalepeno or long hots would be great, too!)
1 tomato, chopped (no need to peel, or de-seed or any of that fancy stuff)
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/2 tsp chili powder or cayenne pepper (depending on how spicy you want it...)
1 tsp oil
hot sauce and/or bbq sauce to taste
salt to taste

- in a small saucepan over medium heat, warm up 1 tsp veggie, olive, safflower, or whatever kind of oil you like.

- add the diced garlic and peppers. sautee gently for about 5 minutes, then dust with the chili powder or cayenne.

- add the beans and bring to a brisk simmer.

- add the veggie stock, and turn the heat down to low.

- simmer until most of the stock has absorbed (1o mins), and the beans are starting to break down. stir in the tomatoes.

- taste it. how spicy is it? how much spicier do you want to make it? that will determine how much bbq sauce or hot sauce you want to add. if you're not sure, add slowly, tasting in between. that's basically it!

you can customize this recipe by adding other veggies in step 2 (carrots, bell peppers, onions, etc), by tailoring the spices to your likes (some chipolte is nice), or by stirring in some grated cheese instead of bbq/hot sauce at the end. then go ahead and put these frijoles all up in some tacos, on a sandwich w/ avocado, or atop some fluffy grains like we did. bang!

love,
emily