Tarragon scented white bean soup

A lovely bean soup from dried beans doesn’t necessarily mean long hours on the stove top. A pressure cooker will deliver it in about 20 minutes. Lentils are even faster. And it makes risotto super easy. No stirring!

When I’m going to cook beans, whether in the slow cooker or the pressure cooker, I plan ahead and put them in to soak in some water at least 8 hours. If I’m not going to use right after soaking, I just stick them in the fridge until I need them.

If you’re looking for a guide to ease you into pressure cookery, Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure is a great choice. And I think most recipes are either vegan or easily vegan. It comes with handy cook time charts for various beans, grains and vegetables so you can speed up your favorite dish once you get comfortable with pressure cooking.

This is the Tarragon Scented White Bean Soup from this book. In this case, navy beans. It made a great weeknight Fall meal.

Disaster recovery

Well, I was going to make Dal Kootu last night. But then I burned the beans in my pressure cooker. The water kept bubbling out of the steam release. Maybe I need a new pressure cooker.

 

the burnination
the burnination

So I flipped around Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India for another recipe I could make. I picked Vegetable Korma. It was okay, but the coconut didn’t mix up smooth enough. I think it would have have been better if I had a vitamix or if I somehow substituted in coconut milk for the shredded coconut. 

Oh yeah, now I remember why I bought a new digital camera. *sigh*