Day 3, Week 1: Bean & Tomato Stew, Rice, Summer Squash Two Ways

Think of this as Hydration Day. This is where we enjoy food from the often-scorned center aisles: dried beans, rice, and optionally tea. Add local water to these thrifty, high-nutrient foods to stretch your budget and lower your environmental impact.

You started the hydration yesterday, by soaking black beans. (If you didn't, don't worry. Either start soaking them now or just skip that step and cook them a little longer.) Two pounds of dried beans makes about 20 servings of cooked beans. Today, save eight servings (4 cups) for Bean Salad with Fresh Corn, Peppers, and Tomatoes later in the week. Prepare eight servings Cuban Black Beans and four servings of Bean and Tomato Stew with black beans.

I recommended canned tomatoes, another ingredient from the center-aisle, for the Bean and Tomato Stew. Canned tomatoes usually cost much less than fresh ones, making organic possible for more people. If you have a garden or can afford fresh organic tomatoes, by all means use them instead.

1. Decide when to turn on your slow cooker by checking the recipe for Cuban Black Beans. Cooking all the beans with bay leaves and salt will add flavor to the other recipes as well.

2. When beans are cooked but still firm, drain two cups and set aside to cool.

3. Cook the vegetables for Bean and Tomato Stew in a pot on the stove. When the vegetables are cooked, move four cups of beans into that pot. Cook eight servings of Rice and of Grilled Summer Squash Two Ways.

4. Add the vegetables and spices for Cuban Black Beans to the slow cooker. Let them them simmer until tender, possibly through dinner. Remove from the slow cooker to speed chilling, then refrigerate four servings to eat on day seven and freeze the rest to eat in week two.

5. Enjoy Bean and Tomato Stew with black beans and hot Summer Squash Two Ways for dinner. Because the grill will already be on, you may want to grill some fruit as an additional side. I usually eat all local fruit in season, but couldn't resist this organic pineapple for just $3.99. It's an example of thrift enabling luxury!

Sometimes I also brew a pitcher of iced tea on hydration day, but that's a bonus step.

6. Refrigerate extra beans, squash, and rice.

Comments

[Heather]

Tasty, but far longer than 20 minutes today. I've never thought of myself as a particularly slow cook, but I often find that cookbook estimated times wildly underestimate how long it will take *me* to make something. Am I just that much slower at chopping than everyone else? :( I am looking forward to next week's more concentrated cooking sessions; hopefully economies of scale will make up for some of that effect.

Btw, this blog post is a little confusing in terms of how many cups of beans go in each dish. The amounts listed in your second paragraph don't match the amounts you say to move in the later steps (2 and 3). To have them match, the amount in step 2 should be 4 cups, and the amount in step 3 should be 2 cups.