Natasha D'Souza

I have been experimenting with different beans and trying to find different ways to use them. One recipe that works well and gets rave reviews is the one for Bean Salad. I have received numerous requests for this and here it is. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures.

If I have some time I cook them in the pressure cooker however the canned beans work just as well. If you do use the canned beans then make sure that you rinse them, let’s just say it makes for better digestion : )

As with most of my recipes the proportions are not exact and are subject to taste. In this case you can use as many different kinds of beans that you like, it works best if there are at least 3 different kinds of beans.

Bean Salad

Ingredients

1 can of each, minimum 3 different kinds of beans e.g. kidney, black, chickpea, cannellini, garbanzo or navy beans
1 cup of frozen or canned corn
2 peppers chopped e.g. yellow, red, orange or green
1/2 red onion diced
1 tbs chives
2 green onion thinly sliced
3/4 cup mango juice
1 cup spicy salsa
1 tbs honey
2 tbs olive oil
salt/pepper/paprika to taste
1 tbs fresh herbs chopped e.g. basil, oregano, parsley

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, toss together beans, corn, peppers, red onion, chives and green onion
2. In a small bowl, whisk together mango juice, salsa, honey, olive oil and herbs
3. Season with salt, pepper and paprika
4. Add the dressing to the beans, toss to coat.
5. Cover, and chill in the refrigerator for 8 hours, or overnight.

It’s best to make this the day before as the flavors have time to blend. Enjoy.

A friend of mine made monkey bread a few months ago and I wondered what it was all about.  A quick Google search came up with all sorts of combinations’ of this bread and it looked yummie.  I gave it s whirl.  Not being too crazy about processed food I was not too keen on using frozin dinner roll dough.  So I looked to see if there was one for the breadmaker.  I found one on Family Oven for Monkey Bread.

But just before I came across this recipe I found another one on Evite with a banana, chocolate chip, caramel sauce.  So I combined both.

Dough Ingredients

1 cup water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons margarine, softened
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Other Ingredients

1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Banana Caramel Sauce Ingredients

1¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or 1 12-ounce bag)
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnaon
1 stick butter
4 ripe bananas, pureed
¾ cup brown sugar
¾ cup chopped pumpkin and sunflower seeds

How To

1. Place ingredients in the pan in the following order water, flour, sugar, margarine, cinnamon, salt, yeast.  Make sure that no liquid comes in contact with the yeast.
2. Select dough cycle and press start.  The dough cycle typically takes about 2 hours
3. When dough is complete, place dough on floured surface and knead 10 to 12 times
4. Divide dough into 40 pieces about 1 inch chunks
5. Preheat oven to 350°
6. Push a few chocolate chips inside each dough chunk, pinch close with fingers.
7. Give each a quick roll between the palms of your hands to form a round shape
8. In a bowl mix sugar and cinnamon (other ingredients)
9. Roll chunk in the cinnamon and sugar mixture
10. Mash bananas
11. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until foamy, about 1 minute
12. Add in banana puree and stir until combined
13. Add brown sugar and stir to dissolve, then let boil for about 1 minute
14. Spray bundt pan with non-stick spray
15. Pour one third of banana-caramel sauce in bottom of pan, then sprinkle with ¼ cup each of chocolate chips and seeds
16. Arrange balls in a single layer in bundt pan
17. Pour another third of banana-caramel sauce over, and sprinkle with ½ cup of chocolate chips and ¼ cup seeds
18. Arrange second layer of balls on top, and pour remaining sauce, chocolate chips and walnuts on top
19. Bake for 35 minutes, then let cool for 15 minutes.

YUMMIE!!!!

Things I would do differently next time

I would melt the butter and then put it in the blender with the bananas.  I mashed the bananas so they were lumpy which resulted in a very thick caramel sauce.  I would then put it back in the pan and add the brown sugar and heat for 1 minute.

Instead of coating the chunks in the cinnamon and sugar mixture I would coat each chunk in the caramel sauce. Instead of layering the caramel sauce.

I would place the seeds and chocolate chips at the bottom of the pan to start off.  Then I would roll the caramel dipped chunk into the chip/seed mixture.

If there are left overs, heat up your share in the microwave, it’s best when it’s warm and the chocolate melted.

Hope you try it out,  Enjoy.