No, this is not a recipe for a vegetarian political party, it’s a tasty, tenderizing herbal blend added to a simmering pot of beans. You can use just about any kind of dry bean such as pintos, navy or great northern, red beans or kidney, even garbanzos, also known as chickpeas. If you don’t have a local patch of nettles you can harvest, purchase them at your local natural food store, which is also where you’ll find the kelp. All the herbs and spices called for in the recipe are dried, not fresh; try growing some of these herbs at home and drying them yourself, you’ll taste the difference. This makes about 1½ cups seasoning blend and it takes 1 tablespoon herb blend to season a pot of beans.
Greens for Beans Seasoning Blend
½ cup chopped, crushed, or snipped kelp (also known as kombu or konbu)
½ cup chopped nettle leaves
2 tablespoons garlic powder or granules (do not use garlic salt)
2 tablespoons dried marjoram
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 tablespoons dried sage
2 tablespoons savory
1 teaspoon ginger root powder
Combine all ingredients in a bowl, using your hands and fingers to mix well, and store in a glass jar. Use 1 tablespoon blend for each 2 cups dry beans, which must first be washed and soaked overnight, then thoroughly rinsed.
A Pot o’ Beans
2 cups dry beans of your choice
1 tablespoon Greens for Beans herbal blend
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1–2 hot chilies, optional
Rinse beans and pick over for stones. In a large bowl, cover the beans with plenty of water and soak overnight. The next day, drain the beans and rinse thoroughly. In a large saucepan, cook beans in double their volume of water or unsalted broth by first bringing to a boil, boiling 10 minutes, then reducing the heat to a low simmer; skim off any foam that accumulates. Then add the herbal blend. For a real kicker, add 1 or 2 dried hot chilies as well. Simmer beans for 1 to 2 hours, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until beans are tender and no longer starchy. Add more water if necessary to keep them covered. Do not add salt until cooked through halfway, otherwise it will toughen the beans (just don’t forget the salt or the beans will taste flat). When the aroma fills the air, your meal companions will be surprised to find out it’s “just a pot of beans.” You can make a simple supper with these beans by baking corn or spice muffins and fixing a lemony coleslaw to accompany it.
If you want to use a slow cooker for the beans, just be sure to bring the beans to a boil in a separate pan for 10 minutes before putting them in the crock, then set on low and away you go. You’ll just have to add the salt later.
It’s important to soak the beans overnight in plenty of water with lots of rinsing afterward to remove certain saccharides, which cause gas. It’s also important to boil the beans for 10 minutes before setting them on a simmer so they don’t ferment before they’re hot enough, which makes them difficult to digest and causes more gas and bloating. Even so, some people cannot eat beans no matter how they are prepared.
The kelp also helps tenderize the bean and is used extensively in macrobiotic cooking. You can buy kelp—which is a type of seaweed, usually Laminaria spp.—as powder or granules, but I prefer to use the dried, leafy sheets and chop it up myself. It’s a chore, but it’s less gritty too. What I do is cut the kelp up into tiny ribbons with sharp kitchen shears. Be sure to use food-grade kelp and not kelp processed for garden amendment. Kelp is also made into very thin sheets called nori, which is used to wrap sushi rolls.
Incidentally, I use nettle leaf in this recipe as compared to nettle herb, which includes the stem as well; this is okay for beverage teas or soup broths that you strain, but it’s not as enjoyable floating around in a bowl of beans. For more ways to use nettles, see page 219, “N is for Nettles.”