Here’s a dish that’s as frugal as it is delicious. We’ve been making Italian beans and rice for dinner for as long as I can remember.
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 1 dash hot pepper flakes, or to taste
- 15 ounce can chopped tomatoes
- 3 cups cooked (1 cup dry) white beans like great northern or navy beans (2 – 15 ounce cans of beans will make 3 cups)
- 1 tablespoon dry parsley
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon basil (optional)
- Cooked brown rice
Put your rice on to cook before you begin this recipe. I use 1-1/2 cups of brown rice and 3 cups of water. For the beans I cook a cup of them earlier in the day, so they are plenty tender by suppertime.
Begin by chopping your onion and celery. Heat the oil in a 3 quart pot. Add the garlic, onion, celery and hot pepper flakes. Saut� until the onion is tender and fragrant and the celery is bright green. Add the undrained tomatoes and 3 juicy cups of cooked beans. Stir it all up. Add the parsley and the basil if you are using it. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Serve over the brown rice.
If your beans weren’t salted and if you use no-salt-added tomatoes, you will need 1 teaspoon of salt for this dish. Otherwise, salt to taste. If the tomatoes and beans are both already salted, you probably won’t need to add any additional salt.
Makes 6 servings. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and extra hot pepper flakes at the table.
I hope you enjoy this bean recipe as much as my family does. You may also want to try making this delicious black bean soup recipe.
Hi! I’m not sure what you mean by juicy cups of beans. Does that mean you include some of the cooking water to measure 1 cup?
Thanks so much! I really appreciate your site as a resource for frugal meals.
I make an Italian bean soup very similar to this, just adding more liquid of course. I know without even trying it that this is a good recipe. Sauteeing the vegetables in olive oil for 10 minutes or so before adding to the beans makes such a flavor difference! I would add that instead of chopping by hand, if you GRIND the vegetables and add one carrot (not too much or it takes over), parlsey basil, etc. it’s even more influential. I have one of those small grinders (mine came with my blender as an add-on). Original soup recipe from Nika Hazelton’s I adapted) called for reduc ing the ground veggies almost to a paste–I don’t go quite that far.
Think I’ll try making pot of straight beans using same techniques, less liquid, perhaps use half water half stock to cook the beans.
A year or so ago my daughter out west called to alert me before upcoming visit that she now is a vegan! Personally, I can imagine being a happy vegetarian, but vegan? No eggs, milk, cheese? Not for me.
I asked, what on earth am I going to feed you? Beans she said.
So I used that recipe for Italian Bean Soup(much like yours for beans), merely changing the boxed low-sodium chicken stock to Seitenbacher’s (powder) vegetarian stock–buy it at the health food store, it’s delicious. For my non-vegan version the big pot of soup includes 3 strips of sauteed and added bacon. Or Pancetta if I’m feeling rich.
Made a huge pot of vegan version of my favorite bean soup and I have to say it was very, very good! She ate it at every lunch and dinner we had at home, and I found restaurants out (Thai and Lebanese are great for vegans) with suitable menus.
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I just cooked a huge pot of white beans today to stick in the freezer. I stumbled across this recipe and decided to try it tonight. We are vegans and I’m adding a salad and some vegan garlic “cheese” bread (with Daiya cheese) to round it out. Thanks so much for this website and the great, frugal, but tasty recipes!
We tried this recipe last night for dinner and it was sooo good and very filling. I just became vegetarian but my hubby and children are not and they loved this! So easy and very healthy! Thank you!