“When my hoe tinkled against the stones, that music echoed to the woods and the sky, and was an accompaniment to my labor which yielded an instant and immeasurable crop. It was no longer beans that I hoed, nor I that hoed beans; and I remembered with as much pity as pride, if I remembered at all, my acquaintances who had gone to the city to attend the oratorios.”
—-Henry David Thoreau
Are you a bean lover?
I am.
Like Thoreau, I think beans are beautiful and a culinary wonder. Truth be told, my pantry overflows with dried beans.
Today’s featured bean is the unusual (and delicious!) Royal Corona. They’re huge! Twice the size of your average lima bean. Thoreau, I think, would have loved these.
Royal Coronas are kind of hard to come by, but they are worth the search. You can find these beans at Rancho Gordo Beans here.
Rancho Gordo’s Royal Coronas are pricey at $7.50 a pound but a definite cut above other similar beans like grocery store limas or butter beans.
Rancho Gordo’s Royal Corona beans are hand-harvested large white runner beans. They’re creamy, meaty and tender and make a “WOW” of a presentation in this recipe or in other bean stew recipes you might create.
Here is a recipe for Coconutty Beans With Spinach as I prepared it in my kitchen. I particularly enjoyed the gingery onion-tomato sauce that flavors this bean recipe. And, while this recipe was great on “the day of,” it was absolutely delightful on the second day when the flavors had time to marry. The original recipe is from the February 2023 issue of Bon Appetit Magazine. You can find the original recipe here.
Coconutty Beans And Spinach
Ingredients
- 1 medium onion (coarsley chopped)
- 1 plum tomato (coarsley chopped)
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 inch piece of ginger
- 2 jalapeno chiles or milder Fresno chiles
- 3 T. extra virgin olive oil (divided)
- 2 t. salt
- 1/2 t. ground coriander
- 1/2 t. ground cumin
- 1 13.5 oz. can coconut milk (unsweetened)
- 2 C. water
- 1 medium sweet potato (peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch rounds)
- 1 large bunch fresh spinach (stems removed and coarsely chopped)
- 16 oz. dry Rancho Gordo Royal Corona beans (or 2 cans butter, gigante or cannellini beans--rinsed)
- 2 T. fresh lemon juice
- Flaky sea salt
- Garnish with slices of fried baguette and sprigs of fresh Italian parsley.
Directions
- Step 1 Cook dried beans in water to cover if you are not using canned. I used Rancho Gordo Royal Corona beans.
- Step 2 Puree onion, tomato, garlic, ginger and chiles in a blender until they are smooth.
- Step 3 Heat 1 T. butter in a large pan and sauté onion mixture and 1 T. salt in the pan. You want to cook this mixture until it is reduced to a thick paste-like mixture and until it is beginning to stick to the bottom of your pan. This should take about 15 minutes.
- Step 4 Add coriander, cumin and 1 t. salt to the reduced onion mixture. Add coconut milk and 2 C. water to the pan and stir. Bring this mixture to a boil. Add sliced sweet potatoes to the boiling mixture and cook for about 10 minutes until the sweet potatoes are cooked through but still hold their shape.
- Step 5 Stir chopped fresh spinach to the pot. Add the cooked beans (or canned). Be sure to rinse the beans if you are using canned beans. Cook for about 5 minutes until the spinach is wilted and the beans are hot.
- Step 6 Remove your pan from the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Taste and adjust salt and lemon juice amounts to your taste.
- Step 7 Serve with slices of baguette that has been fried in a little butter or a good olive oil.
- Step 8 Garnish with parsley, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and serve.
