I like beans

'You are a strange young man,' said Juno. 'I can't quote make you out. Sometimes I wonder why I take so much trouble over you, dear. But then of course I know, a moment later, that I have no choice. Now have I? You touch me so, my cruel one. You know it, don't you?'
- Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake

It was beans overload day recently as I met my friend L for lunch found the only thing I could eat on the menu was baked beans on toast. Not a problem since I like baked beans but I'd forgotten I'd requested a bean dish for dinner at the parents that same night!


I think she used the usual kidney bean filling she uses for her vegetarian shepherds pie (which I'm pretty sure is from Simon and Alison Holst's Meals Without Meat) and the scone topping was another Alison Holst recipe made into pinwheels with chutney in the middle. I ate heaps and it was delicious (perfect for the slow descent into winter we're having here) so clearly having beans for 2 meals in one day is not a problem!

Clearly on the beans roll (yeah, it really is lucky I like beans) a couple of nights later The Chef cooked up some beans for tea a couple of nights later served in a sort of nacho-like way.


With the beans (and copious amounts of corn chips...we polished off the whole bag through the course of the evening) we also had (mostly) crispy potato and kumara chips.


The big black-looking thing in the centre of the photo is actually a purple Maori potato. It's not burnt, just looks like it 'cause of my terrible photography skills! It's actually a beautiful purple colour all the way through. I have never been a big fan of potato (but I love kumara) but I am so in love with Maori potatoes...it's making my mouth water just thinking about them!

This last meal does not involve beans (although, if you think about it, tempeh is fermented soy beans so I guess it does fit the theme!), but going along with the theme of the purple potatoes we had purple carrots the following night which we'd picked up at the Parnell market.


Um, yeah I should have used the flash but I was lazy so imagine beautiful purple carrots instead of almost black, burnt-looking things! They were lightly steamed and tasted really delicious and sweet (and have a thin strip of white inside up the middle). There was also tempeh baked with chutney, and we scored roast veggies, peas and beans off The Chef's parents. Yum!