Low Fat Bean Recipes

Ingredients:

1 lb dried navy beans
2 tsp olive oil
1 onion
8 garlic cloves
2 cup tomatoes, fresh plum
10 oz spinach
1 tbsp lemon rind, grated
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper, ground
1 cup bread crumbs, fresh
1/2 lb low-fat swiss cheese
1 tbsp butter

Instructions:

Sort and rinse beans and put in a 5 quart saucepan with enough water to
cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, boil 2 minutes, remove from heat and
let stand 1 hour.

Chop onion, mince garlic, chop tomatoes, chop spinach, and grate lemon
rind.

Drain soaking water from beans and add fresh water to cover by 2 inches.
Bring to boil over high heat, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer,
covered, for one hour until beans are tender. Drain beans, reserving 1 cup
bean liquid (freeze the remainder to add to your next batch of vegetable
soup).

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion a nd
saute 5 minutes. Add garlic and saute 1 minute. Remove from heat and
transfer to a large bowl; add tomatoes, spinach, lemon rind, vinegar, salt,
pepper, and half the beans.

Put fresh bread and cheese (cut in chunks) in food processor and process
until small crumbs. Set aside.

In food processor fitted with chopping blade, combine remaining half of
beans and reserved cooking liquid. Process until mixture is a smooth
puree. Stir puree into vegetable mixture in bowl, mixing until well
combined.

Heat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9 x 13 pan with butter-flavored spray. Spread
vegetable-bean mixture in pan and top with bread crumb/cheese mixture. Cut
better into small bits and dot top of mixture. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or
until top is golden brown. Cool 10 minutes before serving.

Serve with crusty bread.

Using canned white beans and canned S&W Redi-cut tomatoes (drained) would
make this much faster to prepare, or this would be a good candidate for
multiple-recipe cooking and freezing. If freezing, package crumb mixture
seperately for adding after dish has thawed but before baking.

From: "Country Living" magazine, Oct. 1994, adapted for low-fat by Linda
Shogren (TEECH)

Servings: 8