Cook this: Cranberry bean salad with roasted carrots and mojo de ajo from Grist

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Our cookbook of the week is Grist: A Practical Guide to Cooking Grains, Beans, Seeds, and Legumes by Abra Berens. Over the next three days, we’ll feature more recipes from the book and an interview with the author.

To try another recipe from the book, check out: Hoecakes with fresh mozzarella, tomato and soybeans; and flaky rye and three cheese galette with asparagus salad.

With their dappled pink and white skins, cranberry (a.k.a. borlotti) beans are as distinctive as they are versatile. Whether in pasta e fagioli or a pot of baked beans, their thin skins and velvety texture set them apart.

Here, chef, former farmer and writer Abra Berens features cranberry beans in a salad with roasted carrots and mojo de ajo. The thick sauce is made from roasted garlic smashed with lime and orange juice. “A welcome addition to most any meal,” it’s popular in the Caribbean, Cuba and Mexico.

At home, Berens might serve this salad as a side dish alongside some greens (kale salad, green lettuce salad or “a big pile of spinach”), or with roasted chicken, fish or meat. At the farm dinners she hosts at Granor Farm, an organic vegetable and grain farm in Three Oaks, Mich., it might appear as a full course.

“I love (this dish). Because I didn’t want Grist to be a baking book, or a one-pot-only sort of thing,” says Berens.

Instead, she showcases the unique qualities of grains and legumes primarily as components in vegetable-heavy dishes.

“It really has a small amount of beans in it,” she adds of this salad. “But you don’t need to eat that many, and they offered this other element to it.”

If you don’t have cranberry beans, Berens suggests substituting any kind of bean you like: “remember that the cooking time of the bean is directly correlated to the size and freshness of the bean at hand.”

CRANBERRY BEAN SALAD W/ ROASTED CARROTS + MOJO DE AJO

1 lb (450 g) dried cranberry beans
1 onion (about 8 oz/225 g), cut into chunks (optional)
10 sprigs thyme, tied in a bundle (optional)
3 bay leaves (optional)
1 tsp salt, plus more for the carrots
2 lb (900 g) carrots, cut in half
Olive oil
Chili flakes (optional)
1 recipe Mojo de Ajo (recipe follows)
10 sprigs cilantro, stems and leaves roughly chopped
1/2 cup (100 g) pepitas, toasted

Step 1

In a large pot, cover the beans with water by 2 in (5 cm). Add the onion, thyme and bay leaves (if using). Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and cook until the beans are tender (anywhere from 20 to 90 minutes, depending on whether the beans have been soaked and their freshness). When the beans are tender, add the salt and let sit for 10 minutes. Remove the herbs and discard.

Step 2

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Toss the carrots with a glug of olive oil, a couple pinches of salt and a pinch of chili flakes (if using). Roast the carrots until deeply caramelized on the outside and tender on the inside, about 40 minutes.

Step 3

To serve, spoon a heaping serving of cooked beans per person into a bowl and gently fold in 1/4 cup (60 mL) of mojo de ajo per serving. Transfer the beans into a serving dish or individual bowls, portion the carrots evenly among the serving dishes, and garnish with the chopped cilantro and a handful of pepitas.

Serves: 4

MOJO DE AJO

1 cup (250 mL) neutral oil
20 garlic cloves (4 oz/120 g), peeled and left whole
2 sprigs oregano
3 limes (about 4 1/2 oz/135 mL), zest and juice
1 orange (about 3 oz/90 mL), zest and juice
Salt

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C). Combine the olive oil, garlic cloves and oregano in a small ovenproof pot. Bake for 45 minutes or until the garlic is soft and fragrant. Alternatively, stew on the stove over very low heat, checking on it regularly.

Step 2

Allow to cool. Remove the oregano sprigs, squeezing any oil clinging to the leaves back into the pot. Add the citrus zest and juice and a couple of pinches of salt. Stir to combine, lightly smashing the garlic cloves with the back of the spoon to make a thick, oily sauce.

Makes: roughly 2 cups (500 mL)

Recipes and image reprinted from Grist: A Practical Guide to Cooking Grains, Beans, Seeds, and Legumes by Abra Berens, illustrated by Lucy Engelman, photographs by EE Berger © 2021. Reproduced by permission of Chronicle Books. All rights reserved.

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