Easy flageolet bean and tuna salad lunch

I sometimes marvel at the fact that I seem to spend so many of my waking hours packing lunches, and then I end up with nothing to eat when noon comes around at work. 

This is due in part to the sheer exhaustion induced by the daily chore of packing lunches for two kids with multiple externally imposed restriction (no peanuts or tree nuts at elementary school, no ovoid or hard choking hazards at child care) and personal preferences (one carbohydrate-loving vegetarian, one protein-loving omnivore). I must say that I am a fan of these Lunchsense lunch boxes, created by a neighborhood mother, that facilitate the lunch creation process (above: sunflower butter sandwich, sliced fruit, edamame and carrots, yogurt with a side of cereal to sprinkle on top). Still, after all the effort of filling eight separate compartments with nutritious and appealing food, I have no energy to pack lunch for myself. 


This week, however, I came up with an easy and delicious grownup lunch, thanks to having cooked up a double batch of heirloom green flageolet beans from Lonesome Whistle Farm.

This is a take on the Tuscan classic of a white bean and tuna salad. I mixed up a quick mustard vinaigrette and added in a can of tuna in olive oil (a great pantry staple for many dishes including salade Nicoise. During graduate school in the Bay Area I waged a private campaign to get Trader Joe's to carry tuna in olive oil by incessantly filling out customer suggestion forms; I feel a slight sense of triumph that it is now widely available). To this mixture, I add the beans and some chopped parsley (we can only dream of vine-ripe tomatoes that would be a delicious addition in the summer). Voila, an instant gourmet lunch, along with some crusty baguette from Eugene City Bakery. And best of all, one batch will last for several days, improving in flavor and alleviating the need to pack another lunch.

Green Flageolet Bean and Tuna Salad

1 cup green flageolet beans, picked over and rinsed
1 can tuna in olive oil
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
a pinch of lemon zest
salt and pepper to taste


1. Cook the beans in approximately 4 cups of lightly salted water over low heat until they are tender, about 1 or 1 1/2 hours. If you like, add in the rind of a lemon or a bay leaf to the bean pot as they simmer. Make sure the beans stay submerged in liquid while they cook, but once they have softened, you can cook down the remaining liquid, or drain the beans and reserve the broth for a soup.


2. In the container you will use to transport your bean salad, mix together the mustard and vinegar. Open the can of tuna and mix the olive oil from the can into your vinaigrette. If you are using tuna in water, add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to your bowl, and drain off the water from the tuna. Now add the tuna to the bowl, flake with a fork, and mix into the vinaigrette, leaving some chunks. Then mix in the beans (about 2 1/2 cups when cooked), the chopped parsley, and lemon zest. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy with some fresh bread.

Other recipes for heirloom beans:

Creamy green flageolet beans

Dutch bullet bean soup with Indian spices

Arikara beans with tomatillo pork

Ireland Creek Annie Baked Beans

Flageolet bean salad with fennel, orange, and tapenade

Arikara beans with roasted fennel and peppers

Jacob's Cattle bean and ham stew

Calypso beans with ginger and black mustard seeds

Ireland Creek Annie bean bruschetta

Lemon and herb Dutch bullet beans

Minty green flageolet beans

Dutch bullet beans and roasted squash soup

Rio Zape beans with toasted chile sauce

Arikara bean gratin

Calypso bean and leek soup

Creamy Green Flageolet Beans

I spoke too soon in my last post, forecasting the start of the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market in April. With the rainy spring weather, our anchor vender, SLO Farm, has had to delay their early planting, and now anticipate their first crops in June. However, they report that their plum and pear trees and berry plants are blooming beautiful, so we can look forward to delicious late summer and fall fruits. I'll keep the information sidebar updated with the most current information of the Market start date.

While waiting for fresh spring produce, I can still turn to my treasure trove of heirloom dried beans from Lonesome Whistle Farm. Last weekend I prepared a springtime dish of delicate green flageolet beans seasoned with a classic trio of aromatic diced shallots, celery and carrots and sprigs of fresh oregano and thyme, based on a recipe from Deborah Madison's Greens Cookbook. 

I was thinking about the Madison recipe, which had been a favorite of mine in graduate school, because of an article about beans by Melissa Clark in the New York Times Dining section entitled "Secrets of the Bean Pot." Clark pointed out what a mistake it is to drain the delicious cooking liquid from a pot of beans, echoing the thoughtful instructions in the Greens Cookbook to save this liquid as flavorful broth for a soup. In my own bean recipes I try to modulate the amount of liquid so that one doesn't need to strain off a lot of the flavor in the end. For example with these flageolets, I simmered them in just enough liquid to cover the beans, along with a bay leaf, until they were soft, and then cooked off a little more of the liquid. Another strategy is to cook a double pot of beans, use some drained (such as for a pureed bean spread) and some for a soup.


While we're on the topic of dispelling bean cooking myths, I'd like to point out a few rules of thumb I've come to ignore during my experimentations with cooking dried bean. And I'll just interject that I have some new bean cooking credentials, since two of my bean recipes were recently selected as editor's picks on the food52 website (both Rio Zapes with Toasted Chile Sauce and Boston Baked Beans). First is the whole pre-soaking business, which I think is entirely unnecessary unless you are anxious to hurry along your beans, and even then it only shaves off an extra half hour or so of cooking time (the real determinant of cooking time is the dryness of the beans, so you just have to plan to be flexible and open-minded with each new batch). I'm a proponent of cooking beans in a slow cooker, which lets them plump up gently without the danger of drying out, because very little liquid evaporates if you keep the lid closed, and it gives you the freedom to wander off and plant some peas in the garden or catch the Family Music Time at the library. You should plan to give the pot a good swirl every so often to ensure that the beans cook evenly. The second myth I've come to reject is the danger of cooking dried beans with salt. I've included plenty of salty ingredients in my bean pots, such as ham or bacon, with no perceptible increase in toughness, and I think a sprinkle of salt can add flavor to the beans as they cook. Finally there is the myth about acidity causing toughness, which again I've come to reject. I've cooked beans with acidic tomatillos or a vinegary sauce, and both came out deliciously tender and flavorful. The bottom line is that I see no reason to treat dried beans like shrinking violets.

On the other hand, there's no reason not to pamper them with a rich cream sauce, which is what Deborah Madison's recipe does. One tends to think of bean dishes as lean, even meager affairs, but this is a truly decadent delight.

We served them with a spring salad with asparagus in a mustardy vinaigrette with shaved parmesan cheese and (in violation of the vegetarian ethos of Greens) a ribeye steak broiled with a topping of horseradish and gorgonzola. The meal was delicious, but the steak was almost superfluous with the decadent beans and tasty salad.

Creamy Green Flageolet Beans

1 cup green flageolet beans, sorted and rinsed
1 bay leaf
~4 cups water
2 shallots
2 carrots
1 stalk celery
leaves from 1 sprig fresh thyme
leaves from 1 sprig fresh oregano
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
salt and pepper to taste


1. Simmer the flageolet beans with the bay leaf and a generous pinch of salt on low heat until tender, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Remove the bay leaf. Drain the beans and reserve the bean liquid for another use, such as a soup (or cook 2 cups of beans and save one half in the broth for another dish).


2. Finely dice the shallots, carrots, and celery. Heat the butter in a pan over medium low heat and saute the dice vegetables until they are softened and glassy, about 10 minutes. Add the cream, thyme, and oregano leaves and warm for a couple of minutes. Add the drained beans and cook for w few minutes until the beans are warmed through and the flavors have melded. Adjust salt and pepper seasoning to taste. Turn off the heat and stir in fresh chopped parsley. Enjoy with some spring sunshine.


Other recipes for heirloom beans:
Dutch bullet bean soup with Indian spices
Arikara beans with tomatillo pork
Ireland Creek Annie Baked Beans
Flageolet bean salad with fennel, orange, and tapenade
Arikara beans with roasted fennel and peppers
Jacob's Cattle bean and ham stew
Calypso beans with ginger and black mustard seeds
Ireland Creek Annie bean bruschetta
Lemon and herb Dutch bullet beans
Minty green flageolet beans
Dutch bullet beans and roasted squash soup
Rio Zape beans with toasted chile sauce
Arikara bean gratin
Calypso bean and leek soup

Flageolet bean salad with fennel, orange, and tapenade

The sun is shining, crocuses are blooming, oranges are in season, and salad for dinner seemed like a welcome change of pace. Inspired by my fennel flavored Arikara beans, I decide to try the same cooking technique with some delicate green flageolet beans from Lonesome Whistle Farm.

I tossed the beans in a mustard vinaigrette with sliced fresh fennel bulb and sections of blood oranges, and layered this onto some salad greens dressed with a lemony vinaigrette.

To accompany the salad, I prepared an olive tapenade that incorporated some of the same flavors as the salad, with fennel fronds and citrus zest. 

The tapenade was delicious on olive bread from the Eugene City Bakery and provided a bold, salty contrast to the mild, crunchy and fruity salad. It almost feels like spring. And as an extra treat, this recipe was selected as an editor's pick on Amanda Hesser's Food52 website.

Flageolet bean salad with fennel, orange, and tapenade

For the salad

2 cups green flageolet beans, rinsed

1 fennel bulb

2 blood oranges or 1 large naval orange

mixed salad greens

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 1/2 Tbsp sherry vinegar

1 Tbsp lemon juice

4 Tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

For the tapenade

1/2 cup pitted olives

2 Tbsp capers

1 clove garlic

handful of fennel fronds

handful of parsley leaves

pinch of red pepper flakes

2 Tbsp olive oil

1. Rinse the beans and put them in a slow cooker or a pot with 4 cups of water. Rinse the fennel bulb and cut off the stalks. Reserve the bulb and a handful of the most tender fronds. Layer the remaining stalks and fronds over the beans. Simmer the beans on low for about 3 hours, swirling occasionally to mix, until they are tender but still firm (on the stovetop this may take less time and require additional water). Remove the fennel stalks and season generously with salt. Drain 2 cups of the cooked beans for the salad and reserve the remaining beans for another use.

2. Prepare the tapenade. If you're like me and don't like raw garlic, heat the garlic clove in a dry, hot skillet, until it is blacked in patches on the outside and soft and fragrant, or skip this step. In a food processor, combine the olives, capers, garlic clove, reserved fennel fronds, parsley, 1 tsp of zest from both the lemon and orange, red pepper flakes, and 2 Tbsp olive oil. Pulse briefly into a coarse, chunky paste.

3. Prepare the bean salad. Cut the fennel bulb into thin slices. Peel the oranges, slice, and quarter each slice. In a medium bowl whisk together the mustard, 1 Tbsp vinegar, 2 Tbsp olive oil, and salt and pepper. Toss in the cooked beans, fennel and orange slices and mix well. Adjust seasoning.

4. Prepare the salad. In a large bowl, whisk together 1 Tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 Tbsp vinegar, 2 Tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss in the salad greens until well coated. Layer on the bean salad, and serve with tapenade and bread. If you like, you can prepare tapenade toasts under the broiler.

Other recipes for heirloom beans:

Arikara beans with roasted fennel and peppers

Jacob's Cattle bean and ham stew

Calypso beans with ginger and black mustard seeds

Ireland Creek Annie bean bruschetta

Lemon and herb Dutch bullet beans

Minty green flageolet beans

Dutch bullet beans and roasted squash soup

Rio Zape beans with toasted chile sauce

Arikara bean gratin

Calypso bean and leek soup

Minty Green Flageolet Beans

Another of our Lonesome Whistle Farm CSA heirloom beans are these lovely pale green and slender Green Flageolet. They were originally cultivated in France and Italy. With all of Eugene caught up in anticipation of the UO Ducks playing for the National Championship title on Monday, I was inspired to come up with a green and yellow meal that showed off our school colors.

I thought the pale minty green of the beans could be accentuated by a mint and parsley pesto.

This I mixed in after the beans had cooked to tenderness, so that they had a fresh, bright herb flavor.

For a yellow vegetable side, I sauteed a diced parsnip and carrot in butter and then added in two chopped yellow peppers and cooked until they started to caramelize.

Meanwhile, Eric prepared some sea scallops wrapped in bacon under the broiler.

The scallops were succulent and the delicate green-flecked flageolet beans were scrumptious with the sweet peppers and earthy root vegetables. I'm planning to use the leftover beans and peppers in a salad on Monday. Not your typical football fare, but a delicious way to show school spirit. Go Ducks!

Minty Green Flageolet Beans

1 lb (2 cups) dried flageolet beans, sorted and rinsed

4 cups water or chicken broth

~5 sprigs mint

~10 sprigs flat leaf parsley

1 Tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1. If you like, soak the beans for a few hours. Then drain and simmer in 4 cups water or stock uncovered on very low heat until tender but intact. Most of the liquid should be absorbed by this point.

2. To prepare the pesto, combine the mint and parsley leaves, olive oil, salt and pepper in a food processor and puree. Stir into the beans once they are completely cooked.

Other heirloom bean recipes:

Dutch bullet beans and roasted squash soup

Rio Zape Beans with toasted chile sauce

Arikara bean gratin

Calypso bean and leek soup