Monday, December 05, 2011

Cannellini Bean Puree - A Tessa Kiros Recipe

Falling Cloudberries - A World of Family Recipes is a real coffe table book by Tessa Kiros, and a very intimate one, too. The book is filled with memories and photos of her life. Coming from a mixed (Finnish and Cypriot) background she can add an Italian husband, a childhood in South-Africa, and a Peruvian housekeeper; so the title 'A World of Family Recipes' is not a hollow promise.

Therefore, when I heart cooking clubs dared bloggers to check out Tessa Kiros' recipes and recreate a bean recipe from one of her books I took up the challenge, even though these are not vegetarian cook books. Many of her recipes are actually vegetarian, and the one I made -Cannellini Bean Puree- is even a vegan one. I don't think I would buy one of her books though, the bulk of recipes is after all heavily on the meaty side (that's what Greek and Finnish cuisine is after all).  But I really enjoyed the bean puree, a very simple yet nourishing dish. We really loved the spiced oil topping. For this I heated about 1/3 cup of good olive oil, added a teaspoon of rosmary and minced garlic cloves. In the original recipe Tessa crushed the garlic, but I rather liked it minced since the little pieces became a bit crunchy. And you can actually reduce the oil further (the original recipe called for 1/2 cup of olive oil).


I served the bean puree with pan-roasted carrots, soy sausages, and an endive salad. I would probably use less fatty side dishes in future (Tessa recommended Italian sausages) to make the whole meal somewhat lighter. Nevertheless we loved the combination, after all we had cold and stormy weather with rain and hail all day. So some comfort food can't hurt ;)

You can find this recipe in Tessa Kiros, Falling Cloudberries - A World of Family Recipes, 2009, page 322.

You can find the round-up at I Heart Cooking Clubs: Bean There, Done That

8 comments:

  1. Oh! I do love those crunchy bits of garlic...I can almost taste them! So glad you've joined us at IHCC this week...tasty pick :D

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  2. I think the creamy bean puree looks perfectly delicious. Bring on the garlic! Thanks for cooking along with us at IHCC this week. ;-)

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  3. The topping for the bean puree looks great! Count me in, too, for crunchy garlic.

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  4. Lovely! I am looking forward to trying this puree - and topped with garlic and rosemary! Divine.

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  5. The puree looks so good and the carrots are a perfect side dish.Nicely done!

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  6. @Heather: thank you, it was really fun and though the dish looked a bit bland when I read the recipe it was actually quite lovely.

    @MM: yes, I think to fry them until they became crunchy was a good idea :))

    @Natasha: please try, and if there are any leftovers ... they make a lovely spread as I found out :)

    @Meredith: Thank you :)

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  7. This cannellini bean puree looks wonderful - I would love this with lovely chunks of roasted aubergine, beets and sweet potatoes.
    Sue :-)

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  8. @Couscous&amp : That sounds like a really good idea :)especially the sweet potatoes *hmmm yummy*

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