And the winner is... Baked Beans

It seems every old cowboy movie had a camp cook serving up a mess of baked beans. I can see John Wayne eating them now. . . from a tin plate with an old battered spoon and a chunk of sourdough bread. So, it's fitting that when I asked rancher Art Unsworth for a recipe from the annual Murraydale Stampede and Picnic, he sent a recipe for baked

Prairie Kitchens - Baked String Beans and Bacon

John Diefenbaker's mother was a pretty good cook. She could turn a prairie chicken and a few string beans into a delicious meal, and did so often.

The family had moved west from Ontario in 1903 when young Diefenbaker was seven. Their home near Fort Carlton (where Dief's father was a school teacher) served as a community centre and stopping point for locals, travellers and new homesteaders.

In his memoir One Canada (Vol. 1) Diefenbaker recalls North West Mounted Police officers stopping by: "No doubt it was coincidence but they usually arrived at mealtime." Indian folks dropped in for tea and Metis leader Gabriel Dumont visited "now and then" with a gift of game for the stew pot.

Their daily diet was typical for Saskatchewan at that time. Day to day, they ate rabbits, wildfowl and chickens. Vegetables were dropped off at their door (until they had their own garden) and the local Mennonites provided sausages and hams. They picked wild mushrooms and berries by the pail full. His mother, Mary, made excellent butter (with milk from their one cow) which she traded at the store for "occasional groceries" such as flour and prunes.

Several of her cookbooks – including Good Housekeeping's Favourite Recipes and Menus – is held at the University of Saskatchewan Archives. It's well used, frayed at the edges and splattered with the memories of cake batter and tomato sauce. It includes this recipe for baked string beans, which I halved, since I'm not expecting any police officers or Metis hunters to drop in for dinner.

Baked String Beans and Bacon
2 lbs string beans
6 slices bacon
1 1/2 cups light cream or thin white sauce
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
3 tbsp melted butter
1/2 cup fine bread crumbs

Thin White Sauce: On the stove, melt 2 tbsp butter in a small pot. Add 2 tbsp flour and blend well. Pour in 2 cups cold milk. Season with salt and pepper. Heat, stirring, until bubbling and thickened. Cover and cook on low heat for 20 minutes.

Cut string beans into one-inch pieces and cook in salted water until tender. Meanwhile, dice bacon and fry until crisp. Drain beans and add bacon, white sauce, salt, pepper and 2 tbsp melted butter. Place in a greased baking dish. Mix bread crumbs with remaining 1 tbsp melted butter and sprinkle over beans. Bake at 425F for 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Check out more recipes from Mrs. D's favourite cookbook.

(This article first appeared in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix.)

Prairie Kitchens - Mrs. Diefenbaker's Cookbook

From the frayed edges and food spatters, I'd guess this was Mary Diefenbaker's favourite cookbook. Her son, John Diefenbaker, kept it after she died and donated it with his papers to the University of Saskatchewan Archives with the note "This is Mother's Cookbook."

These Italian recipes must have been popular in the Diefenbaker home because they have the appearance of being well used.

 

Mrs. D must have had a fondness for chocolate cake (or perhaps it was her son's fondness) because she clipped these recipes from the newspaper and pasted them into the back of the cookbook.

 

 

Here are a few more dessert recipes clipped from the Star Phoenix. Hey, I remember my grandma making those Butterscotch Ice Box Cookies!!

 

 

Here's another recipe from this cookbook, delicious green beans!

Prairie Kitchens - Ranch-Style Baked Beans

It seems every old cowboy movie had a camp cook serving up a mess of baked beans. I can see John Wayne eating them now...

So, it's fitting that when I asked rancher Art Unsworth for a recipe from the annual Murraydale Stampede Picnic, he sent a recipe for baked beans. The Murraydale Stampede Picnic, held south of Maple Creek in July, started in 1909 and has been held every year since. Three generations of the Unsworth family have been involved. Their story is not uncommon for pioneers – colourful, tragic and successful.

Sam and Lillian Unsworth and four children left England in 1895, settling in Ontario for a couple of years before travelling by covered wagon to Oregon. Sam took up sheep farming. However, after their daughter died tragically, they could no longer bear to live there.

In 1907, they packed up the wagons and moved to Saskatchewan, establishing a ranch near the Cypress Hills where they raised sheep, cattle and Clydesdale horses – and fifteen children. Art, the youngest grandchild of 43, remembers the Murraydale Stampede Picnic when he was a little boy, when the ladies outdid each other with fried chicken, cold roast beef, potato salads, homemade buns, rhubarb and pumpkin pies and, the special treat, fresh-churned ice cream.

And, of course, baked beans. The original recipe calls for salt pork; nowadays, it’s just as likely to be made with wieners.

Ranch-Style Baked Beans

1 lb (450 grams) white beans
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp mustard powder
1/4 cup molasses
3 cups water
1/2 lb (225 grams) bacon, diced
2-3 onions, finely chopped

Soak beans overnight. Drain, wash and boil beans in water until tender. Drain. Mix brown sugar, salt, pepper, mustard powder, molasses and water. Pour over beans. Stir in bacon and onions. Cover and bake at 250F for 7–8 hours, checking now and then and adding more water if needed. Remove lid for the final two hours of baking.

Variation: if you have a leftover ham bone, boil it with the beans, then use chopped ham in place of bacon.

(This article first appeared in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.)

Prairie Kitchens - Ripe Bean Soup

In 1970, the Mennonite ladies of Aberdeen worried their old recipes were being lost to a younger generation. They wrote out their traditional dishes and published a cookbook called Mother's Pioneer Recipes, recalling a time when "mother made the best of what she had and what could be produced at home."

It was a century after the first Mennonites arrived in Canada in the 1870s. Though they spoke German, the Mennonites had been living in southern Russia, where they were successful farmers.In 1873, the Canadian government sent an agent to Russia to entice the Mennonites to western Canada. Today, that area is in the eastern pro-Russian part of Ukraine. Many answered the call.

They settled first in Manitoba and spread into Saskatchewan territory in the 1890s, first around Rosthern and then to Hague-Warman-Osler-Aberdeen and communities in between. Several years later, in 1924, Saskatchewan historian John Hawkes wrote that the Mennonite settlers were "among our most worthy, industrious and hard-working citizens."

Early cokbooks did not usually include recipes for traditional dishes that came with the various ethnic groups that settled Saskatchewan. For the most part, these recipes weren't written down but passed from generation to generation in the kitchen.We can thank the ladies of Aberdeen for writing down this soup recipe for posterity.

The word "ripe" seems to refer to dried beans, as opposed to fresh beans. The smoked pork hock was purchased at Prairie Meats.

Ripe Bean Soup
1 pork hock, smoked or salted
2 cups dried white beans
10 black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1 star anise
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp salt
Sour cream for serving (optional)

Put pork hock in a stock pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer 1 hour. Place peppercorns, bay leaf and star anise in a spice ball or sachet. Add the spices and beans to the pot, cover and simmer 2 hours, topping up with water if needed.

Remove pork hock. Add chopped onion and cook until the beans and onion are very soft, another hour. Meanwhile, remove meat from bone, chop and add to the pot. Remove spices. Season with salt as needed (this will depend on the saltiness of the meat). To serve, it is optional to stir a bit of sour cream into each bowl.

Do you have prairie recipe with a story? Send me a comment. Follow at twitter.com/prairiefeast.

(This article first appeared in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.)

Baked Beans gobble up leftover Sausage

If you flip back a few posts, you'll see we had a sausage extravaganza on the weekend. And that means leftover sausage. My husband woke up the next morning with baked beans on his lips. Well, not literally, but he was planting the request firmly in the kitchen side of my brain.

(pictured: ready for the oven.)

So baked beans it was.

I always start with dry beans. We have a pint sized slow cooker that's just right for cooking small amounts of beans. So in went 1.5 cups of beans, 1/4 onion, 1 big carrot (in pieces) and a bay leaf. Cover with water and 4-5 hours later, it's soft beans. (OK, I did this twice cause I wanted a big batch.)

Meanwhile, sauté some chopped bacon (4-5 slices) and onion (1/2) until cooked.

Mix the cooked beans (and any remaining water) with:
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup molasses
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
several grinds of pepper
the cooked bacon-onion melange
oodles of sliced leftover sausage
water not quite to cover

Pour into a bean pot (or two small bean pots) and bake covered at 325F for 1.5 hours. Take off the lid. If the beans are too runny, bake longer, until you have achieved the richness and thickness and flavourfulness that screams "EAT ME".

Then eat me, er, them.

The Pulse of Food Day Canada

Pulse : the edible seeds of various crops (as peas, beans or lentils) of the legume family; Middle English puls, probably from Anglo-French puuiz gruel, from Latin pult-, puls, probably from Greek poltos.
First known use: 13th century. -- Miriam Webster online

Best known use: Food Day Canada dinner at Boffins Club on Thursday evening!

Steelhead trout with chickpea crust and a dill & lentil cracker

Rosehip seared breast of duck with mustard lentil pickle and a stook of romaine with a camelina birch balsamic vinaigrette

Calico baked beans with cherry-honey braised pork belly and a crostini with Herschel Hills Cendres de Prairie cheese

Rhubarb crème brulée, truffle mousse on a black bean brownie (wrapped in chocolate), fried vanilla bannock and

seabuckthorn compote 

 

Thanks to Saskatchewan Pulse Growers for inviting me to this lovely dinner to celebrate Food Day Canada and two food celebrities, Anita Stewart (founder of Food Day Canada) and Al Slinkard, university plant scientist and indefatigable promoter of pulse crops in Saskatchewan. It was a memorable and inspiring event!

Soups of Summer

It's a warm and breezy summer day, bees buzzing in the garden and zucchini growing before my very eyes. I'm inspired to go into the kitchen and make… soup.

Who says soup is cold weather food? There's no better time to make soup than when the ingredients are at their prime.

One of my favourite summer soups is minestrone. The Italian recipe Bible The Silver Spoon lists ten versions of minestrone, including Minestrone alla Russa made with beets. (Read more in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix)

My version includes vegetables now in season in and around Saskatoon, either from my own garden or from the farmers' market. Have fun making it your own!

Minestrone alla Saskatchewan in July

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3-4 small zucchini
Bunch of baby carrots
Handful of green beans
Handful of edible pod peas
Bunch of baby spinach and chard
1/4 cup herbs: parsley, rosemary, oregano, thyme, basil
6 Roma-style tomatoes
2 cups cooked white beans
Salt and pepper
6 cups chicken broth (or water)
2 cups short pasta, cooked

Heat oil in a soup pot. Sauté onions and garlic until soft. Meanwhile, cut zucchini and carrots into rounds or half rounds, depending on their size. Chop green beans, peas, spinach and chard into bite-sized chunks. Add these vegetables to the pot.

 

Finely chop a mix of herbs, tasting it to ensure a pleasing balance. (Don't let the parsley overwhelm!) Stir the herbs into pot. Chop the tomatoes and add them with the beans. Season with 1 tsp salt and many grinds of pepper.

 

Cook until the vegetables and herbs are warm and fragrant. Add the broth and simmer for 20 minutes. Taste and add more seasoning as needed.

 

To serve, place cooked noodles (I used little bowties) in each soup bowl and pour on the hot soup. It's quite Italian to sprinkle on a bit of Parmesan cheese.

Talking Comfort Foods on New Talk Radio

What makes a winter comfort food? Unfussy, familiar, frugal, warm your tummy, preferably one pot and, if I plan it right, leftovers for another meal. And add to that -- local ingredients for some "close to home" comfort. 

In Saskatchewan that includes...

Oatmeal porridge or oatmeal jam jams.

A hardy pot of soup.

Warm German potato salad or...

Chili -- Start with two or three different meats. I like to use venison, if I have some in the freezer. Add to that some pork or lamb. For extra flavour, some tasty cooked sausages such as Italian or koubassa. How much? Perhaps a pound of each, give or take.

Cut the meat into bite-sized chunks. In a heavy pot, saute the meat in hot fat (butter, oil, bacon drippings or drippings from a roast). Salt and pepper the meat. If using venison, a couple of crushed juniper berries will taste nice. Cook the meat quickly until browned all over. Remove the meat with a slotted spoon and continue until all of it is browned, including the cooked sausages.

Into the hot fat -- one big onion, a clove or two of garlic, perhaps a bell pepper and/or two sticks of celery -- all of it nicely chopped. When it's softened you can add a good sprinkle of crushed dried herbs -- sage, oregano, thyme, etc. Add the chili (fresh or powdered) now.

I like to add a good handful of dried Saskatchewan chanterelle or porcini mushrooms that have been softened in very hot tap water. Save the water.

Put the meat back into the pot with the onion mixture. Add 10-12 tomatoes -- I like to use my frozen garden tomatoes but canned tomatoes will do fine. Add two cans of beans and their water. Any beans will do such as black, navy, kidney, romano, chickpea or a mixed blend. Add the mushroom water. Top up with more water so that the meat is just barely covered. Simmer covered for a few hours. Taste and add more salt, pepper and chili as needed. Add more water as it cooks off.

When the meat is no longer chewy, but melts in your mouth, the chili is ready to eat. Chili is always better the next day (and the next day after that) so I try to make it the day before I intend to eat it. You'll notice that the leftovers get better and better each time you warm it up!  Now that's comforting...

Soup Week 47 - Faba Bean

Larry Marshall, an organic farmer from Shellbrook, gave me a yogurt container filled with his dried faba beans. Like so many crops we grow in Saskatchewan, faba beans originate in the Middle East. (Rumour has it, faba beans were found in the ruins of Jericho, circa 6200 BCE.)

Also known as broad beans, they are gaining popularity among Saskatchewan farmers who practice crop rotation (planting different crops on the land each year, usually in a four-year cycle) thanks in part to new varieties developed at the University of Saskatchewan specifically for our growing conditions.

I wish I could tell you where to buy Saskatchewan-grown faba beans, but as far as I know, they are not available in stores.  

Soup Week 13 - Roasted Squash and Pinto Bean

Found a couple of squash languishing in the basement and roasted them. Then made them into soup with some local pinto beans. So good I forgot to take a picture!

Soup Week 9 - Ground beef and pinto beans

Oops, we ate this soup so quickly I didn't get a picture of it. I started with a lot of chopped onion and celery cooked soft in canola oil, added some dried mixed herbs and a sprinkling of cumin, fried up 1 lb of that Texas Longorn ground beef, added some cooked pinto beans (between 2 and 3 cups), a few tbsp of tomato paste plus half a jar of my homemade corn salsa. Covered it all with water and a good simmer later, it was delicious.

Soup Week 8 - WHITE PINTO BEAN & SQUASH SOUP

Scored big at the annual Lions Super Flea Market -- a farmer from Langham was selling her lentils, chickpeas and white pinto beans. White pinto beans are a new variety bred by the University of Saskatchewan for export to the US and Mexico. As far as I know, they aren't for sale in Saskatchewan, except perhaps at the Super Flea Market!

Pictured is my new soup pot.


Pinto Bean and Squash Soup
A good soup begins with a good stock. Good stock is made at home. I save all vegetable scraps in the freezer (onion ends, carrot peels, celery trimming, herb stems, tomato peels, etc.) and use them to make vegetable stock: place all the vegetable scraps in a pot of water, add a bay leaf and a few peppercorns, boil, simmer for an hour or two (lid off), cool and strain. Discard the vegetables (ie: compost).

2 tbsp canola oil
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrot
3 big cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tsp mixed dried oregano and thyme
6 cups vegetable stock
2 cups squash, small dice
4 cups cooked pinto beans
3 tbsp tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste
cheddar cheese for garnish

Heat the oil in a soup pot. Add the onion to cook while you chop the celery, carrots and garlic. Stir these into the onions and cook until the veggies start to soften. Stir in the herbs.

When the veggies are soft and starting to stick to the pot, add the stock, squash and pinto beans. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer until the squash is cooked, about 20 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste. Season with salt and pepper to your taste.

To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese. Like just about all soups, this one is better the next day. If you can wait.

Newspaper column - CHILLI BANG BANG

This column appeared in the Star Phoneix today.

Whoever coined the phrase “too many cooks spoil the broth” didn’t belong to a collective kitchen. In a collective kitchen, everyone cooks together to maximize the budget and minimize the time required to put nutritious food on the table. It’s a recipe for fun and fellowship, as well as food.













Bishop Klein Collective Kitchen (l-r): Erin Babcock, Elaine Haugen, Hermeline Maurice, Kendra Thies, October Low and Mimi Marchewka

“Where else can you get a healthy lasagne that’s going to feed a family of six for $5? Actually, you get two or three lasagnes and all it costs is $5 and three hours of your time,” says Elaine Haugen, a mother of three who leads a collective kitchen at Bishop Klein Elementary School.

This month, collective kitchens are celebrating 15 years in Saskatoon. What started with two or three collective kitchens has spawned about 30 collective kitchens across the city. October Low, who is raising five children, is also a member of the Bishop Klein Collective Kitchen. “When I started, I thought it was the coolest thing to go hang out with other parents on a Sunday afternoon and cook without the kids,” she says. “It was so much fun.”

As in most collective kitchens, child care is arranged. Participants pay half the grocery bill with a matching contribution from their sponsoring agencies: Saskatoon Community Clinic, Saskatoon Health Region and CHEP Good Food Inc. Many of the collective kitchens are supported by other agencies in the city.

“We use the term ‘collective’ because the groups are very independent and they make collective decisions. So even though there’s a leader, the whole group decides what their budget is going to be and what they’re going to cook,” says Janet Phillips, the coordinator of collective kitchens at CHEP for the past 12 years.

All three moms say their children learned at an early age to eat their vegetables. “One day in the grocery store my son said, ‘Mom can we get some spinach. I’m craving spinach.’ You should have seen the heads turn in the produce aisle,” says Low, whose 11-year-old, James, loves to cook and wants to attend culinary school.

As for Haugen, she says her daughter has grown very fond of beans. “My daughter Chelsea wouldn’t eat chilli until I made it with chickpeas. Same with hamburger soup. If I add a can of beans, she’ll eat it.”

So I asked them: Do they like to cook with local ingredients? The answer was yes: chickpeas, lentils, ground beef, vegetables and fruit, when they can get it at a good price. “When we first started out, quantity seemed to be more important than quality,” says Phillips. “Now, people realize they can get the quantity and the quality as well. About half of our kitchens are trying to use local products.”

Anyone wishing to join a collective kitchen, or start a new one with a group of friends, should contact Janet Phillips at 655-5093. She may not be able to fit you in right away, but can help you explore the options.

* * *

On another note, I have not yet broken my New Year’s resolution to make a pot of soup every week with Saskatchewan ingredients. Last week, I made a Greek avgolemono with Saskatchewan-grown lemons! More on that in this column next month.

Collective Kitchen’s Chilli Chilli Bang Bang
1 1/4 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped green peppers
1 cup chopped red peppers
3/4 cup chopped celery
3/4 cup chopped carrots
3 cloves of minced garlic
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 1/2 cups quartered mushrooms
1 cup cubed zucchini
1 can tomatoes, undrained, cut up (540mL)
1 can black beans (540mL), chickpeas (540mL), and corn (341mL)
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp oregano
1 1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Sauté onions, peppers, celery, carrots, garlic, chilli powder and onions over medium heat, stirring often, until soft. Add mushrooms and zucchini; cook for another 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. This recipe makes 7 servings (1.5 cups per serving). To decrease costs (and for those who have a milder palate!) the chili can be served with rice. Each serving would consist of 1 cup chilli and 1 cup rice.

Soup Week 3 - Bean & Bacon

Three weeks of 2010 and three different soups. New Year's resolution 2010 is still going strong!

Local stuff:
pinto beans
bacon
carrots
onion
chickpeas
lentils
& bay leaf

Got a pulse?

Here's Chef Simon Reynolds cooking up a hill of beans at the annual Pulse Days in Saskatoon.

(Pulse is the name for a class of edible legumes including beans, chickpeas, lentils and dried peas.)

Can you guess these muffins are full of beans?

What did I learn at Pulse Days?

▪ Saskatchewan is the world's second largest producer of pulse crops.

▪ India is the only country that grows more pulse crops than Canada.

▪ India is also Canada's biggest pulse customer.

▪ Indians are eating fewer pulses than before.

▪ Canada is looking for new markets for our pulses.

▪ Have you had your pulse lately?

The bean harvest

In keeping with my New Year's resolution to eat more beans, I grew beans in my garden for the first time. (That is, dried beans as opposed to green beans.) Here is my crop in its entirety - navy beans (white), Norwegian (red) and Jacob's cattle (speckled pink). Not sure yet how I'll cook my beans, but it will have to be something really special. Stay tuned...

Saskatchewan is full of beans

A CBC listener called in to tell us about a great source of Saskatchewan grown beans: Northern Quinoa Corporation, of Kamsack. Its primary product, quinoa, is an edible grass seed native to the Andes in South American. According to the company website, quinoa is high in protein and other essential nutrients. The on-line store also sells lentils, chickpeas, barley, spelt, flax, spices and a whole lot of beans. Check it out.

CBC Radio Calling - BAKED BEANS

Soak 2 cups of beans and 2 tbsp plain yogurt in water overnight.

Drain the water. Put the beans in a stock pot, add 2 ham hocks (or a meaty ham bone), 2 bay leaves, salt and a few peppercorns. Cover with fresh water and simmer until the beans are soft.

Divide the beans and their liquid between two oven-proof pots with lids. Remove the meat from the ham hocks and divide evenly between the two pots. Into each, stir in a few chopped tomatoes (fresh, canned or frozen), a couple spoonfuls of tomato paste, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup of molasses.

Cover and bake for two hours or more at 300F. Add water if the beans soak up the liquid. Remove the lids and broil until the top of the beans is nice and brown.

Not so much hot air - TUSCAN BEANS

From the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, 21 Jan 2008.

















It’s half past January and New Year’s resolutions are breaking all over the city, but not mine. Many of those broken New Year’s resolutions probably pertain to food—no doubt on a principle of less, not more. Eat less fat. Cut junk food. Lower calories. One not two desserts. Fewer drives through the drive-thru and late-night raids on the fridge. Not me. My New Year’s resolution is all about more. Because, when it comes to food, more is so much easier to stomach. My resolution for 2008 is to eat more beans.

Beans are really healthy and I don’t believe we eat enough of them. They’re high in protein, fibre, calcium, minerals and vitamin B. A diet of beans has been linked to lower cholesterol, better blood pressure, diabetic control and reduction in some cancers. But I’m no health fanatic. I want to eat more beans because Saskatchewan is producing more beans. Agricultural pundits have predicted that more and more farmers will grow beans in the years to come. If they’re growing them, I’m eating them. In my quest for a local diet—consuming more foods produced close to home rather than far away—beans are a welcome addition.

The newest bright light on the bean radar is a pinto bean called White Mountain. It was produced by plant breeders at the University of Saskatchewan and was grown by farmers last year. As the name implies, this pinto bean is mostly shiny white and retains its colour longer than normal pinto beans, which grow dark with time. In cultures where beans are popular, such as Mexico and the American southwest, lighter pinto beans are considered to be of higher quality because they are fresher and cook more quickly. So, hopes are high for White Mountain in the export market. Unfortunately, consumers such as you and I can’t go out and buy a bag of it yet, as it’s not for sale locally. If we all clamour for more beans, perhaps that will change.

I picked up a 10-pound bag of the common dark pinto bean last spring at the Super Duper Flea Market at the Saskatoon exhibition grounds. Yes, there among the antiques and collectibles and junk, a local farmer was selling her pinto beans, chickpeas and other grains. Like all those other flea marketers, I’d found my “treasure” that day!

If we broaden the definition of beans, as Ken Albala did in his fascinating new book, “Beans: A History,” Saskatchewan has even more to offer. Albala defines beans as “edible seeds from plants that produce pods” which includes lentils, chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans) and split peas, which are now considered staple field crops in many parts of Saskatchewan.
Fortunately, these “beans” are easier to find in the grocery store. Buy any lentils or chickpeas that are packaged in Canada and chances are good they were grown in Saskatchewan.
And finally, as if we need another reason to eat beans, here it is: the more beans you eat the less you’ll suffer from the after effects of eating beans. (Here’s a tip: Soak or boil beans in water, tossing out the water, to neutralize the gassy effect before cooking.)

Tuscan Beans
I read that in Tuscany, this dish is called uccelletto which means “little birds” because it is made with the same ingredients that were traditionally used to cook small game birds.

1 cup dry beans
1 small carrot, quartered
1 small onion, quartered
1/4 cup olive (or canola) oil
1 chopped garlic clove
2-3 chopped sage leaves
6-8 canned or frozen tomatoes
salt and pepper

Soak the beans overnight. Cover with fresh water, add the carrot and onion, and bring to a boil. Simmer gently until the beans are tender, perhaps 2 hours. Drain, discarding the vegetables. Heat the oil until it shimmers. Sauté the garlic and sage. Add the beans and stir to coat. Add the tomatoes and their juice. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer over low heat 15-20 minutes until the tomatoes thicken into a nice sauce.