A New Take on Cholent: Beans like no other. Please fasten your seat belts!
A Truly Intergalactic Culinary Experience
( all photos by author)
If you ignore all other recipes of mine posted so far, I will let you off on one condition.
That you’ll give this one a go!
It’s one of the easiest ever dishes to cook while probably the most delicious of them all! It can be made cheaply using just basic, easily sourceable ingredients anywhere at any time of the year. It will take you no more than 30 minutes to cook (rather than the traditional method of baking it in the oven for 2 - 3 hours or sometimes overnight)! Just imagine all the unnecessary energy wasted that way. However, this way, cooking it as a one -pot dish on the hob, it’s done far more sustainably, making it not just Animal- Friendly but Planet- Friendly as well! And may I reiterate that it’s Pocket-Friendly and Taste Buds - Friendly too !
Behold the penultimate Friendly-Food!
You can serve this umami packed dish up with all kinds of accompaniments as it’s a pretty flexi dish too. Today I have cooked some Braised Red Cabbage with it and some Plant Based Burger Patties.
We had it for today and I can honestly say this is my kind of heart warming rustique comfort food I could eat happily once or twice a week for the rest of my Life!
I realise it sounds a ridiculous overstatement, but I mean it!
I go further; having eaten a double portion of it today, I`ve dug the garden more energetically than I have ever done it before ! This Cholent is truly a mysterious rocket fuel from another galaxy, that will take you into 7th Heaven !
The funny bit is, that I am not joking either.
The recipe originates from the Holy Land, but it`d spread all over the world including Central Eastern Europe, where I`m from.
I must admit, however much I respect the recipe, I couldn’t help tweaking it a bit today by adding some Shiitake Mushrooms to it. I did it to give it an extra dimension, some extra texture and a bit better looks.
However, if you omit the mushrooms completely your Cholent will be just as tasty. Another way to make it cheaper still is to increase the pearl barley grains in it. You can easily double the amount of the entire dish just by using more barley.
I cooked it in less than half an hour this morning while I was having my breakfast.
Ingredients.
2 tins of drained Borlotti beans ( keep the liquid as a plant based egg replacer)
1 large onion chopped
about the same volume of carrots diced
about the same volume of barley
olive oil
bay leaves,
veg stock cubes,
salt& cracked black pepper,
dried chilli flakes
garlic crushed,
ground nutmeg,
tomato puree,
balsamic red wine vinegar,
pinch of thyme,
wheat flour for dry roux,
smoked paprika powder,
water,
pickled gherkin liquid.
Method:
I caramelised the chopped onions and the diced carrots in oil till golden. I infused them with dried chilli flakes and cracked black pepper. I added 3 bay leaves and 3 cloves of crushed garlic. In the meantime( as I was in a hurry) I started to boil the barley separately, but you don’t even need to do it as you can cook them together all in one pot.
I drained 2 cans of Borlotti Beans and added them along with the 1 tbsp of smoked paprika powder to the onions. I covered them with boiling water. At this stage it looked like a soup. As I did, you can add some mushrooms to it if you like.
I added 2 vegetable stock cubes ( instead of salt) and simmered it under lid for about 10 minutes. Then I added to it the cooked and drained barley. Once the barley was simmering happily with the beans, in a small pan I started to fry up some dry roux.
Actually if you are in an extreme hurry, you can even skip making a roux. You can just thicken your Cholent by mixing flour with some cold water till smooth and by gently adding it to your pot while stirring it constantly( to avoid it going lumpy). Whichever way you decide to go, about a good heaped tbsp of wheat flour will thicken your Cholent nicely.
At this stage add 3 tsp of balsamic wine vinegar, 3 tsp of tomato puree, a small pinch of ground nutmeg. Add 2 tbsp of brown sugar and double check for salt & pepper. Simmer for a further 5 minutes while stirring it carefully as the sugar can easily catch and burn. It’s probably going to need some extra liquid to thin it down.
Life Saving Kitchen Hack:
Never use cold water with a nearly ready dish.
Always use boiling water from your kettle as cold water will steal your built up flavours. The only exception to this is the liquid from pickled gherkins. As it’s so well flavoured, it will add taste to your Cholent, which will benefit from all those herbs and acidity found in the pickling liquid.
When you finally adjust the flavours, make sure it’s pungent, it’s rich and not anemic of character. It must be explosive in fact, bursting of personality from all those umami packed ingredients in it. If you think it’s bland, it’s because it’s lacking of salt and sugar. Also it`s lacking of acidity. Increase these 3 and instantly your flavours will detonate on your palate as they are meant to do. A bland Cholent is an abomination to the concept of the dish and should be avoided at all costs!
If you love your food spicy like I do, when it’s on your plate, add some Tabasco sauce to it. This will lift it up by another notch and all of the other flavours will start singing like a choir of sopranos.
In my opinion the best way is to eat it as it is on day one but try it out with the Tabasco Sauce on day two. This way you`ll know which version you like the more. This is what I did today, and tomorrow I will boost it with plenty of Tabasco.
I am excited about it already, just the thought of it makes me salivate!
Anyway, for a garnish, I cooked up some Braised Red Cabbage and some shop bought burger patties, that worked perfectly!
Aromatic Braised Red Cabbage
I used a small red cabbage, one large sliced onions, extra virgin olive oil, pinch of caraway seeds, salt & pepper, balsamic wine vinegar and brown sugar.
This is a most basic recipe for an Aromatic Braised Red Cabbage for I didn’t want to make it too fancy and rich. Our Cholent was rich enough so I wanted to keep the garnish simple.
I cooked all the above ingredients ( except the sugar and the vinegar) under lid for about 20 minutes, stirring it and adding a little water to it now and then to stop it catching on the bottom. Then I added the sugar and vinegar and carried on simmering for a further 3 minutes.
All in all, in 25 minutes this dish can be made easily. You can even grate some raw carrots into it at the end to make it healthier and a two tone colour.
Aromatic Braised Red Cabbage is also great cold, used as salads or even in sandwiches. It will keep for a week in the fridge and every day it`ll taste better and better. If you swap the caraway seeds with fennel seeds, it will become more exotic!
However, if you want to smuggle something super healthy into this Cholent combo, you can swap the red cabbage for some raw sauerkraut. Need I say more?
Alternatively you can eat this opulent Cholent simply with just rice, cous cous, polenta, quinoa, French fries or just on a slice of toast! You can use it as a stuffing into jacket potatoes, covered by melted plant based grated cheese. You can use it hot in wraps, in pasties, in savoury strudels, Wellingtons, stuffed mushrooms and so on. Thinned down, leftovers can easily be turned into delicious soups too.
The list is pretty much as long as a very long piece of string!
Might it just be too good to be true?
I suppose the best way to find out is by rolling up your sleeves and giving it a go!
If you do, and I hope you will do, please let me know how you got on.
Thanks for reading and Bon Appetit!
P.S. There`s an accompanying podcast with this article, please do listen in…