Someone asked me the other day what do I make with the vegetables I grow in my garden. I replied immediately with, I eat them. Then I realised what they meant was, what sort of dishes to I create with them. Silly ol’ me. One of Roy and I’s favourite dishes is Turkish beans and now that we grow the two main ingredients to the dish we seemed to be eating it more often. Which is not a problem at all since we love the dish, we both have travelled to Turkey and this dish was one that we both have fond memories of.
With an abundance of tomatoes growing in our veggie patch. I am picking them just on ripening and then letting them change colour out of the heat inside in the cool of our shed. With weeks of experimenting with keeping the pests away and soil nutrition for the plants I have mastered the art of growing the best tomatoes around. During the heat of the past two months a lot of the ripe fruits skin are cracking and splitting. So as soon as they are ripe I am either eating them or storing them in our fridge. I would never usually keep them in the fridge because tomatoes taste best at room temperature. These days I am taking the ripe ones out of the fridge like a good cheese and letting them come to room temperature before slicing them to go on my morning toast.
Our beans have been a little slow at developing. It is most likely because we are on water rations and have not been watering the garden as much as it would like. Mostly I am waiting for rain, this summer has been really out of character for our area. The grass should be green not crispy and hanging on its last legs to stay alive. All of my neighbors are telling me that they have never had a season like this, we always get rain. Fingers crossed for a stormy February.
Do you have a garden? What do you make from the ingredients in it?
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion, sliced
- 3 cloves of garlic, finley minced
- 400gm beans
- 700gm roma tomatoes
- 3 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- ½ cup water
- Salt and pepper
- In a large saucepan place the olive oil and onions over a medium heat and cook for 10minutes to soften and they become transparent. Add the garlic and stir continuously until it becomes aromatic.
- Add the beans, tomato, sugar, tomato paste and water to the saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to a moderate simmer. Simmer for 30minutes, occasionally stirring the beans and checking the liquid in the pan. The beans should be very overcooked and the liquid should be thick and lightly coat the beans.
- Season the beans to taste. Serve either hot, warm or cold apart of Turkish feast which could include lamb, couscous and salads.
{ 7 comments }
At the moment we’re making bruschetta with our delicious fresh tomatoes. And I’ve been looking for something to do with all the neighbors beans! Thanks so much for sharing!
Too funny, I think I have a bruschetta recipe on the cards soon.
This is a really nice recipe! Love the flavors. We have a small garden (in the summer – not now!) and fill it mainly with tomatoes, greens like Swiss chard, and herbs. We’ll do other things too – cucumbers, eggplant, etc. – but we’d garden for the tomatoes alone (so good!). We had a terrible drought last summer; sorry to hear you’re experiencing the same. Anyway, fun post – thanks.
I would love to see your garden some time John.
Hi Lizzie. Firstly, I have been meaning to comment on your blog ever since meeting you at EDB but for some reason the last few months have disappeared. I was reminded when I saw you tweeting about your guinea fowl to say hello! We used to breed guinea fowl and loved them! Although they were very noisy and eventually the main flock died of old age. Anyway, I hope you are surviving the rough weather. Your Turkish Beans look delicious and I love your blog
Thanks for stopping by Jane. I am looking forward to trying to breed guineas this year, I have the purple kind. Though I need some chickens, to take them under the wing when they are young.
When you have lovely fresh produce it’s hard to go wrong isn’t it! Slow cooked green beans are surprisingly delicious!