White Bean Soup

This recipe is from Twelve Months of Monastery Soups by Br. Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourette, 1996,  Triumph Books, Liguori, Missouri.

Served at Redwoods for Supper at Guest House Opening evening and several guests asked for the recipe.  Enjoy!

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients
1 pound dry white beans
12 cups water
2 onions
2 carrots
2 leeks
1 celery stalk
some garden greens (spinach, chard)
4 cloves garlic
6 TBS olive oil
2 bouillon cubes (we use vegetable bouillon)
salt and pepper to taste
finely chopped and minced thyme leaves

1.  Soak the dry beans in cold water for at least 10 hours.  Rinse then well and put them into a large soup pot with water.

2.  Cut the onions, carrots, leeks, celery, and garden greens into thin pieces.  Mince the garlic well.  Add then all to the soup, along with the oil and the bouillon cubes.

3.  Cook the soup, covered, over medium heat for about 60 minutes, stirring from time to time.

4.  Add salt, pepper, and thyme.  Reheat for another 5 minutes and serve hot.

Balsamic Honey Orange Dressing

This recipe post is dedicated to libbiali.

Today in the kitchen, we needed to make a quick salad dressing for our guests.  Here's what the Spirit cooked up for us.

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 cup total salad oil. ( I used half olive oil and half canola oil)*
1/4 tsp salt or more to taste
1 clove garlic pressed
1 dollop** of orange creamed honey 
Whisk until all the ingredients are blended together.  Pour on lettuce.  You might try with cooked vegetables.
Enjoy!

*If you want to lower calories, add a little water to the oil to make 1 cup.

**I use a sugar spoon for a dollop measure of honey.

A Simple Breakfast

One of my all time favorite ways of using Creamed Honey is with peanut butter on toast. Sometimes if I have 2 pieces of toast, I put peanut butter on one and honey on the other and put them together to mix and warm each other. Then pull apart and eat each piece separately. The honey oozes into the peanut butter and the result is simply fabulous. Make sure the toast is warm and you use crunchy peanut butter.

HONEY CHIPOLTE PECANS

These nuts are simply wonderful. Sweet and spicy. They will be a welcome addition to any holiday buffet. This recipe was developed especially for Honeycooks by Bob, a friend of the monastery and a retired caterer.


1.c Original creamed honey

¼ c sugar

1 tsp ground chipolte chiles (or powder)

2 c pecan halves

course kosher salt


• In a heavy frying pan, bring honey sugar & chipolte to a boil (med-high), stirring until sugar dissolves.

• Add pecan – stir to coat (6 min)

• pour out on foil lines pans and separate with a fork.

• sprinkle with course salt

• cool and break apart.


Store in air tight container at room temperature.

Mello Miso Dressing

This dressing is very easy to prepare and can be used as a salad dressing as well as a sauce or dip for vegetables. Great for Miso lovers.

1/4 cup olive oil (can substiture canola oil)
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup Mellow White Miso
1 1/2 TBS brown rice vinegar or lemon juice
2 level TBS Original Creamed Honey
1 TBS green onion or shallot

Blend together in a blender until dressing is smooth

Honey Glaze for Beets

This is a modification of a recipe found on the packaging of a pack of butter from Organic Valley. We use Monastery Creamed Honey instead of maple syrup and our own home grown herbs. Although the original recipe uses this glaze only for beets, I think it would be a nice glaze on winter squashes as well.

Mix together in a large skillet:

2 TBS balsamic vinegar
2 heaping TBS Orange flavored Creamed Honey
2 TBS Salted Butter
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp chopped marjoram
1 tsp chopped thyme
(You can use dried herbs as well - modify amount to taste)

Heat on medium
Add 3 lbs cooked, peeled, and cubed beets. Cook until heated through. Season with salt and pepper.

Applesauce

Now that it's Autumn, it's time to start cooking again at the monastery. Sr Veronique always produces wonderful preserves and applesauce. A great way to use Cinnamon Creamed Honey is as a topping on hot tart applesauce. Just put a dollop of honey on top and let it melt into the applesauce. Delicious!