Cool Beans by Joe Yonan

Cool Beans: The Ultimate Guide to Cooking with the World’s Most Versatile Plant-Based Protein, with 125 Recipes by Joe Yonan | 2020 | Ten Speed Press | Hardcover $30

After being overlooked for too long in the culinary world, beans are emerging for what they truly are: a delicious, versatile, and environmentally friendly protein. In fact, with a little ingenuity, this nutritious and hearty staple is guaranteed to liven up your kitchen.

Joe Yonan, food editor of The Washington Post, provides a master base recipe for cooking any sort of bean in any sort of appliance, as well as creative recipes for using beans in daily life. Drawing on the culinary traditions of the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Africa, South America, Asia, and the American South, and with beautiful photography throughout, this book has recipes for everyone. With fresh flavors, vibrant spices, and clever techniques, Yonan shows how beans can make for thrilling dinners, lunches, breakfasts — and even desserts!

This is a cookbook filled with internationally inspired recipes for all kinds of — you guessed it! — beans.

My doctor told me to eat way, way, way more fiber. I’m also trying to get more protein for my fitness goals. As it turns out, legumes are some of the highest-fiber and highest-protein foods per serving you can get. So a whole cookbook full of beans is literally just what the doctor ordered.

One of the reasons I wanted to read this book is that the author and I grew up in the same smallish city out in West Texas. I am now lucky enough to live in one of the biggest and most diverse cities in the country, with its correspondingly fantastic food scene. In the place + time where I grew up, our culinary options were a little more limited, but there was at least one type of food that town did PERFECTLY — Tex-Mex.

My hope for this book was that it would offer options for more veg-centered but still “authentic” Tex-Mex, and it does have a handful of recipes that more-or-less fit the bill. The refried beans used for the molletes recipe tasted exactly like the refried beans served at the little burrito shop where I used to have lunch in high school, and gave me that big dose of culinary nostalgia that I was craving (though molletes are firmly Mexican, not Tex-Mex).

However, Cool Beans is in no way all about Mexican or Tex-Mex food. It includes recipes from or inspired by a wide variety of global cuisines. You can try bean recipes from Cuba, Ecuador, India, Italy, Lebanon, and Nigeria, to name a few origins.

In addition to the actual recipes, this book includes a ton of helpful info about general cooking techniques, health concerns, and (unsurprisingly) types of beans. I’ve referred to its helpful pressure cooking and stovetop cooking timetables more than once, even when not making a specific recipe from this book.

I also really appreciate that the author makes a special effort to acknowledge his inspiration for each recipe, whether it’s a restaurant or another cookbook or his own mother.

As far as the physical item goes, the book’s binding is relaxed enough that it usually lies flat for easier reading on a kitchen countertop (though for recipes at the very front or very end of the book you’ll need a paperweight), and the paper texture allows for handwritten notes.

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Creamy pasta fagioli

This recipe is creamy thanks to the trick of blending some of the cooked beans with garlic- and rosemary-infused olive oil. When I’m being lazy (so, usually) I’ll skip the blending step and just have a slightly soupier version, which is still quite delicious.

Ewa riro and dodo, a.k.a. Nigerian stewed black-eyed peas and plantains

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that this was actually slightly too spicy for me (Scotch bonnet chile!!!); I’ll make it again, but next time with a heat level that is more wimp-friendly.

Red lentil ful with sumac-roasted cauliflower

Egyptian ful is traditionally made with fava beans, but this version uses a combination of chickpeas and lentils.

Simply delicious marinated lima beans

“Simply delicious” is not a misnomer. I’ve made this recipe several times since trying it during this little cook-thru project, and I’m not tired of it yet.

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I also tried the following recipes and liked them well enough, but didn’t get good photos:

• Cuban-style orange scented black beans
• Kidney bean and mushroom bourguignon
• Molettes
• Three-bean salad with feta and parsley

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When I dive back into this cookbook again — and I absolutely will! — these are some more recipes that are on my list to try:

• Chickpea-tarragon salad sandwiches
• Chickpea and mushroom puttanesca with crispy polenta
• Crunchy spiced roasted chickpeas
• Dal makhani, a.k.a. Indian black lentil stew
• Falafel fattoush
• Fresh baby lima beans with preserved lemon
• Fusilli with white beans and corn sauce
• Garlicky Great Northern beans and broccoli rabe over toast
• Harissa-roasted carrot and white bean dip
• Kidney bean and poblano tacos
• Lablabi, a.k.a. Tunisian soup with chickpeas
• Lobio, a.k.a. Georgian kidney bean stew
• Smoky black bean and plantain chili
• Spicy Ethiopian red lentil dip

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Links:

• Website of Joe Yonan
• Interview with Joe Yonan in Texas Monthly
• Articles by the author at The Washington Post
• Articles by the author at The Splendid Table

Publication information: Yonan, Joe. Cool beans: The ultimate guide to cooking with the world’s most versatile plant-based protein, with 125 recipes. Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press, 2020. Hardcover.
Source: Personal library.
Disclaimer: I am not compensated, monetarily or otherwise, for reviews of books or other products.