DONKEY BEAN SAUCE

DONKEY BEAN SAUCE 

You can’t really taste the tomato or the beans or the pumpkin or the sesame seeds – not distinctly. Even the texture throws you off for a bean sauce. Nobody will connect this sauce to beans – unless they are a bean aficionado. No one ingredient commandeers the recipe. Brilliant strategy!

Makes 4 cups sauce

PASTA:

8 oz. box ORGANIC EDAMAME & MUNG BEAN FETTUCCINE, cooked in sufficiently salted boiling water 6-8 minutes or till tender to your liking, drain in colander – while still in colander drizzle with 2 T. extra virgin olive oil, fresh grind black pepper, pink Himalayan salt and 1 t. garlic powder, using hands toss gently to evenly disperse (a stirring utensil will break apart the fettuccine)

BEAN SAUCE:

2 c. BUSH’S Bean Pot Vegetarian Baked Beans

3 -4 lg. peeled garlic cloves

12 oz. jar sweet red roasted peppers including liquid from jar

1 t. smoked paprika

2/3 oz. or 10-14 lg. leaves fresh basil, broken into pieces

2 T.  pumpkin seed snow (pumpkin seed ground in a coffee grinder to snow consistency)

2 T. white and black sesame seed snow (white and black sesame seed ground in coffee grinder to snow consistency)

1 t. pink Himalayan salt

fresh grind black pepper to taste

1 t. ground rosemary

1 t. ground fennel seed

1 c. stewed tomatoes including some liquid

1-2 T. liquid smoke (add 1 t. at a time while tasting the result)

Place beans and garlic in blender container and blend till very smooth. Only after you have achieved the smooth of the beans and garlic do you add the roasted peppers and liquid from the jar. Blend again till very smooth.

Add smoked paprika, fresh basil, pumpkin seed and sesame seed snows, salt, pepper, rosemary and fennel. Blend till as smooth as you can get it.

Add the stewed tomatoes, liquid smoke and do the same. Till smooth.

To serve: Heat the sauce to very hot. Saute some kind of sliced veggie meat that you like in a little oil. I used HOOD SOY FIVE SPICE TOFU NUGGETS (it’s a meat sub that can be used right out of the box.) Plate individual servings of pasta. Top with sauce followed by meat, then garnish with fresh chopped basil, fine grind black pepper and, if desired, 1-2 teaspoons drizzled extra virgin olive oil.

The total dish was a total success from first to last bite. Nobody will connect this dish to beans – unless they are a bean aficionado.

The bean pasta = chewy. It doesn’t absorb sauces like grain pasta, still I like the change. You can eat this dish cold the next day and still enjoy it. This is like a no guilt pasta for me – only because grain pasta doesn’t have as much nutritional value. I kinda think I can eat as much as I want of this, but I’m not sure about that – only that I felt good eating as much as I wanted. It’s more filling than grain pasta but still leaves you feeling good.

The tofu nuggets I will buy again. Steve said they had a couple of other flavors that I’ll try. These you can also eat cold – right out of the package though. Top salads or eat as snacks. I sauteed them here with good results. Lilly loved them.

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