Drizzle cooked corn polenta with olive oil and bake until almost crisp, then top the golden little squares with something really delicious like a creamy vegan mushroom sauce and tender-smooth protein-rich white beans, and you’ve got this golden polenta with cannellini beans and mushroom sage gravy! 

The veggie gravy features sautéed meaty umami mushrooms, sweet onions, garlic and gently pungent sage.  To that, stir in vegetable broth, creamy sweet sesame tahini and the cannellini beans. Ta-da–you’ve made an aromatic vegan gravy, a savory sauce that’s as delicious with mashed potatoes as it is with polenta! Last Thanksgiving my niece make the mushroom gravy to go with our vegan mashed potatoes.    Continue Reading…

Recently I shared how to cook pinto beans using a pressure cooker or Instant Pot. With all the gorgeous potato varieties at farmer’s markets and in the stores right now, I got to thinking about these bean and potato tacos. Hello taco Tuesday!

Soft golden corn tortillas, creamy smashed beans and steamed potato chunks.

Simplicity. Both the beans and potatoes are humbly seasoned with sautéed onions, salt and pepper, and salsa. The tortillas get sprayed with cooking spray and softened in the oven. Easy, nothing fancy.

You decide which hue goes in your tacos-any variety of bean and any color and kind of potato.

Click here to PIN Purple Potato and Bean Tacos.

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This post shows how to cook pinto beans in a pressure cooker. In 15 minutes, you can have rich, tender, creamy, ready-to-enjoy beans all soupy in a nutritious cooking broth. Pressure cookers reduce cooking time and fuel energy–for cooking beans, they’re awesome tools!

Cooked from scratch, dried beans have unmatched flavor and texture–and cooking beans in the Instant Pot or stovetop pressure cooker happens fast!

There’s more than one way to go about pressure cooking beans from scratch, some faster than others. You can put the washed beans in the pot, cover with water and cook them like that, or you can soak the beans beforehand. Then, either way, after cooking, you can opt to turn off the heat and let the pressure come down naturally, or you can “quick-release” the pressure.

Click here to PIN How to Cook Pinto Beans in a Pressure Cooker!
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