I love sorrel. I love sorrel with eggs. I love sorrel mixed in with any sautéed greens or added to a salad. It brings a bright flavor, more mild and more interesting than lemon.

I followed this David Lebovitz recipe pretty much to the letter except I used green garlic instead of green onions. I’ll copy the recipe at the end of this post.

What makes this dish special is frying the cooked beans. Frying them makes them crispy on the outside and creamy inside and just a little chewy and very satisfying. The sorrel brightens the dish and the green garlic rounds it out.

This is all you need to make this; some beans (I cooked my beans, I’m sure you could use canned) a bunch of sorrel and I added pea shoots too, and some green garlic or onions and lemon.

The recipe as written sounds a little complicated, but all you are really doing is frying the beans in oil and butter, the butter browns the beans so if you use only oil they won’t brown as much.

Then sauté some greens and garlic or onions and mix them together and add a squeeze of lemon.  You really don’t need a recipe.

We ate ours with an egg and some crushed almonds and feta and fresh mint.

Have a great week. See you at pickup.

Mo

Fried Beans with Feta, Sorrel, and Sumac
Four to six servings
Adapted from Plenty (Ebury) by Yotam Ottolenghi

Yotam’s original recipe says to soak the beans in a generous amount of water with 2 tablespoons of baking soda. Some bean purists scoff at using baking soda in the water, but for those who live in areas where the water is full of minerals (such as Paris), I add a large pinch to the cooking water, as the locals do. The beans should be cooked just until tender, but not cooked to mush. The cooking time for them will vary but don’t let the water
foam up when you do! For the spring onions, I used cébette (which often goes by
various names in France), which you can see pictured in the Herbed Ricotta Tart
recipe. Scallions, green garlic, or a similar spring onion can be used. In the post, I
mention some possible substitutions for the sumac and sorrel.

1 pound (450g) large dried white beans
optional: pinch of baking soda
8 spring onions or scallions sliced lengthwise into 3-inch (7 cm) batons
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
7 ounces (200g) sorrel, cut into 1-inch (2 cm) ribbons, plus a little extra for garnish,
cut in very thin strips
1/2 teaspoon sea salt, plus more for seasoning
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice
5 ounces (150g) feta cheese
2 teaspoons sumac
handful of fresh herbs such as chervil, dill, mint, or flat-leaf parsley
For frying the beans:
1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
4 tablespoons (60g) butter (see Note)

1. Rinse the beans and sort to remove any foreign objects.
2. Put in a large pot, cover with plenty of water, and let stand overnight.
3. The next day, add a pinch of baking soda to the water (if you live in a hard water
area), and simmer the beans until just tender. The cooking time may be as little as
30 minutes, or over an hour, depending on the beans. Add additional water if
necessary.
4. Once cooked, drain well and toss them in a bit of olive oil, which will prevent the
skin of the beans from flaking, and bit of salt.