cannelini bean in a jar

quarantine recipe inspired roughly by something I saw once in a youtube video but also I just made this one up

ingredianets

• dry cannellini beans (another white bean would probably work, too, but I haven’t tried it) – you could also just use canned beans and skip to the second part of the preparation
• a few cloves of garlic
• olive oil
• 1 lemon or other acid/vinegar
• spices: red pepper flakes, dried oregano, black pepper, whatever else you think would taste good
• also: some kind of jar

preparation

• Rinse dry beans and soak overnight (or at least for a few hours) in the fridge
• Pour beans + soaking water in a large pot and bring to a simmer
• Add aromatics: a few crushed cloves of a garlic, oregano, pepper flakes, etc. a bit of salt but not a lot – salt at this stage will prevent the beans from getting tender. Taste the water as you cook to check the flavor
• Simmer until tender with the pot partially covered (if it gets low on liquid, add more or cover the pot completely)
• Add salt to taste once beans are tender
• Let cool in the pot
• (tbh at this point I will eat these beans straight like soup because I think they’re delicious. but I’ll set aside a chunk of them to marinate and eat on bread, with zucchini, on pasta, whatever. that’s what the rest of this recipe is – skip to this part if using canned beans)
• Very thinly slice half the lemon and cut slices into quarters. Thinly slice another few cloves of garlic.
• Mix lemon bits + garlic + the juice from the other half the lemon + more oregano and pepper in a generous few tablespoons or so of olive oil (enough to cover the beans you’re going to marinate). Put this mixture + beans in the jar and stir/shake together
• Let sit in the fridge a day or so and the lemon will get tender and the whole mixture will be sour + garlic spicy + beany. I like it on a toasted english muffin with some arugula. I don’t know how long it keeps – I think I’ve had it in the fridge for maybe a week or two and it was fine.