Quick and easy lunch (or dinner)

Yesterday or the day before an e-mail from the Food section of the New York Times landed in my Gmail account. It was about beans, and what a good and easy product they are to use — especially out of a can. It gave a lot of ideas for dressing up the idiomatic "pot of beans" to make them more appetizing.

I took inspiration from that article and opened up a can of white beans (often called cannelini in the U.S. or lingots in France). I decided to flavor them with dried herbs — oregano, chives, etc. — that I soaked in warm water for a few minutes before adding them and the soaking water to the beans. I also put in some diced shallot, garlic, and bell peppers that I sweated in olive oil, and a couple of bay leaves. We enjoyed them with some smoked chicken that I bought at the supermarket.

Beans that are sold in cans are already cooked. You don't have to soak or cook them at all, unless you want to add some aromatic ingredients the way I did. The flavor and texture of beans (except haricots verts) don't seem to be altered by the canning process, so they taste the same as dried beans that you soak and cook yourself. Actually, the ingredients listed on the label of the canned beans I buy are just eau (water), haricots blancs secs trempés (dried white beans, soaked), sel (salt), and arôme naturel d'ail (natural garlic flavoring). (I wonder what that last ingredient is all about.)