White Bean

The beauty and subtlety of wild garlic makes this dish very appealing, and fresh curry leaves add a fragrance that is quite seductive. During the summer months, we shell fresh coco beans and cook them directly in the curry until soft. In winter, we soak dried cannellini beans overnight and precook them in water for an hour or so over gentle heat, with one or two herbs added for flavor. I like to serve this curry just as it is, but you could add chunks of white fish to it.

Fantastic in emergencies and reason enough to stock canned beans in your pantry. Serve as a dip for bread-sticks, pita or other bread, or raw vegetables.

From the delicate calamari to the crunchy celery and crisp greens, this salad is a mélange of wonderful textures. Make sure to use the freshest calamari you can find, and cook it quickly over the hot griddle to keep it as tender as possible.

Ribollita is a classic Tuscan soup that's made up of vegetable soup mixed with pieces of rustic bread. This version is packed with veggies—white beans, kale, chard, potatoes, tomatoes—and served with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.

This is the classic country paella of Valencia, made with chicken and rabbit, and in snail season, cooked snails called vaquetas. Authentic paella should be made over firewood. Twigs from olive or orange trees are used for hot flames, and thicker logs are used for a slower fire. The trick is to have both at the same time, so that the meat and vegetables can be browned slowly, then the rice brought to the boil over the hottest part of the fire, then set over a lower flame. If you can't build a wood fire, a charcoal one will do. Valencian bachoqueta de herradura and Valencian garrofón (special green and flat green beans, respectively, from the region) were called for in the original recipe, but other green beans can be substituted, and cooked dried beans or lima beans can be substituted for the flat green beans. You can also have your butcher cut up the rabbit for you, if desired.

Crispy cornmeal polenta is the health star of this salad: It may be easier for your body to absorb corn's carotenoids from milled products such as polenta, rather than from whole kernels.

Thanks to a few humble additions—sun-dried tomatoes, sweet smoked paprika, and leafy spinach—these saucy beans have real pizzazz. Best of all, the dish requires little more than a quick sauté and simmer.

If you've made another recipe that called for Garlic Mayonnaise and happen to have some left over in the refrigerator, a dollop of it on the plate makes a delicious addition to this hearty, rustic dish.

Thanks to paprika, this meatless main has a spicy, smoky flavor. Domestic smoked paprika can be found at some supermarkets. For a spicier kick, use hot smoked Spanish paprika (Pimentón Picante or Pimentón de La Vera Picante), which is sold at specialty foods stores and at tienda.com.

How good does a pot of this soup on the stove on a chilly, soccer-packed fall Saturday sound?

Serve with crusty bread and a salad, if you like.

f you're making the beans to use for the soup or the sausages, be sure to save the cooking liquid.

A rustic, comforting dinner dish.

Thinly sliced red onion adds flavor and color to this light tuna salad.

This light salad is pretty enough for a dinner party.

This zesty salad is big on beans and packs plenty of protein and vitamins!

The inspiration for test kitchen director Ruth Cousineau’s velvety chilled bean soup comes from Mediterranean-cooking authority Claudia Roden's recipe for bissara, an Egyptian bean-and-herb purée. The beans here are lima and green, simmered in chicken broth (you can use vegetable broth if you want to go vegetarian) and then puréed until silky. The herbs—parsley, cilantro, dill, and mint—are blended with olive oil so that you can finish the soup with a verdant drizzle, but don’t think of the herb oil as merely a garnish: Its bright flavor brings everything together.

In this remarkably tasty side-dish vegetable, instant stock powder provides a long-cooked depth of flavor in minutes. The rich creaminess of the white beans transforms frozen spinach into a healthful and delicious version of creamed spinach. It's not just a side dish though: Use leftover "creamed" spinach as a sauce for pasta or grains (season a bit more heavily) or thin it with enough vegetable stotck to turn it into a soup.

If you've got some fresh-caught trout, we know just what to do with it. This incredible main-plus-side requires very few ingredients and is easy enough to make at your campsite or cabin. (And you can use store-bought, too: In that case, you should ask your fishmonger to bone and butterfly the whole trout for you.)