Complex Yet Simple

Carbs the Lady Arabella Way OR How to Stay Alive Whilst Unpacking

Lemony, Garlicky Grains & Beans, omnivore or vegetarian. 4 to 6 servings.

14-oz can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

Zest of one grated lemon

1 clove garlic, minced or microplaned or grated

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 cups vegetable or chicken broth

1/2 cup quinoa

1/2 cup white rice (*could try brown rice but likely too clumpy)

1/8 to 1/4 cup Parmesan, freshly grated

Optional: Italian parsley, minced

Optional: 1/8 to 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted and cooled

1. Add drained, rinsed cannellini beans to a medium mixing bowl. Add lemon zest, garlic and olive oil. Stir to combine. Set aside.

2. Add broth, quinoa and rice to a medium pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a low simmer and cover. Cook for 18 minutes or ’til tender. Remove from heat and fluff with a fork.

3. Add cooked quinoa and rice to seasoned beans. Combine thoroughly. The grains will want to clump together and not let the beans in but you can do it.

4. Add half of grated cheese and stir. If using toasted, cooled pine nuts, stir in.

5. When serving, can top with more grated cheese and optional minced, Italian parsley.

Can store this dish covered in fridge for up to 3 days.

***

A crash portending shattered porcelain from Grandmama’s collection resounds from the asphalt driveway outside our new rental house. “What fresh hell is this?” Lady Arabella demands, finely shaped eyebrow at maximum arch.

I make generous allowance for my employer’s moods in recent days. Surely this is the first time she has relocated to a new city without the aid of a husband, ex-husband, aspirant husband or husband-to-be. It’s a lot.

Instead, upon returning from her Mediterranean sojourn, she must make do with the aid of her amanuensis and overly tall kitchen elf. AKA moi. Plus a muscled yet emotionally detached moving crew likely recruited by the moving van driver from a street corner near a bus stop. The lads do not get paid enough to cater to Lady Arabella’s need for seamless service in an atmosphere of unrelenting glamour and luxurious comfort. Do I? Well, if one factors in room and board… and proximity to luxury… close enough.

“Keep your strength up, Lady A!” I call from the kitchen where I am loading the dishwasher as if it is just another day in culinary paradise. Bereft of most of our cooking gear, which is in the cardboard boxes being gradually shifted inside, I can still turn out food worth the nosh time. Sustenance for body and soul.

Let us never forget nor discount the magic of soothing oneself and/or irritated co-habitants with cozy, complex carbs like quinoa and beans, lightened with a soupçon of pearly white rice.

Lady A’s stilettos click a bit less furiously across the dusty wooden floors. Peeking around the corner, I see her cradling her bowl of grains and beans in one hand and pointing with a fork to which room each piece of furniture needs to go. Humming instead of shouting. And was that a wink at the moving crew’s chief? He blushes underneath his sheen of sweat. Definitely a wink.