Monday, January 10, 2011

Recipe fail: "Open-a-Can Bean Salad"


I have always assumed that if I make a recipe correctly that I will like the taste no matter what. I was wrong! And this recipe makes a huge amount of food, so I will still be eating this, despite not liking it. I'm not sure where I went wrong... But this is the first recipe out of my new favorite book (PETA's Vegan College Cookbook) that failed me.

"Open-a-Can Bean Salad"

Ingredients:
-1 can black beans
-1 can garbanzo beans/chickpeas
-1 can black-eyed peas
-1 can corn
-1 can tomatoes with onion and garlic
-1 teaspoon chives, chopped
-4 oz. Italian dressing

Directions:
Drain and rinse all beans and the corn. Mix all ingredients in one bowl. Makes 4 servings.

Okay... I skipped the chives, but I'm pretty sure that's not why I don't like this. I'm not sure what the problem is, since I love all of these ingredients. Although I had never tried black-eyed peas, so I guess that could be the gross flavor that I don't like. Hmmm...

I have a GIANT bowl of this stuff in my fridge, and I don't like it, but I don't want to waste all of this. So I will try to get creative. Mix some with rice or cous-cous, make a soup with vegetable broth, mix with pasta and ragu. I'm sure that there are ways to save these (usually delicious) beans.
Do you have any other ideas? How do you not waste recipes that you don't like?
***edited to update: I rinsed them off, and it's still disgusting. I think that it's the canned tomatoes that taste bad to me. :-( I will still try to salvage what's left tonight was a soup (mixing half of the beans with a bunch of vegetable broth and pepper) and some pasta (mixing the other half of the beans with pasta and ragu).


6 comments:

Katie said...

Leah, do you think it was the Italian dressing that ruined the flavor? I can't think of what else could taste bad...

Maybe you could use the remainder to make a nice taco salad or beans and rice? Sorry about the recipe fail--I hate when I do that!

Florrie said...

maybe rinse the beans and try a different dressing?

Leah: Not Otherwise Specified said...

Florrie, I didn't even think about rinsing them. I will try that!!!

Katy said...

I agree-it might be the Italian dressing. Rinsing is a good idea-you can start over with a completely new dish!

Hazel said...

Is it a cold bean salad? I'd also try eating it heated if you haven't.

I tried a black-eyed peas recipe a few weeks ago and didn't care for those beans. I don't remember them having a lot of flavor.

Leah: Not Otherwise Specified said...

C- yes it's a cold salad. Maybe I will try to heat it up, too. Thanks for the tip!