Cooking with beans

The New Year (along with some unmentionable events) have brought some healthier eating to our house.

We are adding fiber to our diet around here.  I am trying to serve more veggies and beans with every meal.  Mr. 9 is less than impressed but everyone else is on board.

I even made pizza crust with white beans Friday night.  I talked Carrie into making it too.

It was a great success, everyone ate it 🙂 at both houses!!!

Here’s the recipe  (courtesy of  http://dealstomeals.blogspot.com/2011/03/white-bean-pizza-dough.html)

White Bean Pizza Dough
4 c. warm water
4 T. yeast
2 c. of pureed white beans (puree cooked beans with some of the 4 c. of water from recipe if they are too thick to puree until smooth)
1/4 c. sugar or honey
1/3 c. canola or olive oil
3 t. salt
13-14 c. flour (plus a little more for rolling out)–I used 2 c. of the 13-14 wheat flour and it was just right. You could also use 1 or 2 c. of white bean flour as well if you would like to be extra healthy! (You will use 13-14 c. of flour  TOTAL for this recipe)

Put the water into a large bowl (or mixer bowl) and sprinkle with the yeast and sugar. Let stand for about 5 minutes – the mixture should get foamy.

Put the beans into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until smooth (if the beans are too thick, you can add some of the water/yeast mixture to soften them up). Stir the beans into the yeast mixture, then add 2 cups of the flour along with the oil; stir until the dough comes together. Let the dough rest for 5-7 minutes and sponge. Then add the remaining flour to the dough until the dough is soft and smooth, but not stiff. Depending on how much wheat and/or bean flour you add to the dough, will determine how many cups you will need (with wheat flour you generally need less white flour) Once the flour is mixed into the dough, add the salt and then let it knead for 5 minutes on low speed (or knead by hand)

Cover the dough and let rise for about an hour, until doubled in size (if you don’t have a complete hour-that is okay, just let rise as long as you can).

Divide the dough in fourths; you should have enough for four 12” pizzas (or more if you like your crust more thin) Dough can be covered and refrigerated for a day, or wrapped tightly in plastic and frozen for up to 6 months; thaw on the counter top before using.

Bake for 12 minutes at 425 degrees.