free from gluten and the top 8 food allergens
This mélange of artichokes, beans and kale will electrify your taste buds.
Rather than calling it a soup or stew, we like mélange. After all, it’s not really a soup, but a healthy medley of beans and vegetables served with a super sauce!
This recipe begins with béchamel, a classic mother sauce made with milk, heavy cream, butter and wheat flour. To make it allergy-friendly and vegan, we use rice milk, Earth Balance and sweet white rice flour, adding a touch of Dijon style mustard to create the small sauce called… mustard sauce.
Fit for a fine dining restaurant, yet easy to make at home…You’re gonna love it!
mise en place
Mise en Place
Having mise en place, or as Escoffier said, “Everything in Place”, makes this a simple dish to prepare. I don’t know about you, but there are times I’ve gotten into the kitchen without mise en place, and it’s been sheer disaster. In a hurry, I’ve half glanced at a recipe to find that half way through, I’m missing a main ingredient. Yes, very frustrating!
♦ Chef’s Tip: The first step in preparing a recipe is to read it carefully. Then read it a second time, making sure you understand every ingredient and every instruction in the procedure.
In a small saucepan, bring the rice milk, onion, clove and bay leaf to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Strain the liquid through a fine chinois or strainer, reserving the liquid.
To make the roux, melt margarine over low heat. Add sweet white rice flour and cook 1 minute. The reserved liquid is then added in 2 stages, while whisking constantly. Simmer the sauce for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in salt, pepper and nutmeg. Voila! This is our béchamel sauce, the easiest of the mother sauces.
To transform this béchamel into a small sauce, it’s as quick as whisking in a little Dijon style mustard. Now we have an amazing mustard sauce!
Taste it and imagine all the wonderful dishes you can use it in.
mustard sauce (one of béchamel’s small sauces)
Set the sauce aside while preparing the mélange of veggies and beans.
Cutting Quarter Moons
Cut about a half inch off the top of an onion. Place the onion on the flat end and cut in half, from root end to top end. Peel off the outer papery layers.
Place a half onion flat on the cutting board. The root end is kept intact to make slicing easier. Make one slice vertically down the center of the onion, but not cutting through the root end. To make quarter moon slices, rotate the onion and thinly slice vertically through the onion, discarding the root end.
With all the ingredients ready, now comes the easy part.
Melt coconut oil over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Add onions and a pinch of salt and cook for 4 minutes. Next comes the kale. After 2 minutes, add vegetable broth and simmer for 2 minutes. Pour in the mustard sauce, gently simmering for 2 minutes. The artichoke hearts are added. Lastly, toss in green beans and butter beans, cooking for a final 2 minutes to heat the beans.
Celebrating Foods Free
Melange of Artichokes, Beans and Kale
Yield 4 Servings
Free of: gluten and top 8 allergens.
This melange of artichokes, beans and kale will electrify your taste buds. A healthy medley fit for a fine dining restaurant, yet easy to make at home.
Ingredients
Mustard Sauce
3 cups rice milk (see recipe notes)
1/4 of a yellow onion
1 whole clove
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp diary-free, soy-free margarine, such as Earth Balance buttery sticks
2 tbsp sweet white rice flour (see recipe notes)
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch white pepper
1/8 tsp nutmeg
3 tbsp Dijon style mustard
Other Ingredients
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 cup slivered onions, quarter moons
Pinch salt
4 cups chopped kale, washed and ribs removed
3/4 cup vegetable broth, divided (1/2 cup + 1/4 cup)
1 (15-ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and rough chopped (see recipe notes)
2 cups blanched green beans (see recipe notes)
1 (15-ounce) can butter beans, drained
Instructions
- For the mustard sauce, in a small saucepan over high heat, bring the rice milk, quarter of a yellow onion, clove and bay leaf to a boil. Reduce heat and gently simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, strain and reserve liquid, discarding onion, clove and bay leaf.
- Using the same saucepan, melt margarine over low heat. Add flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
- Increase heat to medium. Add half of the reserved liquid, whisking until smooth. Add remaining liquid. Increase heat to medium high. With a spoon, scrape edges of saucepan. Bring just to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and gently simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Remove from heat and whisk in salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add mustard and whisk to combine. Set mustard sauce aside, while preparing melange.
- For the melange, in a medium saucepan, melt coconut oil over medium heat. Add slivered onions and pinch of salt. Cook for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add kale and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Pour in 1/2 cup vegetable broth. Simmer for 2 minutes.
- Add artichoke hearts and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
- Pour in the reserved mustard sauce. Bring to a low simmer and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add butter beans and green beans, cooking for 2 minutes to heat through.
- The sauce should be of a fairly thin consistency. Stir in 1/4 cup vegetable broth as needed to get desired consistency.
Notes
- For the rice milk, we suggest using Organic Rice Dream Rice Drink, Original Classic. This week we tried one from the same manufacturer, but Organic Sprouted Rice Dream Rice Drink. The sprouted rice drink curdled in the heating process.
- In this recipe, regular rice flour cannot be substituted for sweet white rice flour, which is much higher in starch than regular white rice flour. Sweet white rice flour can be hard to find, but Bob's Red Mill Sweet White Rice Flour can be purchased online or at grocers that carry Bob's Red Mill products, such as Whole Foods Market.
- You can replace canned artichoke hearts with 1-1/2 cups frozen artichokes, thawed.
- To cook green beans, or haricot vert, fill a medium saucepan with water over high heat. When the water comes to a boil, add the green beans and cook for about 4 minutes or until crisp tender. Quickly drain beans and put into a bowl of ice water to shock and stop the cooking process. This seals in the bright, beautiful green color in the beans.
Courses Mains
This recipe looks really good. I always wanted to know how to cut a half moon sliced onion. thanks,