I don’t normally write about recipes, but I made this one and a few friends asked me how I made it, so enjoy.
I grew up on cholent and other Eastern European gruel-like stews. My mother would simmer a pot of beans, potatoes and meat for at least 24 hours, until they’re one soft, uniform mass. I loved it. My wife does not, and she’s never warmed to curry either, which meant my goal of eating more plant-based meals kept stalling out. Every high-protein bean dish I tried was either a delicious nutritious paste, or an Indian-style curry, and nothing I found brought joy to our table, until this!
Plant-based, real protein, cheap, and quick enough for a weeknight. Enough texture for her, enough creamy richness for me.
The recipe that I made is based on Nora Taylor’s Marry Me Chickpeas at Nora Cooks, a fifteen-minute, one-pan chickpea dish in a garlicky sun-dried tomato and cashew cream sauce. Structurally it’s the opposite of cholent: the beans hold their shape, the sauce carries the richness, and garlic, oregano, and basil lean more towards the Italian profile we both enjoy. Credit where it’s due, her recipe did the hard parts. Go make her original first.
What follows is my one-off adaptation, not tested over multiple batches the way Nora’s original was.
Here’s what I changed:
- No sun-dried tomatoes in the pantry. I swapped in seared cremini mushrooms instead, which do their own job of building deep umami before the garlic even goes in.
- I wanted more protein. Rather than just serving cream, I blended soaked cashews with half a can of white beans into the cream base. It thickens the sauce without a cornstarch slurry and adds protein you can’t taste.
- Skipped the broth. Instead of adding the cup of broth, I used Zoup Concentrate to make the cashew cream. The cream came out darker but had a richer flavor and the whole dish was extra savory. Zoup is my new secret ingredient.
- One can chickpeas, one can cannellini beans, instead of two cans of chickpeas. Because I didn’t have 2 cans of chickpeas, but I think that made it work better.
- Peas, because my wife likes them. Not every decision here was about macros.
This version comes in above the protein you’d get from the chickpeas-only original and was a bit thicker. What I like about this dish is the short cook time when using canned beans.
The Recipe
High-Protein “Marry Me” Beans, Peas & Mushrooms Prep: 10 minutes · Cook: 15 minutes · Serves: 6
Cream base
- 3/4 cup raw cashews, soaked in boiling water 5 minutes, drained
- 1/2 can (about 3/4 cup) cannellini or navy beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 1/4 cups fresh water
- 1 tsp Zoup concentrate (Veg soup bouillon)
Blend until completely smooth. Set aside.
Skillet
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 8 oz baby bella / cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 (15 oz) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 2 cups baby spinach, sliced
- 4-5 fresh basil leaves, chopped
Method
- Sear the mushrooms in the olive oil over medium-high heat, undisturbed, 3-4 minutes, until deeply browned.
- Turn the heat down, add the garlic, and cook about 1 minute until your spouse can smell it upstairs.
- Stir in the tomato paste, oregano, salt, and pepper. Cook 1 minute, letting the paste darken slightly.
- Add the chickpeas, cannellini beans, peas, and the blended cashew-bean cream. Simmer about 5 minutes, until it thickens into a gravy.
- Stir in the spinach until just wilted. Off heat, stir in the basil.
Per serving (I ran these through Gemini, so treat them as estimates): about 330 calories, 17g protein, 11.5g fat, 42g carbs (10.5g fiber), up from roughly 10g protein in Nora’s chickpeas-only original.
I like Nuts.com (coupon link) for the cashews, but sometimes you can find broken cashews in bulk for less.