Recipes » PB&J Campaign Blog

PB&J Muffins!

We’ve been a bit remiss in adding to the recipe section of the blog, and we hope to rectify that with a series of upcoming yummy recipes, starting with this one. Who doesn’t like muffins–especially when they have peanut butter and jelly in them?

We started with this recipe for peanut butter muffins. The author recommends eating them with a dollop of fruit preserves on top, for the PB&J effect, and that’s reflected in the lovely picture that accompanies the recipe. We thought we’d integrate the J part of PB&J even further by spooning some jelly (or jam, preserves, etc.) onto each muffin before they went into the oven. It turns out that one of the commenters on the original link had the same idea before us, and said it worked out great. We were similarly pleased with our results.

We went a little wild with the raspberry

In the PB&J Campaign Test Kitchen, we followed the recipe almost exactly, using the quick oats option (rather than grinding regular oats). The only change we made was subbing one-third of the flour with white whole wheat flour, which has the whole grain-ness of whole wheat but is almost as light as all-purpose flour.

On our first batch, we added an all-fruit strawberry spread to each muffin after pouring them into the muffin pan. We went overboard a little; a teaspoon per muffin would have sufficed, but we used about a tablespoon. The results were delicious, though! On our second batch we used all-fruit raspberry and cut back on the amount. Success again–and with less mess!

Strawberry version: not too pretty (our fault) but pretty darn good!

These muffins are heavier than the usual muffin, most likely because of the peanut butter. They do fill you up nicely. And they have a satisfying blend of sweet and savory. They’re flexible, too; you can eat them for breakfast, a snack, or dessert.

(Sorry about the bad photos. The muffins look much nicer in real life.)

From Reader’s Digest: Experts Create their Perfect PB&J

Here are some outside-the-box (at least near the edges of the box) variations on the venerable PB&J sandwich, including entries from Peanut Butter and Co. and Jerry Seinfeld.

(You can green up suggestion number 6 in the article by using veggie bacon–store-bought or homemade. We tried this combo with the aforementioned recipe in the PB&J Campaign Test Kitchens, and it was surprisingly compelling. You can lower the sodium in the recipe by using low-sodium soy sauce, or even more so by using Bragg’s Amino Acids.)

PB&J Recipe Contest!

Time for another contest! This one is about recipes and has two categories, and you can enter as many times as you want in either or both categories.

We’re looking for recipes that contain peanut butter and jelly, but are not PB&J sandwiches or anything very similar to that.

Update: The recipe can contain fruit or any fruit spread as an alternative to jelly.

The first category is original recipes. The person who submits the best original recipe using peanut butter and jelly (or fruit or fruit spread) wins a five-jar “variety pack” of peanut butter plus a PB&J Campaign tee shirt. The runner-up in this category gets a three-jar variety pack of peanut butter and a tee shirt.
The second category is non-original recipes. Show us a great link on the web, or let us know about a great recipe in a cookbook that uses peanut butter and jelly or fruit but is not a PB&J sandwich or close relative. The winner of this category gets a tee shirt and a free jar of peanut butter (the winner picks the flavor–creamy, crunchy, almond butter, etc.).

To enter: Please send all submissions to pbj@pbjcampaign.org. For the original recipe category, you can write the recipe out or just furnish a link.

Recipes should be all plant-based, or easily converted to plant-based (e.g., veggie bacon would be used instead of animal-based bacon).

The contest lasts until June 30. We will announce the winners–and wining recipes–shortly thereafter. (We’ll contact the winners first.)

We want to thank Earth Balance for their generous donation of peanut butter for this contest. Check out their peanut butter flavors here.

Recipe: Soy-Mirin Tofu Over Rice with Broccoli and Peanut Sauce

Here’s a filling, satisfying, flavorful, and relatively easy recipe from the extraordinarily talented folks at vegan yum yum. This recipe is part of an informal series we’ll call “Other things you can do with peanut butter.”

Perhaps the way to cook tofu that has the widest appeal is browning extra-firm, well-drained tofu in oil and pouring some sauce over it, which the tofu absorbs. This recipe uses that technique, with a simple but tasty peanut sauce. It also has broccoli and carrots, which add color, texture, and healthfulness.

The only ingredient in the recipe that might be challenging to find is mirin, a rice-based Japanese wine. If you can’t find it, probably any sweet wine would do.

If you’re short on time, you can use frozen or pre-cut broccoli and shredded carrots and have the meal ready in 20 minutes. Quick enough for a weekday but with a touch of gourmet presentation and taste.

Bonus: The photography on this blog is outstanding.

Once again, here’s the recipe: Soy-Mirin Tofu Over Rice with Broccoli and Peanut Sauce

Tofu Scramble Rides! (Meatless Monday Recipe)

Maybe the PB&J Campaign focuses a little too much on dinner and lunch (of course you could eat a PB&J for lunch, breakfast, OR dinner), but don’t let you think that breakfast is out of bounds as a meal to cut pollution, save land and water, and fight global warming. Oatmeal is ever the simple classic, but next brunch break out the tofu and get spicy. Meatless Monday brings us a great Tex-mex tofu scramble recipe from Cook. Vegan. Love. and I think it’s a great place to start your exploration of the tofu scramble. Of course you can take it in other directions – a strong curry powder or paste can take it in a South or Southeast Asian direction, and this summer you can work in fresh herbs for a milder, fresher direction. Buen Provecho!

Another Beautiful and Awesome Mindblowing Gourmet Bean: Moro

Of course National PB&J Day is right around the corner and we’re getting super-psyched about it, but the PB&J Campaign isn’t JUST about the PB&J. Oatmeal for breakfast, a bean burrito or falafel for lunch, a simple pasta with marinara or a hearty veg chili for dinner (maybe try the tofu next time you go out for Chinese food) – these are all great opportunities to take action to shrink your ecological footprint. Practically any plant-based meal can be a yummy, cheap, and easy way to save water, land, cut pollution, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

As you’ve probably noticed if you’ve been reading this gourmet bean series on the PB&J Campaign’s blog, I’m not much of a recipe person when it comes to basic foods like beans. I often do a very basic preparation (“pot beans” as Rancho Gordo tends to put it) and then add sauces or spicing later – for example a few shots of Tabasco Sauce, just about any salsa, Sriracha, a squeeze of lime, or a splash of balsamic vinegar. I suppose you could do this with canned beans, but starting with good, dry beans adds another richer layer of flavor.

This was my approach to the Moro, another beautiful bean that Rancho Gordo brings us from a group of farmers in central Mexico through their Xoxoc project.

moro beans

A common problem with beans (and I count very few problems with beans) is that they often cook up a lot plainer looking than they start, so it was with a little bit of sadness (balanced with a lot more anticipatory excitement!) that (after soaking them for the day – easy to do if you remember to toss them in a pot of water before you head out for work) I threw these gorgeous beans in the pressure cooker with some chopped onion and garlic, a couple bay leaves, plus a healthy dose of cumin and paprika.

They came out dark, rich and hearty – a bit like little kidney beans as Rancho Gordo’s website predicted – and I served them over some kasha, basically cooked buckwheat, which makes for a great grain alternative to rice for when you feel like mixing things up a little.

moro beans and kasha

More Mindblowing Gourmet Bean Awesomeness! (Lila, Vaquita)

The PB&J Campaign isn’t all about PB&Js, but it is nearly all about beans. Along with the grains that are more routinely part of our diet (rice, wheat=bread, oats=oatmeal and other cereal), they are what we can eat to have a powerful environmental impact any time we pack a lunch (with peanuts=peanut butter), decide on bean burritos at the Tex Mex joint, or any time we cook or anything made out of soy beans like tofu or tempeh.

However awesome the environmental impact of beans may be (helping fight climate change, use less land, conserve water, and fight other pollution), they could use some better branding. Ever the food of poverty, the food that peasants eat when they can’t afford anything else, subject of humorous rhymes, we need to elevate beans to their proper prominent place in the pantry.

Luckily Rancho Gordo and other purveyors of is hard at work on this project, selling heirloom varieties, and more broadly raising attention to the culinary potential of our forgotten legume friends.

Consider the Lila, a.k.a. Apetito. I have been working through a box of Rancho Gordo beans (for the record, I bought the beans I’ve been cooking – no free samples) , and my favorites so far might be the Lila.

Lila Beans

As per usual, my bean photography skills failed me, but these were my favorite yet in terms of pure flavor – very rich, almost a roasted element note to them. Rancho Gordo noted how well they did with some basic aromatics (onion, basic herbs like bay leaves); I went a little further, starting with onions and carrots, and working with a rich base of basil and oregano, then a can of tomatoes at the end to finish them.

RG recommended the Vaquita (‘little cow’) refried.

Vaquita Beans

I did just that – cooked them with onions, oregano, cumin, some chipotle and then mashed them. They went perfect with chips – great football food.

Vaquita Beans

Mindblowing Gourmet Bean Recipe Series Catchup

I’ve kept on cooking the beans from Rancho Gordo, however frustrated I’ve been by the frustrating art of photographing cooked beans in the kitchen (very frustrating). So for these three beans, you’ll have to make them yourself to see how they look (and of course how damn awesome they taste).

Luckily we can all bask in the warm fuzzy glow of a happy tummy and a deed well done – eating a plant-based meal centered on ayocotes negros with anise seed and roasted pepper cuts pollution (including greenhouse gas emissions), saves land, and conserves water compared to the animal-based alternatives. The PB&J Campaign isn’t JUST about the PB&J, and we know it’s only a matter of time before Americans realize just how yummy and awesome beans are.

Rancho Gordo’s Steve Zando writes that the idea for the company came when he tried a bowl of simply prepared Rio Zape beans. I followed their recommendation and prepared a really simple pot of beans (or at least I did them how I prepare a simple pot of beans) – soaked from the morning, and then cooked in the pressure cooker with a chopped onion, a bay leaf, and a little chipotle en adobo. From here they were the perfect base – for lunch with a little lime and a little salsa, for dinner with a couple fried eggs (okay, not entirely plant-based) and toasted multigrain bread…

Rio Zape beans

Next up, a French classic: flageolet. I tweaked a recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone from Deborah Madison. Basically I chopped up four leeks (sans green parts), sauted most of them (held back about one leek’s worth) in a lot of butter, then combined them with the pre-soaked pound of beans and water to cover the beans by about an inch in the pressure cooker. When they were done I cooked the last of the chopped leek in butter and a half cup of white wine, and mixed that in with the beans. It was perfect – maybe the best pot of beans I’ve ever had (though I probably say that a lot).

With Thanksgiving coming up, I decided to do a repeat with some minor changes to make it more American (I couldn”t make a French bean for Thanksgiving). First, I used the classic lima bean in place of the flageolet, and then used a mix of vinegar and apple juice (had no cider vinegar – that would have been perfect) in place of the wine for the last step. Again, awesome, and a big hit at the dinner.

Most recently I tried the ayocote negros – basically a black version of the scarlet runner beans. They’re almost as big, and maybe more impressive with their silky black sheen. Again Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone had a great recipe – this time with roasted red pepper and anise seed. First I cooked the beans in the pressure cooker with some aromatics (bay leaf, parsley, onion) and then drained them (held back a half cup of the bean broth).

Ayocote negro beans

While the beans were getting blasted in the pressure cooker, I chopped up some jarred roasted red pepper (I’m just too lazy to roast them myself), basil, an onion and then sauteed them with a teaspoon of anise seed. Then I mixed it all together and simmered them for a bit with a quarter cup of dry sherry – until the liquid reduced down to a thicker sauce.

They ended up kind of like the bean version of sausage and peppers. This was my introduction to anise seed in beans – I’ll be doing this again.

Next up, a traditional Mexican variety called Rebosero.

The Mindblowing, Thrilling, Gourmet Bean Recipe Series! Scarlet Runner

The PB&J Campaign is not ONLY about the PB&J. The sandwich is a great hook, a way to show Americans that fighting global warming, saving water and land, and cutting pollution is as easy as something they know and love already. It’s not about giving something up, it’s about eating more of things we love.

Now, beans don’t have quite that kind of comfort factor, and you don’t think of getting beans as part of a fancy dinner, but beans are a cornerstone of diets all over the world, and one of the best ways to get protein for the least land, water, fuel, and emissions. We’ve got to earn beans some respect, dang it. One way is to get beyond the canned pinto beans we throw in a burrito in a pinch.

Dig the scarlet runner bean. The name itself is awesome. The beans are too, but in a completely different way than the name might imply. They’re not scarlet, but they’re frickin’ enormous. I did a really poor job of photographing this dish, so you’ll have to believe me that they start big and cook up to about an inch and a half long. One or two beans is a mouthful, the taut skin yielding to a burst of creamy flesh inside.

Rancho Gordo (where I bought the beans) recommends cooking them with wild mushrooms and a little too much garlic, so I went with that. I am a lazy cook, and since I didn’t have wild mushrooms sitting around, I ended up using some dried mushrooms – I think shitake and oyster.

1) I started soaking the pound of beans the night before – basically putting them in a bowl with a couple extra inches of water. I probably could have started soaking the morning before.

2) I soaked the mushrooms for 15 minutes in hot water (heated with a tea kettle – not quite boiling).

3) I roughly chopped those mushrooms and set them aside, reserving the soaking water.

4) I drained the beans, put them in my pressure cooker with the chopped mushrooms and a couple bay leaves, and dumped in the reserved water from the mushrooms, adding a little extra water to make sure I had about an inch over the beans.

5) I cooked them in the pressure cooker for about 25 minutes. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, get one – seriously, though, you could also simmer the beans for an hour and a half or so, but the pressure cooker makes it so much quicker and easier.

6) While the beans were cooking, I chopped five cloves of garlic, and cooked them on low heat with about a quarter cup of olive oil.

7) When the beans were done, I stirred in the garlic and olive oil.

The more I think about it, this is a wonderful bean for a dinner party. However you cook them, you’ll get all kinds of oohs and ahhs when people see and then bite into the scarlet runners.

The Mindblowing, Thrilling, Gourmet Bean Recipe Series! Eye of the Goat

The PB&J Campaign is not just about the PB&J (though it is a classic and delicious sandwich, easy to make, and incredibly cheap) as a way to save land and water, cut pollution, and fight global warming. Other plant-based meals work well too, in particular anything based on beans.

Obviously beans have an image problem. There’s the old poem (beans, beans, they’re good for heart…) to contend with, but also their general reputation as a basic, boring food turns people off. We can wax eloquent about the glories of exotic grains (amaranth, spelt, etc.); it’s time for a similar bean revival!

Luckily Rancho Gordo is leading that campaign. This is a company out in Napa Valley in California that sells heirloom bean varieties – getting us past the old canned lima and kidney beans and into the exciting territory of the scarlet runners and Mexican varieties like Rebosero and Ayocote Morado, plucked from obscurity through their partnership with central Mexican farmers, the Rancho Gordo/Xoxoc project. Aside from the inherently fun cultural and culinary project, Rancho Gordo is helping to turn the beans from the also-ran on the plate into a gourmet staple that we can get just as excited about as any fancy tomatoes or obscure chicken breeds.

These bean varieties might be inherently tasty, and they might be great because Rancho Gordo places a lot of attention on selling fresh beans (after a few years dry beans decline in quality, so what you buy in the supermarket might be too old to cook up well and taste good), but either way I (Bernard Brown) decided to put in an order (note that this was full price – no special deals involved) for a big box of heirloom beans to try for myself. I’ll be working on a variety per week, so stay tuned for recipes featuring them.

First up, the Ojo de Cabra! That translates into Eye of the Goat (I’m sure some of you are sighing in relief that we’re not cooking up goat eyeballs), and Rancho Gordo’s website was emphatic that it is a great bean to cook very simply. All I did was cook them with onion and garlic and eat them with some salsa, and sure enough they were delicious – hearty with a little bit of a roasted corn flavor in there.

Exactly how did I cook them? Well, my tool of choice is a pressure cooker for speed (about 20 minutes) but a friend I spoke with is a crock pot devotee (more time, less attention), and you could also just take the hour or so and cook them on the stove top – all these assume soaking ahead of time.

Here is the bag o’beans, straight out of the Rancho Gordo box:

Ojo de Cabra in bag

I soaked them (I did the whole 1 lb at once) in the pressure cooker, starting first thing in the morning to be cooked in the late afternoon. soaked ojo de cabra beans

I added 2 chopped medium onions and three cloves of garlic before cooking, added some more water to cover them by about an inch, and then cooked them for 20 minutes in the pressure cooker.

chopped garlic chopped onion

And here they are with a little bit of salsa on top – perfect!

ojo de cabra plated