It feels so far away now but just 2 months ago, Brian and I were packing and rushing out of our home to get to O’Hare. We were headed to India, where we spent 2 amazing weeks traveling the country, seeing family, and of course, eating all the things. The day we left, because I am who I am, I wanted to make us lunch to use up the fillet of whitefish in my fridge. I heated up a can of white beans with a very spicy leftover hot sauce from a falafel takeout order and roasted the fish simply with some curry powder, salt and pepper in the oven. And in my hurry, I accidentally made something really good!

Now, two months later, we’re all at home and with too many beans to know what to do with. So I put some thought into it and came up with a very easy but flavor-packed white bean and fish recipe. I used cranberry beans, which are white beans speckled pink but this works with any white bean you have in your pantry. If you read through the recipe, it will seem like a weird Italian-Moroccan crossover but it all works together really well. It’s spicy, tangy, and has a richness from the Parmesan rind. It’s very forgiving though, so you can skip or make substitutions; if you don’t have harissa, for instance, add some red pepper flakes instead. My recipe uses dry beans, so it takes a lot more water to cook than if you were using canned beans - halve the water and cooking time if you’re using canned beans.

I love the combo of lentils or beans with fish so I served my beans with mahi-mahi, seasoned with za’atar and curry powder, to reinforce the Mediterranean themes. This would also be fantastic with crispy skin chicken thighs.

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

For the Beans

• 1 cup dry white beans, soaked overnight in cold water

• 6 cups water

• 2 tbsp harissa

• 1 tbsp tomato paste

• Few sprigs of thyme or rosemary

• 3 large cloves of garlic, crushed

• 1 Parmesan rind (optional)

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Parsley to finish

For the Fish

• 2 fillets of mahi-mahi or other white fish

• 1 tbsp olive oil, divided

• 2 tsp za’atar

• 1 tsp curry powder

• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Place all ingredients under “For the Beans”, except the parsley and salt, in a heavy-bottomed pot. Turn on the burner to medium, place a lid to cover the pot, and let look for 1.5-2 hours. You can cook for less time, about an hour - longer cooking just means deeper flavor. About halfway through, season the beans with salt. When you’re finished, turn off the heat and stir in chopped parsley.

About 20 mins before the beans finish cooking, prepare your fish. Mix 1 tsp of the oil, za’atar, curry powder, salt, and pepper in a shallow bowl. Coat the fish in this mixture and set aside for 5 mins. Heat a skillet on medium-high heat and add the remaining 2 tsp of oil. Place the fish skin-side down in the skillet before the oil is too hot. For thicker cuts of fish, cook for 8 mins on once side, turn over and cook 6-8 mins on the other side. For thinner cuts, cut the time by half.

Nestle fish in the bowl of beans and serve!