Harissa Black Beans With Coriander-Mint Yoghurt and Quick-Pickled Red Onions
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I am, as the TikTokers say, in my Bean Phase.
Who am I kidding — it’s not a phase. For me, beans are life. They’ve been one of my favourite things to eat ever since my mother stuck butterbeans in her homemade sausage casserole when I was five. It must be one of my first food memories.
I’m extremely happy to find a whole bunch of bean-based inspiration across the internet right now, including this harissa and black bean dish from British plant-based food bloggers turned cookbookers, the Bosh Brothers. Their recipe was the inspiration for this dish (albeit updated and made incredibly adaptable by me to fit in with Capsule Pantry rules).
Harissa paste is a smoky North African chili-spice paste that has become what some food bloggers might annoyingly call “trendy” in the last few years.
In fact, it’s become so popular it’s almost passé. Harissa chicken? That may have been on your local small plate restaurant menu 5 years ago but no longer.
I understand that ingredients go through waves of popularity but I’m not a fan of calling a national condiment trendy or past-it. After all, whilst we in the likes of the US or UK tinker about with different sauces from different parts of the world trying to find the next-big-thing, Tunisians are content smothering harissa paste all over the place, just like their parents and grandparents did.
There’s nothing trendy about it, it just is.
But despite how popular it may be nowadays, it is not easy to find it here in Porto, so I decided to make my own.
The paste is typically made from chillies, citrus, garlic and spices, all of which I happen to have in my personal Capsule Pantry. It took a grand total of about 10 minutes to make.
The recipe is here (free for all).
But if you don’t want to make it and have access to shop-bought, then go right ahead, my friend.
I’m running 30% off Capsule Pantry subscriptions until the end of the year. Get access to every single recipe, essay and tip for $3.50 a month or $35 a year.
Five words:
Earth, smoke, aromatic, creaminess, acidity
Earth from the beans.
Smoke and aromatics from the harissa paste.
Creaminess from the yogurt.
Acidity from the pickled onions
These five flavour profiles riff off each other to create a dish that honestly, could easily be boring without each of them. Consider each when making substitutions and you can’t go that wrong (see the Variations section for ideas).
Serves 4
1 medium-sized red onion, finely chopped