After last week’s rampant whimsy we’re back to something practical with this freeform black bean cobbler; so named because it’s so adaptable that it might veer all the way around to being annoying again — in that sometimes having too many options just means you have to make more decisions, but I shall attempt to make it clear why the main suggested path is worth traversing, culinarily.

The inspiration for this comes from two sources, firstly being Nigella’s black bean soup from How To Eat, and secondly the cobbler topping recipe from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, a fantastic book that I’ve referenced before with the recipes for vegetables à la grecque, and tomato couscous with cinnamon, peanuts, and coriander. Nigella’s soup recipe makes use of the richness in these beans, and the way their almost-creamy texture pairs beautifully with earthy, fragrant cumin and the citrus lightness of coriander.

To that end, the first and easiest variation on this recipe is to leave off the cobbler topping altogether, and either serve the beans on rice or add more liquid and serve as a textured soup. If doing this, you could also consider adding some chilli — perhaps a feisty fresh red chilli, or a smoky ancho, or a brisk sprinkling of chilli flakes and cayenne, which I’d also considering dovetailing with some smoky paprika. You could add more or fewer mushrooms, a chopped stick of celery, any number of other vegetables — and it would be very easy to hiff in an extra can of beans to make this go further — either way, don’t skip the squeeze of citrus which perks it all up masterfully. If possible, don’t skip the bay leaves either — their pine-tinted flavour is subtle but damn it if I didn’t absolutely notice them missing when I tested this without them. They do last forever and are a great way to add that ‘secret ingredient’ smugness to your cooking.

Weighing up your commitment to the cobbler? It’s about as easy and fuss-free as this process can possibly get, with the upshot being that it’s also vegan and much cheaper than the usual ingredients you might expect to see. All you have to do is stir flour and oil together, followed by some milk, and then drop it haphazardly over the beans before baking. It does add extra dishes to wash, but this simple, inexpensive extra step turns canned beans and unglamorous vegetables into something heartening, welcoming, soothing, and even celebratory. On top of which, it’s monumentally filling.

What makes it so easy is that flour-and-oil mixture, which sidesteps the price and exertion of using butter; I tested this with coconut oil, olive oil, and plain rice bran oil, and though I was anticipating a certain flatness of flavour, I can happily confirm that the plain oil version still holds its own. And, despite its lumpiness and artless method, the baked cobbler topping is meltingly tender and light with a sturdy crust — not unlike a scone. I don’t know why butter still continues to be mortifyingly expensive for a country that repeatedly bangs its drums about how great and important our dairy is, but till the supermarket duopoly or the toddlers-that-be start to act right, hopefully this dairy-free sidestep is somewhat useful for your dinner planning.

For more versatile legume dinner ideas, I recommend these chickpeas diabolique; this butternut, chickpea, and peanut soup, this one-pan fried chickpeas, rice, and greens, and this hands-free black bean and brown rice casserole.

And if I may, a reminder that you can sign up here to hear irregular and unobtrusive updates and details about my forthcoming cult hit novel, Hoods Landing.

Freeform black bean cobbler

Rich, hearty, straightforward to make yet rather celebratory with its scone-like top layer vividly dusted with smoked paprika. It’s also immensely versatile, and you don’t even need the cobbler part, though I highly recommend it. Recipe by myself, but inspired directly by Nigella Lawson’s black bean soup in How to Eat and a cobbler recipe in Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

Black bean stew

• 1 onion
• 1 large carrot
• 10 button mushrooms
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 roasted red capsicum from a jar, or use a fresh one
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1 x 400g tin black beans
• Fresh or bottled lime juice, or lemon juice in a pinch
• Handful of coriander, to serve

Cobbler topping

• 270g flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or a teaspoon of chicken stock powder
• 6 tablespoons plain oil
• 3/4 cup milk (I used oat milk)
• Smoked paprika, for serving

1: First, get your veges ready — peel and roughly chop the onion, then trim and chop the carrot into similar sized pieces (about 1-1.5cm). Quarter the ten button mushrooms — pulling out the stems first, if you want — and then, though you’re not adding them right away, finely dice the three garlic cloves, and dice the capsicum.

2: Heat a wide saucepan and add the chopped onion, carrot, and mushrooms, and sprinkle with the 1/2 teaspoon salt. Let them sit for a couple minutes before stirring, to allow the mushrooms to release some of their liquid. You want everything to soften, rather than fry. Stir in the chopped garlic and capsicum.

3: Add the two teaspoons each of ground cumin and oregano, the two bay leaves, and the tin of beans — liquid and all, no draining. Let this simmer away over a low heat, stirring occasionally, while you get on with the cobbler.

4: Set your oven to 180C/350F and grab a 20cm square tin. Measure the 270g flour into a bowl, and then stir in the 3 teaspoons of baking powder and half teaspoon of salt (or teaspoon of chicken stock powder) and mix well, to make sure the baking powder is dispersed.

5: Pour the six tablespoons of oil into the bowl of flour and stir with a spoon to form damp crumbs. Pour in the 3/4 cup milk, about a third at a time, to form a sticky-ish scone-like dough. If it looks too wet, simply add a couple extra tablespoons of flour. Don’t overmix the dough, nor should you need to, but make sure there’s no streaks of flour remaining.

6: Remove the beans from the heat and add another hearty pinch of salt, followed by the juice of half a lime (or about a tablespoon of bottled lime or lemon juice). I sometimes add some chopped fresh coriander here, too. Spoon the beans into your awaiting 20cm square dish, and then drop small spoonfuls of the cobbler mixture evenly over the top. Bake for 35 minutes, and sprinkle with a little smoked paprika before serving with or without coriander leaves scattered over — depending on your feelings about coriander.

Serves four, though it could benefit from a little something on the side to anchor it — peas, a lettuce salad, that sort of thing.

Notes:

• The first and easiest thing you can do to make this go further is to simply add another can of beans. You can also add another carrot, more or fewer mushrooms, another capsicum, even another onion if you want.
• If you’ve got a stick of celery handy, chop it up roughly and add with the onions and carrots, or consider a dash of celery salt.
• Consider adding some allspice along with the cumin to emulate jerk cooking flavours.
• On that note, I’ve left this pretty calm but it would definitely welcome some chilli with open arms.
• I have tested the cobbler with coconut oil, olive oil, and rice bran oil — all worked fine, and sometimes I add smoked paprika in with the flour.
• You can stir any number of vegetables into this — like small-chopped butternut at the start, chopped broccoli or spinach near the final simmer.
• Finally, I honestly think this tastes significantly better with the coriander, but as someone who loves coriander, I would say that, wouldn’t I!

music lately:

Dragonflies by Red House Painters, a song lit by fireflies. Despite the name.

American Teenager by Ethel Cain, this was the first song of hers that I heard and it’s still so all-consuming and staggering.

Indian Summer by Beat Happening, no matter how many times I hear them, I’m never quite prepared for how deep Calvin Johnson’s voice is; or how woozy and knowing this song is. I wish I could hear it live.

Fenugreek by the sadly late MF Doom, although it’s perhaps disingenuous to bring up a track with no vocals, it’s so sunshine-exuberant and vivacious that I can never just listen to it once, it demands to be looped and to be played while you’re walking around like you own the place.

PS: As we enjoy our food we can’t forget those going violently without it. Though the people of Gaza are existing under barbaric cruelty with aid continually blocked, NZ-based humanitarian org ReliefAid’s Gaza Appeal continues to work to deliver water sourced and treated from within Gaza so give it if you’ve got it.