Mr. Hawthorne Makes A Quick Bean Salsa.

Mr. Hawthorne makes this dish a lot.

It can go from a dip to a soup.

Just depends on your mood and appetite.

Personally, I like it with tortilla chips as a dip.

It's got beans.

And tomatoes.

And spices.

And there's no set recipe.

It's one of those "add-in-whatever-you-feel-like dishes."

Mr. H. usually starts out with dried beans -

kidney, black, great northern.

Singly or a combination thereof. 

(If you're in a pinch for time,

you could use canned beans.

Rinse them off and drain them first.)

 Throw in some stuff from the pantry.

Adds in a few cans of this and that -

diced tomatoes, corn, those Rotel tomatoes with diced chiles.

Throw in some stuff from the freezer -

  lima beans, corn, or whatever.

Throw in some stuff from the garden -

onions, peppers, jalapeños, more tomatoes.

And then spice it up.

Oregano, cumin, cilantro.

 

And a special treat if you happen to have it growing -

raw, green cilantro seeds (coriander) -

to top it off.

Here's Mr. Hawthorne's "recipe."  And this is the quick one, using canned beans, not dried.

Mr. Hawthorne's Bean Dip
In a medium saucepan, combine the following:
1 can Northern beans
1 can diced tomatoes (With juice, then swish out the can with a bit of water and add that in too.)
1 can corn, or fresh from a cob, or frozen
handful of frozen lima beans
chopped bell pepper (Multi-colored for the pretty.)
chopped onion

Heat over medium low heat.  Bring to a simmer and let it stew for a bit, until anything frozen (limas) are tender and cooked through.  Maybe 30 minutes.

Add seasonings and continue to cook over low heat so flavors can have a meet and greet.

 Seasonings:
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 granulated garlic
1 tsp dehydrated onion
1 tsp hot sauce, or to taste
1 tsp minced jalapeño, or more, to taste
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper, to taste
pinch kosher salt, to taste

Serve with tortilla chips and fresh cilantro.

Now, if you don't happen to have a bag of Tostitos on hand and want something to scoop up the bean dip with, you can make your own "scoopies" with regular flour tortilla rounds. 

Here are some homemade wedges that I made to go with my homemade hummus.  And don't ever buy store bought hummus, unless you just want something to compare homemade to and know how NOT to make it.
Here's my hummus recipe, in case you're interested.

Homemade tortilla chips:
For homemade tortilla chips, simply take the round flour tortillas, stack them, and cut into wedges.  Heat oven to 300° and pour a thin layer of oil onto a baking sheet and throw in a couple tablespoons of butter.  Let the butter melt as the oven heats.  Then take each wedge and dredge both sides through the oil and butter.  Arrange triangles in a single layer on baking sheet.  Make that baking sheetS.  Plural.  These are so good, you're going to want to make a bunch of them.  Next, lightly sprinkle some cumin and red pepper flakes or cayenne over the wedges.  If you happen to have some Togarashi seasoning, go for it!  Togarashi is a quite versatile Japanese seasoning with ground chile peppers, black and white sesame seeds, poppy seeds, orange and lemon zest, and nori (seaweed).  Bake until the wedges are light golden and crisp.

Enjoy!