Bean bourguignon

Use red kidney beans, light or dark red. Dry beans from a one pound bag or the bulk bins must be soaked overnight; canned ready-cooked beans can be used instead.

Preheat the pan and add olive oil.

In place of the bacon or smoked pork product of a classic bourguignon, add about two ounces of smoked tempeh cut in one inch pieces along with the olive oil.

Once the tempeh sizzles, add the minced garlic and minced shallots and let the three sweat or saute lightly until they become aromatic.

Add the carrots, turn the heat very low and put a lid on to sweat them down.

Add the cremini mushrooms, then the fresh tomatoes, then half the vegetable stock and half the red wine.

Simmer the vegetables 20 minutes to half an hour.

Add some rosemary, three sprigs of thyme and one good size bay leaf, stir the herbs in, and add a small pinch of salt so it seasons the mushrooms and carrots as they cook.

After about 25 minutes add the cooked beans, the remaining vegetable stock and the remaining red wine, and simmer another 15 or 20 minutes.

The stew should be thick. Either knead softened whole butter together with flour into a paste -- a beurre manie, the classic French thickening agent -- to add at the very last moment, or use no starch at all and let the stew reduce until it is as thick as you want.

Take the herbs out. Slide a spoonful of the beurre manie into the simmering stew and stir it in; the liquid thickens as the paste dissolves.

Serve as it is, or spoon about half a cup of cooked brown rice into a bowl and lay a portion of the stew over it. Pasta works in place of the rice.