Mushroom, Corn, and White Bean Sauté

This vegetarian dish makes a great main for Meatless Monday, or a terrific side dish

Looking for a simple, tasty vegetarian dish? We’ve got you covered.

This Mushroom, Corn, and White Bean Sauté has terrific flavor, is quick to prepare, and can be made largely from pantry staples. If you prefer not to go veggie, it also works well as a side dish with grilled or roasted meat or poultry.

Once you make this, we’re betting you’ll want to extend Meatless Monday to other days of the week – just so you can serve it again.

Recipe: Mushroom, Corn, and White Bean Sauté

Sweet corn and mushrooms – or mais aux champignons – is a dish that hails from the Occitania region of southern Europe (see Notes). It is often served as a side dish with confits.

We discovered this dish (and learned a bit of its history) while browsing Madeleine Kamman’s In Madeleine’s Kitchen. Kamman has written many cookbooks, but we think this is her most satisfying and possibly her best. Our recipe is adapted from hers (we added white beans, for example, so this dish could serve as either a main or a side).

This dish takes about 15 minutes to prepare.

The recipe serves two as a main course (you might want to add some salad and bread for a complete dinner) or 4 as a side dish. It’s easy to double this recipe if you’re serving more hungry people.

Leftovers keep for a few days if refrigerated in an airtight container.

Ingredients 

• 2 to 3 tablespoons butter (to taste; may substitute olive oil)
• ~¼ cup finely minced shallots (may increase to ½ cup if desired)
• 1 garlic clove, sliced or minced finely (optional)
• 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced or quartered (or more to taste; see Notes)
• salt to taste (about ½ teaspoon kosher salt for us, but see Notes)
• freshly ground black pepper to taste (a dozen grinds for us)
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme or other herb of choice (see Notes)
• ~1 cup frozen sweet corn (to taste; may substitute fresh)
• 14-ounce can of white beans (drain and rinse the beans before using)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons minced parsley
  

Procedure

1. Place large frying pan on medium stovetop heat. When hot, add the butter. When the butter is melted, add the shallots and garlic (if using), then sauté for 1 minute. Then add the mushrooms. Add the salt, black pepper, and thyme. Then stir and sauté for 5 minutes (or until browned).
2. Add the sweet corn and beans. Stir, then cook until the sweet corn is cooked through (3 to 5 minutes).
3. Taste, adjust seasoning if necessary, and stir in the parsley. 
4. Serve and enjoy.
   

 Notes

• Ingredient quantities don’t need to be exact in this dish. So adjust to taste. 
• You can also add or omit ingredients if you want. About the only ingredients that should remain constant are the mushrooms and sweet corn.
• For extra goodness, you might want to add an additional tablespoon or two of butter and stir it in right before serving (Step 3).
• Or you might want to sprinkle on some grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese as garnish. Or try another sharply flavored cheese of your choice.
• Want to make a vegan version of this dish? Just substitute a flavorful extra-virgin olive oil for the butter. And of course ignore the option to garnish with cheese.
• We used cannellini beans when we made this dish. But any white bean (like Great Northerns) would work. 
• Or you could use another kind of bean entirely (we think black beans would work particularly well, although we haven’t tried that option).
• No shallots on hand? Onions work well, too (red onions in particular).
  
• What kind of mushrooms to use? We used cremini mushrooms (baby bellas) when we made this. But white button mushrooms also work well, as do the larger portobello mushrooms (all three of these are the same mushroom; they’re just at different stages of maturity). If you have fresh wild mushrooms on hand, those would be terrific in this dish.
• We like to use dried thyme in this dish, but you could skip it or use another dried herb. Herbes de Provence would be lovely. If using fresh herbs, basil or rosemary would be particularly nice.
• We use kosher salt in cooking. It’s less salty by volume than regular table salt (the crystals are larger and more irregular, so they pack a measure less tightly). If you’re using table salt, start with about half the amount we suggest. But always season to your taste, not ours.
• Occitania refers to the region of southern Europe where the centuries-old language of Occitan traditionally was spoken. Occitania encompasses southern France, part of Spain, Monaco, and a small section of Italy.
• Occitan is still spoken as a secondary language and is an official language of Catalonia.
  

Lingua Franca

“Mushrooms and sweet corn?” said Mrs. Kitchen Riffs. “You’re speaking my language!”

“So you like it?” I said.

“Òc,” said Mrs K R.

“Say what?” I asked.

“That’s ‘yes’ in Occitan,” said Mrs K R.

“You’re a font of linguistic knowledge,” I said.

‘’I do body language pretty well, too,” said Mrs K R, holding out her plate. “Especially when asking for seconds.”

Yup. No translation needed.

You may also enjoy reading about:

• Asparagus and Pork Stir-Fry
• Mushroom and Chickpea Curry 
• Braised Greens with White Beans
• Lentil and Cabbage Curry 
• Moroccan Kefta and Tomato Tagine
• Or check out the Index for more