Turkish-Style Oven-Braised Winter Vegetables (p. 343)

This is a really simple recipe to throw together, if you're the kind of person who's in to braised veggies. I'm not, really, but with enough salt and pepper pretty much anything can be good.

The only stove-top cooking needed is for the beans -- I had soaked mine over night and then cooked them in water and olive oil for about an hour, until they were nice and tender.

For the rest of the veggies, you can use pretty much whatever you have on hand. I chopped up carrots, celery, a turnip and a potato and put them in an oven-proof dish with some salt, pepper, lemon juice, and olive oil.

Pour in some boiling water and cook in the oven until the veggies are all cooked, about half an hour.

Sprinkle with chopped scallions and mix in the cooked beans.

We ate this at room temperature (which the cookbook recommends), and it was okay. I had leftovers for lunch today that I heated up and I liked that quite a bit more. Cold beans just don't do it for me.  Luckily, a perfectly cooked steak with garlic-butter sauce filled us right up.

white beans -- $2.49

celery -- $3.99

carrots --$1.29

potato -- $.69

turnip -- $1.23

scallions -- $.99

(with plenty of beans, celery, and carrots leftover)

Total Cost of Turkish-Style Oven-Braised Winter Vegetables: $10.68

($2.14 per serving)