Ok – I realize not everyone has tamarind chutney and yucca lying around…but after tasting this concoction you may decide that you need to. A few months ago, a local (mainly) vegetarian restaurant had a dish that we loved, with beans, yuca, greens, pineapple, and some other stuff with a barbecue-y sauce. I wanted to replicate it but despaired of finding yuca locally…until our trip to the Asian Market – yay!

For those of you unacquainted with this starchy root, also known as cassava, I’m here to tell you: yucca is the s#%$. It’s incredibly satisfying and way tastier than potatoes. However, it also happens to be poisonous if not prepared properly so follow these guidelines.

I wanted to create a barbecue sauce similar to that of the restaurant dish and discovered that I had no ingredients to do so in the usual way. So I used a bunch of random crap from the fridge that turned out to be almost EXACTLY like the sauce I wanted. Here is my magical recipe.

Note that amounts are estimated and you can play around a bit.

Tamarind Barbecue Beans and Yuca

• 1/2 jar red salsa (medium)
• 2 Tbsp tamarind chutney (or concentrate if you have it)
• 2 Tbsp molasses, maple or agave syrup
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp liquid smoke
• a few squirts of Korea hot sauce or Sriracha
• about 2 cups dark leafy greens of your choice
• 1 can light red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• about 6 inchs of yuca prepared as above then chopped into smaller chunks

Combine first 6 ingredients and simmer in a medium saucepan on medium-high for a few minutes. Add remaining ingredients, cover and simmer until the greens are wilted. That’s it!