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White Bean Ragout, PLENTY cafe, Toronto



You try to plan ahead for travel by buying a nice sandwich/salad combo from a fancy place downtown, then arrive at the airport, catch one whiff of thai express and the possibility of enjoying that sandwich evaporates. 

Like delays, travel moods and cashew chicken cravings cannot always be anticipated. What I'm doing at the airport with a vegetarian white bean ragout sandwich I can't say. Regardless, today downtown does no better than Pearson's food services, so I'll propose some cranky renovations. First, apply Nigela Lawson's chickpea recipe to the white beans. Delete all the small chunks of filler veggies (carrots? really?) and eliminate or drastically cut the salad greens, then substitute long strips of grilled zucchini seasoned with lemon. Throw in some fresh mint or dill, and feta. Or whateva. Just an ingredient, I don't even care what. Look at what's beside this thing: more salad greens. I want to shout, what's the point? They must be making a killing with the markup on this $10 lettuce wrap. I find this fact much more insulting than the foam hockey puck bread that passes for a $12 sandwich at Pearson.

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