This is another Georgian recipe. The type of beans doesn't really matter - kidney beans, pinto beans etc. - but red coloured beans do taste better than white in this recipe. A lot of traditional Georgian recipes contain meat but there are also a lot that don't. This is a very traditional recipe and like many without meat, it contains walnuts.
I'm just speculating here, but I suspect that in rural communities high in the Georgian mountains, even if you were a shepherd with a big flock of sheep, you probably wouldn't be able to afford to eat meat every day as people do in urbanised Western countries. I've noticed in many parts of the world where people are traditionally assumed to be heavy meat eaters - for example, the Middle East or Pakistan - when you get out into the villages people eat a lot of vegetables and bread and if there is meat in a dish it is often very little. People in Western European countries and the U.S.A. probably come out tops in terms of the sheer quantities of flesh they stuff into their faces on average, even taking into consideration the numbers of vegetarians amongst their populations. All the arguments about man being a 'natural meat eater' are a bit suspect when it comes to supporting the case for eating high meat-content meals three times a day, every day - especially considering the higher incidence of coronary disease and stuff which tends to correlate with such a diet.
Anyway, back to the recipe, if you still feel hungry after that. Everything's fairly straight forward, except perhaps getting your hands on some fresh savoury or celery leaves. I get both from the Georgian ladies down the bazaar, but if you can't find them you could try dried savoury (I've never even seen it so I can't comment on it's effectiveness) and use a finely chopped stick of celery stem. Alternatively you could try an entirely different combination of herbs altogether - you won't get arrested for it.
This is another pestle and mortar job, by the way.
Ingredients
500g dried red beans, soaked over-night
1 cup of shelled walnuts
4 cloves of garlic
A few sprigs each of fresh coriander, savory and celery
A half teaspoon of whole coriander seeds
A few black peppercorns
Salt
Boil the beans until they are soft. Add hot water as necessary
to stop them boiling dry. Pound the coriander and pepper first then add the
walnuts and do them until they form a paste. Dump it into a small bowl or something
and put the roughly chopped herbs and the whole garlic cloves into the mortar
and pound them to a pulp. Add them to the bowl and then drain off a little of
the liquid from the beans and use it to dilute the nut and herb mixture. Mix
it up well and pour it back into the beans. Stir it in without smashing up the
beans and add salt to taste.