Recipe: White Beans and Greens

Photo from The Nourishing Gourmet 

I have been searching for new recipes that would be work lunch friendly using ingredients I have in my home.  I've also been trying to look at my grocery bill and determine how many times a week I can eat veggie or cut costs without eating peanut butter for lunch everyday.  I found this soup recipe at The Nourishing Gourmet and decided to give it a go.  I had never really had white beans before, nor had I cooked with spinach besides the frozen block of spinach in a spin dip recipe.  The one thing I didn't like about this recipe is that if you don't eat it all right away, the spinach turns from bright pretty green to dull skunky green.  I took some out today for lunch and no more pretty green spinach.  Oh well, it still tasted fine!  I tweaked the recipe a little from the original because I didn't have any tomato paste.  In the future, I think I will use both fresh tomatoes and tomato paste, and that is reflected in this recipe.  I might also consider tearing up the spinach or chopping into smaller pieces.

White Beans and Greens

1 bag of Great Northern Beans

13 cups of water

9 cloves of garlic

4 tsp Oregano

3 bay leaves

2 tsp Parsley

Salt & Pepper to taste

1/3 c. + 2 tbl olive oil

1/2 c. fresh diced tomatoes

1/4 c. tomato paste

1/2 lb. fresh baby spinach

Grated parmesan cheese for garnish

1.  Soak dried beans overnight in water.

2.  Rinse and sort beans.

3.  Add water, 2 tbl of olive oil, beans, bay leaves, and 3 garlic cloves (peeled and smushed) to stock pot.  Bring to just a boil, then continue to simmer until beans are tender (it took me about an hour).

4.  When the beans are tender, combine rest of olive oil, oregano, tomato paste, 6 garlic cloves (put through garlic press), fresh tomatoes.  Smush fresh tomatoes with end of spatula while cooking, and continue to cook until the oil begins to turn red and the garlic is soft.

5.  Remove bay leaves.

6.  Add tomato/oil mixture to stock pot with beans.

7.  Add spinach to stock pot with beans, cook about 5 minutes or until the spinach is tender.

8.  Season with salt/pepper to taste.

9.  Serve with fresh grated parmesan cheese on top.

Yum!  I was originally apprehensive because of all the olive oil in this recipe, but it is definitely not "oily" in the final presentation.  The taste was different for me because my beans are usually in a taco or chili situation, but with the parm cheese, this was very good and filling!  I ate mine with bread and butter and a glass of whole milk.