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.

Recipe: Chicken and Corn Crockpot Chili

***UPDATE***
I ended up not liking this recipe!  Maybe I don't like pinto beans or chicken with beans and these spices, but I ended up throwing this away.  It wasn't worth the precious space in my freezer, unfortunately!  Let me know if you try it and like it.  Maybe I'm just picky!

Photo Credit

It's finally starting to feel like November here in St. Louis, and I'm continuing my brave quest of trying new recipes, cooking at home, trying to cook in a nourishing fashion, and tweaking recipes to make them more nourishing.  I adore crockpot cooking.  Today I tried and tweaked something from the internet.  It's still cooking...so I guess I'll find out later if it is super awesome.

I started with a recipe from here.  Here's what I ended up doing:

1 frozen package of free-range, pastured, local chicken (2 legs, 2 thighs)
2 c. frozen homemade chicken bone broth
1 pkg. dry pinto beans
2 -15 ou. jars of salsa (I used mild)
3 ears frozen sweet corn (picked and prepared in season)
1 small can of tomato paste (I added halfway through to thicken a bit)

All spices to taste (I like a LOT of spice: me-ow):
Cumin
Chili Powder
Garlic Powder
Black Pepper
Salt

Directions:
1.  Prepare your beans.  Either soak overnight or prepare the quick cook way.  Don't forget to rinse and pick out the rocks!
2.  Put frozen chicken and broth in your crockpot on high.  Cook until chicken is done enough to pick off the bone.
3.  Pick chicken off of bones (I hate this part, but worth it).  Discard the bones, skin, fat.  Return shredded chicken to the crockpot for additional cooking.
4.  Add drained beans, spices, salsa, tomato paste, and corn to the crockpot.  Continue cooking on high/low (your preference) until done and ready to serve.

I plan on serving mine with cheese, tortilla chips, and sour cream.  I am trying to add homemade broth to as many recipes as possible, so I'm hoping it works nicely here.  The original recipe also says to use more chicken, and boneless, skinless breasts.  However, I used less chicken to frugal it up, and thighs/legs are less expensive as well.  Plus, bone-in cooking is more nutritious!  Let me know what you think!  Do you have a better spin on Mexican Chicken Chili?  I want to know about it!