Beans & Greens

When a co-worker brought me fresh rainbow chard and arugula from her garden, I knew exactly what I was going to do with it: there's a recipe for Italian Beet Greens and White Beans in Gil Mark's Olive Trees and Honey cookbook that I've been wanting to make for a while now. Unfortunately, even combining the arugula and chard, I had nowhere near the two pounds of greens called for in the recipe. And so, I tweaked things a bit, while attempting to stay true to the original.

While you can use broth in place of the water in the recipe, the greens, sautéed onion, beans and tomatoes create their own broth while simmering.

Although the beans take some time to cook, I suspect that you can sautée the onions, toss them with the greens, and then transfer everything to a slow cooker to simmer during the day, while you're at work (or gardening... or hiking...).

Ingredients
3/4 cup dried Great Northern or cannellini beans, picked over, soaked for 8 hours, and drained
4 cups greens, washed and chopped (if using beet greens or chard, tear the green portion of the leaves from the center veins before chopping)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 yellow onion, washed and chopped
ground black pepper to taste
1 and 3/4 cup chopped tomato (or 1 14 ounce can chopped tomato, of the no-salt-added variety)
3 and 1/2 cups hot water
1 teaspoon salt

Heat the olive oil in a large pot, over medium heat.
Add the onions and sautée about 5 minutes, until soft.
Remove from heat and stir in the greens and pepper.
Remove half the greens from the pot, and place in a bowl.
Pour the beans over the greens remaining in the pot, and top with the greens from the bowl.
Spread the tomatoes over the beans and greens mixture.
Pour the hot water over the greens, beans and tomatoes.
Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer (for me, this was medium-low).
Cook the beans, without stirring, for an hour.
After an hour, add the salt and simmer, uncovered, another 30 minutes.
Serve warm, with slices of fresh multi-grain bread.

Serves 4-5.