Greens & Beans Italian Style

I don’t know about you but I’ve been eating so much damn bread and pasta that it was high time to switch it up and go for something less gluten stuffed. Though I kneel in praise to the gluten gods, my body wanted something packed with protein and all the vitamins in the alphabet. So I present a dish that is an easy staple to have in your dish toolbox. It calls for swiss chard, beans, and canned tomatoes. But you can easily switch out the greens for other hearty ones, you can add sausage if you want, and even pasta if you’re feeling like a bad girl. I like to eat it with stale sourdough bread, a bit of parmesan cheese and a little spritz of olive oil. It’s a comfort dish, made from your pantry and is rooted in techniques and ingredients that we hopefully are all familiar with or will soon be. Enjoy. SERVES: 2-4

COOKS IN: 30 min

INGREDIENTS

• 1 bunch of swiss chard, de-stemmed and chopped into bite-size little chunks. I also dice the stems up fry them

• 1 can of crushed tomatoes (or diced fresh tomatoes if you have them)

• 1 can of beans of your choice, make sure you rinse those bad boys (I used cannellini beans but use whatever you have)

• 3 cloves of garlic

• 1 spoonful of both butter and olive oil

• Pinch of red pepper flakes or chilli flakes

• 2-3 cups chicken or veggie broth *optional - stale bread and grated parmesan cheese *optional - adding in some sausage.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Fill a pot with salted water and bring to a boil.

2. Blanche the swiss chard leaves (not the diced stems) for a hot minute and then drain out the liquid and remove the chard and set aside to cool down.

3. In that same pot, heat up olive oil and a dollop of butter and fry garlic and chilli pepper flakes on medium heat until fragrant. Add in the diced swiss chard stems. In this step, you’re basically imparting both the garlic and chilli to the oil which will then flavour everything else we chuck into this pot. *if you wanted to add sausage this is when you’d fry up those up. Just add the to the garlic oil and brown all sides before you add the rest of the ingredients. I usually just cut the sausages in chunks so they’re like little sausage meatballs.

4. Add in beans, stir so the beans are covered in that garlic oil.

5. Add in chicken broth and let this simmer for a few minutes.

6. Add in the can of crushed tomatoes and stir.

7. Simmer this for 15-20 min on low. You want those beans to suck up all the tomatoes and garlic oil goodness.

8. Finally, add in the swiss chard leaves when a lot of the liquid has boiled out. You want it to be a bit drier than a stew.

9. Finish with salt and pepper to taste. *Serve with stale bread and grated parmesan cheese if you wish.