Food 4 Friday :: White Bean Soup with Kale and Winter Squash

We had this soup this week while a friend came over to discuss some business ideas. Serve with toasted sourdough and a peppery olive oil. Oh, so good!

This simple, flexible soup is better the next day. Just add a few more handfuls of kale to brighten it up.

2 cups white beans. Cover with water and cook until tender.

Then add extra water.

one chopped butternut squash or other winter squash. maybe even canned pumpkin in a pinch

one sweet onion

4-6 large chopped carrots

3 stalks celery

1 Tsp herbs de provence

salt and pepper

one HUGE bunch of assorted kale (dinosaur, curly blue, red russian, etc. ) 

any green would work here. kale, collards, chard, bok choy, spinach. fresh or frozen

Basic Black Beans and Chilaquiles

We bought epazote to put in the garden this week but I was pleasantly surprised today when I found a volunteer plant in the strawberry/asparagus bed to harvest from for this. This is a basic bean recipe revised from Rick Bayless (LOVE him) that every mexican household always has brewing. I put the beans in the slow cooker this morning and added the onion when we got back from the garden.

Basic Black Beans:
3 cups dried black beans
7 cups water
cook on low in slow cooker 6 hours or until tender
saute
1 onion
2 Tsps olive oil until golden brown
add to beans with
1 spring epazote
1 tsp salt
cook on low 1 hour

remove half of the beans for Gracie and other meals

Chilaquiles:
add 2 chipotle chiles in adobe (which I always have in the freezer) diced
remove epazote sprig
bend with immersion blened to make it a bit soupy
add 8 corn tortillas cut into pieces (I LOVE the TJ's handmade tortillas and try to have them in the freezer)
cover and cook until tender

serve with creme fraiche/sour cream/yogurt drizzled over
crumbled feta
diced avocado

Almost Pantry Pasta

We have been battling naps lately (and whether or not they are going away forever or hopefully NOT) so when Gracie took a late nap today and was still asleep at 6 pm with nothing, I mean nothing, not even milk, in the fridge...I had to get creative. Good practice right?
So I started a new category--almost pantry--to collect last minute meals that can be made from pantry items, with maybe an onion or frozen vegetable thrown in for fun...and nutrition. Here is what we are attempting tonight with frozen spinach, garbanzo beans and olives.

Almost Pantry Pasta:
saute
1/2 red onion
2 cloves garlic
1/2 bell pepper
add
dried basil and oregano s+p
1/2 bag frozen spinach
one can of olives
2 cans garbanzo beans
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

toss with
whole wheat fettucini (Gracie loves the "long" noodles)
olive oil
grana if you have it in the freezer

On another note, this family HATES plastic, so indeed I started another category for this soapbox.
Canned goods are lined with a plastic coating that contains  bisphenol A  which we have tried to keep out of our household as well as other plastics. Eden brand canned goods is the only brand to date that does NOT contain BPA so stock up and send a message to other canning companies. I stock up when it is on sale at the market on goodies like the above items that we always try to have on hand.