Dark Days: White Bean Stew

I often see a recipe on one of the many food blogs I regularly follow and think, "oh! I should make that right now."  Generally I don't have the ingredients though, so sloth takes over until the next time I go to the grocery store because I'm very nearly out of food all together.  This doesn't usually apply to baking actually, because I tend to keep a basically fully-stocked pantry of non-perishable baking ingredients on hand.  So in that case, it's usually a lack of butter or eggs that holds me back.  These days, with an abundance of butter and eggs, it's been self control. I know, ridiculous.


So when I saw this white bean stew on Smitten Kitchen, I knew that it would make a perfect meals for my Dark Days challenge. Part of my self-challenge for Dark Days is getting more non-meat protein into my diet, so this meal looked like an easy and delicious way to do so.  I altered the recipe a little, starting with dried white navy beans, which I soaked overnight and threw in my trusty pressure cooker to cook up.  I put in 3 cups of liquid per cup of navy beans, which were the cooking recommendations that I found online, and threw in a sliced onion. Half of my liquid was actually vegetable stock, which I hoped there would be just enough left of to cook the stew with.





I declined to clean out my trusty pressure cooker after this and just threw in the garlic, since my onions had already been added in with the onions.  I also skipped the pre-cook of the chard, so after I had added my beans, tomatoes, and all the rest of the liquid, I put in the raw chard.  I served the stew with thick sliced, toasted bread that I had made using the King Arthur Flour no-knead bread recipe.  Incidentally, this bread has become a staple in my house, since one of my roommates loves it, and thus I get to keep making it every few days.





The stew was a huge hit with my roommates and myself.  Even the boy acceded that it was delicious, and he tends to be a meat-give-me-meat-in-my-food kinda guy.  I took Deb's tip and rubbed the toasted bread with garlic when serving the stew, and it was a great addition.  As the bread got all soaked in stew it really added a nice bite of garlic to the last few bites.





White Bean and Chard Stew, adapted from Smitten Kitchen
makes 6-ish servings


1 pound Swiss chard
1 cup chopped carrots (I left this out because I had taken all my carrots to my horse earlier that day)
3 stems chopped celery
1 medium onion, sliced or chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 cups cooked white beans (about 2 cans if you're using canned)
2 cups vegetable broth/leftover bean cooking liquid
1 28 oz. can tomatoes (I used whole, chopped them, and threw everything in the pot)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
pinch crushed red peppers
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar


Saute the onions, celery, carrots, and garlic in a few tablespoons of olive oil.  Add drained white beans and allow to heat through for a moment, then add tomatoes, vegetable broth, and bay leaf.  Simmer for 20 minutes, and clean your chard leaves. To do so, cut the ribs and stems out of the chard leaves (I just aimed to cut out anything that looked tough), and give them a rough chop if you feel necessary.  Add the chard into the stew and mix it in thoroughly, taste test, and add salt, pepper, and crushed red peppers.  Allow to simmer another 10 minutes or so until the chard is wilted. Salt and pepper to taste if there's anything missing, and serve over thick toasted bread that you've rubbed with raw garlic.