I’m always looking for ways to use the odds and ends of things around the house. Whether it be scraps of yarn, give to birds or made into art, pieces of wood in compost, or kitchen scraps made into a meal. There are of course certain things I struggle with. Ham’s bones seem to be one of them. I always seem to end up back at pea soup.
Not that pea soup is a h…
So this isn’t your typical chop everything up and dump it in the crock pot recipe for pea soup that everyone is used to, let’s just get that out in the open right now.
Don’t get me wrong that modern American classic is one of my favorites, but sometimes you just have ham bones lying around needing to be used. Easter definitely just happened over here so you can imagine the oversized hams that have been prepared as of late.
It starts out easy enough; toss the bones with whatever meat they have left right into the crock pot along with some split peas, broth, and spices. Let that go until the peas are soft and the meat is falling off the bone. Then you add in all the other good stuff (the veggies) and clean the bones, dumping the meat back into the crock.
See that’s not so hard and you can now reap the benefits of the “bone broth” that was created while they simmered in the crock. Not to mention the flavor that using bones adds. You’ll never want the easy-chop version again.
In this particular recipe I do not use potatoes because we are still on the “slow carb diet” (notice the use of kidney beans) for the most part, but you can add them in with the rest of the vegetables if you prefer.
To speed up the final steps you can also cook the carrot and beans on the stove top first. If you prefer you can also add them with the rest of the ingredients in the beginning, however i find that these ingredients become too mushy for my taste.
These last few weeks of beautiful weather has really excited me to get outside and spend some time in my gardens and finishing house projects. I mean it was 70 the other day and it was the beginning of March?! Usually we are still buried under piles of snow here in March so this is really weird. Unfortunately one of the side effects of spend so much time breathing in the fresh spring air is that I’ve kind of put cooking on the back burner for a while. It’s that weird time of year when the spring veggies and herbs haven’t quite made their appearance yet and I’m totally not in the mood for more soup so there have been a lot of tossed together last minute dinners lately. What can I say even I just don’t have it in me sometimes to cook a four course meal every night. I’d much rather be drinking wine by our new fire pit (more on that soon), I mean if we are being honest here.
This recipe is one that just keeps popping up in our household, and with good reason, since it’s one of my favorites. I love it because I always have everything for it on hand, it’s super easy to whip up for lunch or dinner and it’s pretty darn healthy too. I also really love that I can swap out ingredients for whatever I have at the time; for example I have used broccoli rabbe, kale, and collard greens instead of spinach. I have also changed the type of beans and even mixed them because I had leftover to use in the fridge.
While this recipe can easily serve four if you are interested in making it go further serving it with a side or pasta or rice is also a great option.
This past weekend I celebrated my 28th birthday. It was a pretty laid back kind of birthday. Sleeping late, with Chuck and Brody, a good breakfast, a trip to the grocery store, 60 degree weather, all came together to make a pretty awesome day for me.
People sometimes thin that I’m crazy for wanting to spend my whole birthday cooking, but when you love to do something then it’s really enjoyable and it doesn’t feel like work at all. Chuck took me to the store (I totally wore sweatpants and slippers, because I could) and we picked up everything I needed to make this dish. I had originally planned to bake bread, and a few other things, but ended up taking a nap on the couch instead; I’m not even mad.
This dish though, it was perfect. A few ingredients combined in a way that’s just divine. I found the original recipe in a recent issue of bon Appetite, but used the beans instead of homemade pasta, because slow carb. Also using beans took a whole bunch of steps out of the recipe, so it came together in less than 30 minutes giving me enough time to toss some arugula in a lemon dijon dressing for a side dish. It’s kind of perfect for a weeknight meal don’t you think? I do.
Having the motivation to come home and cook dinner every night is not always easy. More often than not I really just don’t feel like it. Thankfully meal planning really helps me stay motivated, since I hate to see things go to waste and I don’t have to make a last minute decision on what to make for dinner. But even when I have my week planned to a T there are times where I just don’t have the motivation. Work is draining, especially when you spend an entire day or 3 just crunching numbers in spreadsheets.
These are the days that I fall back to the simple recipes, the ones that take minutes to slap together, and while they don’t feel very exciting they get the job done. On one particular occasion last week I totally threw out my initial dinner plan and just went with a simple 2 part meal and less than 10 ingredients total. It turned out to be a big hit with both Chuck and Lady A (did I mention one of my best friend sis living with us for a while? It’s been a lot of fun having her around). I was totally surprised by this because I never expected beans and greens to really be something that was requested, like ever.
Sometimes the simplest recipes are the ones most well received.
While I know I’ve said this before it continues to surprise me that these simple, rustic, homey recipes are the ones that people really actually want to eat. These are the things that people are craving. Sure complicated and fancy can be fun, but the grass roots simple stuff is what reminds us of home.
So I guess what I’m saying is to not forget those simple recipes that your parents or grandparents made you, sometimes those are the best.
Greens & Beans
About 10 cups packed greens (such as spinach, mustard greens, kale, or broccoli rabe; about 1 pound), thick stems removed, cut into 1-inch strips
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed, drained
1 15-ounce can red kidney beans, rinsed, drained
Salt & pepper to taste
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add greens to the pot and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until wilted slightly (sturdier greens will need 2 to 3 minutes). Remove from heat and drain, reserving about ½ cup of the cooking liquid.
Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and crushed pepper and saute for 1 minutes, until the garlic begins to turn golden. Add the greens, tossing with tongs to coat with oil.
Add the reserved cooking liquid and beans. Simmer, stirring reqularly until beans are heated through and liquid is almost absorbed, about 2 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.
