Here we’ve got beans, broth, fennel and dark leafy greens. All stunning contributors to healthful eating. They combine to make a sweet, creamy, lightly sauced meal. It’s a more constructed way of cooking but I encourage you to break the work down into three segments. 15-20min to assemble this if you have pre cooked or canned beans at the ready. Beans and fennel are a timeless combination. The addition of kombu adds both minerals and depth of flavour to the end result. Just fish it out before serving!
A note on beans: This recipe uses cooked cannellini beans. Which means you are either using canned ones (a quick rinse please before you add them) or soaking dried cannellini beans and then pre cooking. There are pros and cons to canned versus dried beans. With canned beans you get convenience (important!) and usually a higher cost to reflect said convenience. With dried, you get more variety in the types of beans you can purchase, and can control the soaking and cooking processes.
We buy both canned and dried, although if you struggle with digesting beans I would recommend buying dry so you can adequately soak them before cooking.
My personal hurdle with buying dried beans was over the minute I took Tamar Adler’s advice and separated the act of soaking and cooking beans with as she says “today’s hunger”, soaking the little guys in cold water whenever I feel the urge to have a bean dish sometime in the next 2-3 days. Bigger varieties like cannellini and butter beans need a longer soak time, ideally 24 hours. For black beans, overnight is usually enough. When soaking, replace the water with fresh water every 6-8 hours. A small chunk of kombu added to the soaking water helps the breakdown process along. If you don’t have kombu, a 1/4 tsp of baking soda will do the trick. Leave them on the bench while soaking, not in the fridge.
Once they are soaked, drain the water and add them to a pot to cook. When cooking, add all the bits you would if making a chicken or vege broth: fennel ends, celery, onion skins, clove of garlic, leek tops, parsley stems, bay leaf, thyme. Cook until the beans are super tender. The skins of some should have burst open. That’s a lovely sign of doneness. If you’re not ready to add your beans to a dish, leave them bobbing in the broth water and store in the fridge.
Need:
¼ cup EVOO (more or less)
Whole fennel bulb, finely diced
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
One small brown onion, finely diced
1 tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary
2 bay leaves
2-3 cups of chicken broth
2-3 large handfuls of Swiss chard, cavalo nero or kale (or a mix!) - pulled apart or chopped
1 large handful of chopped parsley
3 cups of pre-cooked cannellini beans, or 2 cans of cannellini beans
Half cup grated parmesan (we microplane ours)
One strip kombu (add to pan when you add the broth)
Juice of half a lemon
Black pepper
Sea salt (season to taste at the end)
1 pinch of chilli flakes (optional)
Do:
First, you sweat down the magic trifecta of fennel, garlic and onion with rosemary and lots of olive oil until they combine and soften into sweetness. 6-8 minutes of cooking time. That’s segment one.
Then, you stir in the kale or cavalo nero and bay leaf, letting them soften for a minute or two before adding the cooked cannellini beans, a strip of kombu and chicken broth. Continue to cook on moderate heat for 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Here you’re wanting to reduce the liquid down to create a creamy consistency. You can add more broth if you need. That’s segment two.
Then, for segment three we’re finishing the dish. We’re fishing out the kombu and bay leaf and discarding before adding chopped parsley, juice of half a lemon and parmesan. Stir lightly then serve. We like to add a little glug of olive oil and some cracked pepper on top. Chilli flakes are also a nice addition.
Notes from video:
I mention adding a squeeze of lemon when soaking beans. Please ignore this! I was thinking about oats. Kombu and cold water is the magic combination for soaking beans.
Brand for the kombu is Pacific Harvest.
We use a shallow Le Creuset cast iron casserole dish. It has a lid, perfect for cooking saucy beans.
I need to set a reminder for next video to film landscape not portrait!!
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