This stew is a riff on a dish from the February 2014 Bon Appetit magazine. The original appealed to me for its simplicity, and one look at the photo in the magazine and I knew I had to make it to bring skiing a few weekends back. We've had more than our fair share of cold weather here in the Northeast this winter, so I am very happy to have another dish like this in my repertoire to be able to be able to toss in my fridge or freezer for a quick and easy meal when the next Arctic Vortex heads our way.
Of course as good as the original recipe looked I couldn't leave well enough alone and modified the dish in a few ways, but not to worry it's still a breeze to put together. Rather than use dried beans cooked in water I used canned and added chicken stock to the mix. I also crisped up some chunks of chorizo, added some diced tomato and a few carrots I had lying about, and tweaked the pepper quotient to add a little more kick. The amount of stock in this recipe makes for a fairly thick "stew" of beans and greens, if you would like more of a "soup" just add more stock or water.
The recipe calls for tossing a parmesan rind into the pot, and if you don't already, I highly recommend you get in the habit of storing left-over cheese rinds in a zip-lok in your freezer for just such an occasion. I always have about a half dozen of various sizes ready to fortify whatever type of soup or stew I have on the stove. It is a great trick to add huge amounts of flavor from a scrap that would otherwise be thrown in the trash. Stay warm!
Cheers – Steve
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 links chorizo sausage, roughly chopped
- 4 anchovy filets
- 1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
- 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1 large onion, thinly sliced
- 4 celery stalks, finely chopped
- 4 carrots, finely chopped
- 2 sprigs rosemary
- 1 parmesan rind (optional)
- 3 cans (15.5 ounce) white beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes with their juice
- 5 cups low-sodium chicken stock
- 1 bunch kale, ribs removed and coarsely chopped
- 1 bunch flat-leaf spinach, trimmed and coarsely chopped
- 4 cups arugula
- 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat a couple tablespoons of the oil in the bottom of a medium dutch oven set over medium-high heat. Add the chorizo and cook, stirring occasionally until well browned, remove from the pan and reserve.
- Add the rest of the oil to the pot and lower the heat to medium. Toss in the anchovies, pepper flakes and garlic, stirring occasionally until the garlic is golden and the anchovies have dissolved.
- Add the onion, celery, carrot, and rosemary and season with salt and pepper. Increase heat slightly, and cook until the onion is nicely caramelized, about 10 minutes.
- Lower heat to medium-low, add stock and parmesan rind and simmer for about 30 minutes to extract some good flavor from the rind. Add the beans and tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes. At this point you can smash some of the beans for a creamier stew, or leave them as-is, your choice.
- Add the chorizo and all of the greens and cook until wilted, about 7-8 minutes. Add the lemon juice and taste for seasoning, adding more lemon juice, salt, or pepper as needed.
- Spoon stew into warmed bowls and top with crumbled goat cheese and a fresh drizzle of EVOO if you wish.