Monday, October 12, 2009

Braised Greens and Pinto Beans

Sunday night, after finishing off my creamy cheezy sauce from last week with some pasta for dinner last night, I made up some greens and beans for me and J to eat Monday.

The photo is in my sunny office window looking out over midtown Manhattan. The waffle building...what a wonderful morning sight.
I had meant to make up some bulgar or barley this morning to have a full meal, but ended up making smoothies with J and changing lots of diapers. :P

Ingredients
1 large bunch organic greens from the farmers' market (can't remember the name of these ones)
1 medium yellow onion
2 large cloves garlic
2 cans organic pinto beans
salt & pepper
olive oil
apple cider vinegar

What to do
First, wash the greens and shake off the water. Then, cut out the middle hard stem. Place a few leaves together and roll up. Repeat until the bunch of greens is all rolled up into various rolls and all the stems are in the compost bag. Slice the rolled greens thinly (like slicing a zucchini) and then cut the slices in half or quarter (depending on the size and how large you like your pieces of green).
Chop the onion. I tried using a method I saw on a blog a few weeks ago, which worked relatively well. Slice off the top of the onion. Peel away the outside of the onion as you normally would, but don't cut off the end/bottom of the onion. Slice carefully down towards to the end, being careful not to cut through the end. Then, do the same thing perpendicularly. The end should still be on, and the onion have grid-shaped cuts. Then, slice parallel to the end of the onion, giving you a nice small dice of the onion.
Mince the garlic.
Heat a deep pan that has a cover. Once warm, add the olive oil and let that warm up before adding the onion. (Medium high heat)
Add the onion and saute for approximately three minutes, until getting translucent and soft.
Add the garlic and saute for another minute or so. The onion and garlic should be wonderfully fragrant.
Add the greens, mix, and cover. Reduce the heat to medium low. The greens are going to need approximately ten minutes to cook. During this time, stir to make sure that they don't burn or scorch. Add a little water if needed. At about the seven- or eight-minute mark, add a splash of apple cider vinegar (it takes away the bitterness - if any - of the greens).
While the greens are cooking, rinse the beans in a colander in the sink. Pick out any that look suspicious (like really dark or small or anything).
After the ten minutes are up, add the beans. Add a little bit of salt and pepper. Cook, uncovered, for 3-5 minutes.

Update: I ate the braised greens and pinto beans for lunch today with some saffron rice, long broccoli flower-things, and pea pods (thanks to my friendly cafeteria for not putting any animal products in them today). Very yummy. I ate it cold, and don't think that the temperature made any difference to the taste. I think that I might add a little more pepper next time, but I'm very judicious with it when making food for J after that first cheezy quackers attempt.

2 comments:

  1. This recipe looks great, especially because I think I have all of these ingredients at home!

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  2. Lynn -- that's exactly why I made this last night! I based it on a recipe that called for kidney beans and romaine, but not having those, sub'ed in the greens and pinto beans. :) And added more onion b/c J and I love onion!

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