Dinner Thursday: White Bean, Kale and Sweet Potato Stew with Bacon

Every Thursday I post a recipe I’ve successfully made during the week using non-processed, grocery store ingredients.

In the past I’ve said that dried beans never work out for me — I either don’t have enough time to soak them when they are needed, or I do it in advance and they end up rotting in the fridge because I don’t need them.  However, over the weekend I learned a new tidbit from Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.  You can use a quick-soak method to prepare the beans and then freeze them, which takes all the pressure off.  Voila!  Non-canned beans available when you need them.

The quick-soak method works like this: cover the beans with water in a pot, boil for two minutes, then turn off the heat and leave the beans on the stove soaking for another couple of hours.  When the beans are tender, add a little salt and turn the heat back up and cook for another 15-30 minutes depending on how soft you want them.  Portion out into tupperware and freeze for up to 3 months.  This was an easy thing to do while Baby Bee was napping on Sunday, and still left me lots of time for email, blogging, spending time with Papa Bee etc.

I used the first tupperware of beans to make the following.  Don’t feel at all bad if you use canned; I think high-quality canned beans are just fine for most things. You can make this meal vegetarian by leaving out the bacon, and substituting olive oil.  Veggie sausage would also be a good addition, as would chicken, turkey or pork sausage if you want to something a little different.

Fry the bacon until crisp uncovered in a deep skillet with a lid.  Remove bacon and set aside.  Add the onion and saute in bacon fat until just getting soft.  Add the sweet potato and saute with onions for another 10 minutes or so, adding some olive oil or bean liquid if the pan gets dry.  Add the beans, then 1 cup of bean liquid and salt.  Bring to a boil, cover, then turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.  Add the kale, and cover again, simmering for another 10-15 minutes, until the kale is just wilted/softened.  Chop or rip the bacon into small pieces, turn off the heat, and add bacon to the pan.  Serve over brown rice.

Other white bean recipes that I want to try:

• White Beans and Sausage from Simply Recipes.
• Root Vegetable, White Bean and Breadcrumb Gratin from Culinate.
• Cannellini Bean Yam Hummus from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan.
• Asparagus and White Bean Pesto Tart from CookThink.