Fast White Bean, Chorizo, and Hearty Greens Stew

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Serves

4

Fast White Bean, Chorizo, and Hearty Greens Stew

(Photo: Leanne Brown)

TL;DR: Sauté vegetables, then chorizo and tomato paste. Add beans and water and cook until thickened and flavorful. Add greens and eat.

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 shallots , chopped
  • 1 bell pepper , stemmed, seeded, and chopped
  • 1 teaspoon fine sea salt , plus extra as needed
  • 5 ounces fresh chorizo sausage , or other sausage, casing removed
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 2 cans (15½ ounces each) white beans , or chickpeas
  • Handfuls of hearty greens, such as spinach , kale, chard, or collards
  • farro , pasta, rice, or hearty bread, for serving

Instructions

  1. Melt the butter in a medium pot over medium-high heat. Add the shallots, bell pepper, and ½ teaspoon of the salt to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until the shallots are translucent, 3 to 5 minutes.
  2. Add the chorizo and tomato paste, using a wooden spoon to break up the chorizo. Cook until the chorizo is cooked through and beginning to brown, another 3 minutes. Then add the beans, 1½ cups of water, and the remaining ½ teaspoon of salt. Put a lid on the pot and let it cook for about 10 minutes.
  3. Taste the stew and add more salt if you think it needs it. Squish a few of the beans with the back of the spoon to thicken the broth. Turn off the heat, add the greens, and stir them into the stew until wilted.
  4. Dollop the stew into bowls over farro, pasta, or rice, or serve with bread for dunking.

Feeling adventurous?

  • Use any sausage, ground meat, or meat alternative in place of the chorizo in Step 2. Try sweet Italian sausage, finished with parmesan or romano, for a different experience, or lamb sausage with harissa, coriander, and fennel seed for a North African take on the dish.
  • Add chile powder and/or chopped chiles along with the chorizo in Step 2.

It has taken maturity to embrace the glorious simplicity of this kind of dinner. My inner critic is prone to telling me that it’s not creative enough or new enough or whatever overachieving mark you might expect from a perfectionist fantasy. But this stew is made of pantry staples, comes together in 20 minutes, and is delicious, nourishing, and balanced. It’s a dream of a meal—fun to make, fun to eat, and proof that simple is wonderful. Like all stews, it gets better with a few days in the fridge. It also works well as a side dish for a larger barbecue meal and as a potluck dish.

Excerpted from Good Enough: A Cookbook by Leanne Brown, illustrations by Allison Gore. Workman Publishing © 2022

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