Locavore: AHHH! NO MORE GREENS!!!

Spring... the lovely green color comes back into everything. What I didn't realize about eating local is that this also applies to your food. We eat a lot of greens, and I mean A LOT. Currently in our fridge we have 4 types of lettuce, spinach, chard, kale, and bok choy.

But, while inconvenient, necessity is truly the mother of invention. I've never been very good at cooking with greens before, but I'm actually becoming quite proficient. Here is one of my favorite recipes lately adapted from the italian dish website, I make it in the crockpot.

• 1 cup dried cannellini or cellini beans or any combination of beans you like.
• 1/2-1/4 pound local ground sausage, turkey or pork
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced (I like garlic a lot, feel free to dial this down)
• 1 quart jar tomatoes
• 6 to 8 cups water
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and pepper 
• 4-8 cups chopped greens (how green can you go?)
• grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese 

Instructions:

If using dried beans, place them in a pot, cover with cold water and let soak for several hours or overnight. Drain.

In a large pot, brown the sausage.  Remove from pot.  If there is a lot of fat left in the pot, pour this out but do not wipe out pot.  Add onion, and saute for 2-3 minutes until soft.  Add garlic and saute about a minute more.  Add the tomatoes, 6 cups of the chicken broth, thyme, bay leaf, some salt and pepper, the drained beans and the sausage and cover the pot. Cook for an hour over low heat, at a gentle simmer or for 4-6 hours on high in a crockpot.

If using dried beans, check for doneness at this point.  (If using canned beans, add the greens now.)  If the beans are not soft enough, cover the pot again and cook for another 30 minutes or until the beans are soft. Add the greens and cook, uncovered, until the greens are tender and wilted, but not dead looking and army green (no vegetable should ever be cooked to army green. Yuck!).  Check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper to taste.  If the soup is too thick for your liking, you can add more water.

Serve with grated cheese on top and an extra drizzle of olive oil.