Cat's Garlicky Kale with White Beans and Tomatoes

Serves 4-8
Vegan

I recently created this dish for a potluck at my friend Cat's house. Not only is this dish immaculately healthy, but it is also just about as traditionally Italian as you can get. Make up a double batch, and eat it all week with some pasta, potatoes, quinoa or brown rice. The grains will soak up all the liquid from the greens… mother’s milk.

olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 head of garlic, cleaned and chopped
3 bunches of kale, stripped of the hard stalks and chopped (or, you can cheat and buy the
pre-washed, pre-chopped kale in the bag from your grocery store. Kale is a bitch to clean, so make things easy on yourself)
1 box of veggie stock (in a pinch, you could use water (boring), or white wine (delicious)
1 ½ -2 lbs of tomatoes
1 can of white cannellini or butter beans
salt and pepper
dried oregano
dried basil

Heat up some olive oil in the bottom of a large skillet or pot over medium heat (keep in mind, it needs to be big enough to fit all of the kale inside). Throw in your onion and garlic. Cook them until they begin to brown.

While the onion and garlic cook, chop up your tomatoes and rinse the beans under water in a colander.

When the onion and garlic begin to brown, throw in the kale and the tomatoes. Cover everything with about a cup of stock and a few more drizzles of olive oil. The point of the stock is to create steam that will help cook the kale, so the amount doesn’t really matter. Stir your kale around in the pot for a few minutes while it cooks down. Add more stock if it begins to evaporate.

After a few minutes, taste some of the kale. If it is tender, throw in the beans, a bunch of salt, pepper, oregano and dried basil. Be liberal with these seasonings. Allow everything to cook for another minute or so.

TASTE IT! By now, the tomatoes should be pretty broken down and the kale should be tender. Keep adding seasonings until you like the way it tastes.

Have some leftovers? Cover them with veggie stock and re-season with salt and pepper, throw in some pasta (cooked or dry) and drizzle in some egg for an awesome Italian wedding soup.