Simple Cooking: White Bean and Collard Green Soup
By Melissa Wiley in Food on Feb 20, 2014 5:15PM
If you’ve spent 10 minutes in the Deep South, then you’ve had collard greens cooked in bacon—just enough to no longer survive life peaceably in the North Country without them.
Fortunately you don’t have to, not when there’s white bean and collard green soup to be made fast as you can sing “Dixie Chicken.” I’ve cobbled the following recipe together for a bowl of somethin’ somethin’ that makes enough to fill a whole Dutch oven. Because quantity isn't a shallow thing here—more is more and that's all there is to it.
Ingredients:
4 slices of bacon, chopped
ΒΌ cup of olive oil
2 cups of onion, diced
12 cups of chicken stock
5 16-ounce cans of navy beans
8 cups of collard greens, chopped
1 16-oz can of diced tomatoes
1 Tablespoon of chili flakes
1 Tablespoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
Directions:
Heat stovetop to medium high eat and add olive oil, salt and onions to soup pot, stirring for a few minutes, until all the onions are coated and softened in oil. Add in bacon and cook until browned. Then add chili flakes and thyme and continue cooking and stirring for another five minutes.
Add chicken stock, navy beans, tomatoes and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for one hour. Then add collard greens, thickly chopped, to the pot and cook on low heat another 45 minutes.