Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Crockpot - Escarole with Beans

I love escarole!  The only thing I dislike about it is the cleaning of it!  It does take awhile to make sure there's no grit/dirt on the leaves before you start cooking it.  If you don't get it all you'll ruin your entire dish.  I fill up a large stock pot with water and submerge each head of escarole and make like it's a washing machine!  LOL  You need to get all that "stuff" out of there!  Then I take each leaf off and rinse under cold, running water to double check it's all clean. 

You'll need:

3 heads of clean escarole, chopped into bite-sized pieces
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans white beans, drained and rinsed (I used small white beans)
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt

Set crockpot on high and pour enough olive oil on bottom to coat then add the garlic; then the escarole and then sea salt.  You don't need to add any water since the leaves have water on them.  After about 20 minutes check the pot and give it a stir.  When all the escarole is tender add in the beans and stir again.  Cook an additional 10 minutes. 

If you want to make this into a soup you can add in a quart of veggie stock at the beginning of preparation.

Enjoy!
*You can also make this on the stove - cook on medium low until escarole is tender.