spicy beans and wilted greens stew
February 17, 2014 § 85 Comments
It is windy, cold and raining buckets and as you can imagine a spicy chickpea stew is perfect for this type of weather. Each spoonful unites the earthy nutty sweetness of chickpeas and spunky soulful taste of mustard greens, heat from the chile’s and rounding out the whole, a subtle undertone of rosemary. This stew is a breeze to make and keeps well for several days in the refrigerator. I suppose in the spirit of beans ‘n greens, swapping the ingredients and using white beans, kale. collard greens or chard would be just as effective in producing a delicious cold night vegetarian stew.
You may save cooking time by using chickpeas in a can. Two 15 ounce cans shall be equivalent to 1 pound dried and soaked chickpeas. We served our stew with a baguette, which when dunked was out of this world.
I n g r e d i e n t s
- ¼ cup olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- 2 jalapeño chiles, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic thinly sliced
- 1 large onion, thinly sliced
- 4 celery stalks, finely chopped
- 1 sprig rosemary
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 parmesan rind, plus grated parmesan for serving
- 1 pound dried chickpeas, soaked overnight, drained
- 1 bunch kale or mustard greens, ribs and stems removed, leaves coarsely chopped
- 1 bunch large flat-leaf spinach, trimmed, coarsely chopped
- 4 cups trimmed arugula, divided
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
M e t h o d
Heat olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Cook chiles and garlic, stirring occasionally, until garlic is soft, about 4 minutes. Add onion, celery and rosemary sprig. Increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is very soft and golden brown, 8–10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add Parmesan rind, chickpeas and 10 cups water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally and adding more water as needed, until beans soften up, 3–4 hours.
Lightly crush some beans to give stew a creamy consistency. Mix in mustard greens, spinach, and half of arugula; Taste, season with salt and pepper if needed. Cook until greens are wilted, 5–8 minutes. Toss in remaining arugula with lemon juice. Divide stew among bowls and top with arugula, freshly grated parmesan and a drizzle of oil.
COTTAGE GROVE HOUSE 
A lovely dish. 😉 MMMMMMM! Xxx
Hey, thank you Sophie. Nice to hear from you today.
I will make this this evening! Yumm!
Great! Can’t wait to hear how it goes.
Beans and greens are a favorite of mine and I like your combination. :)
Beans and greens are a “new” favorite of ours, especially love the mustard greens in this one. Tastes so healthy and earthy. And the vitamin C in the chile’s are much needed these days.
This looks delicious!
Thank you, it really is delicious and great textures too. Love the spiciness on a cold winter night.
Perfect dish for this time of year. The combinations are also a favorite of mine.
Thank you Jovina. It really is a great pot of beans for the winter. Love the wilted greens…
That looks delicious, and sounds healthy, too. A win-win! :-)
:) …indeed, a win-win.
Mmm looks lovely and warming!
Two perfect words to describe this chickpea stew Natalia. Thank you….
This stew looks fabulous. Perfect for winter!
Thank you. It is perfect for winter. Thank you for stopping by and leaving me a comment today…
Of course! Love your blog. :)
Just delicious. So nutritious for the cold season – and comforting for the cold weather itself. :-) I love your photos – and the fabulous use of the parm rind, too.
Thanks Shanna…loving chickpeas these days! They were my favorite as a kid and I’ve sort of rediscovered them lately. I’m making abgoosht from Azita’s blog today! Can’t wait to try it! Just came home with lamb shoulder… :)
Oh my gosh, Seana, do keep me posted! ! ! ! ! :-) I love lamb – and anything you make, obviously.
Oh yum! Just my kind of bowl. I love adding greens to my dried beans while making stew :). Yours look so warm and inviting :).
I would think you would love this! :) Greens (mustard in particular) are so wonderful in beans. I’ll have to try this stew using white beans too. Just love the texture of chickpeas though.
This would go very well with black eyes beans even! What a day, I posted black bean soup today :). It indeed is super cold outside to keep us warm with some soulful soups :).
Yes! I always forget about black eyed, well, we call them “peas”. But you are right, I’ll have to try it too Black bean soup sounds lovely.
This looks fabulous, Seana.. I’m a beans and greens kind of girl to begin with, and this combination sounds wonderful! I know that my girls and I will love it. Mike.. well, you know.. Mr Finicky. He can eat peanut butter. :-) As always… I love everything about your presentation. It’s always so inviting!! <3
Hey there! You went MIA on us for a few days! See, I noticed…glad to see you here today Prudy. Yes, just give Mike a spoonful of peanut butter and serve up some chickpeas ‘n greens for the gals! :) Welcome back…
Thank you Seana! I feel the love.. :-) Yep.. computer problems!! My oldest daughter and I are going to the Apple store in a little while to hopefully take care of that problem.
I need to get back on track here!! I can see on my phone that I have 302 emails, meaning that I have a lot of blogs that I need to catch up on!! I just don’t have the eyes anymore to read them all on that little phone!
Hopefully tonight I’ll get it all set up, and maybe start catching up with everyone.. <3
Hope all is well with you..
Oh no! Hope you get a brand new MacBook Pro! :) I just got one a few months ago and I’m so happy I can hardly stand it. I’m actually off work all week for mid-winter break, so I’m feeling pretty good right now. Sorry to hear you had computer problems, but happy to hear you are going to get a new one. Looking for your next post!
Looks divine!
Thank you Jess!
Magic. Effing magic.
:) I thought so too. Thank you.
That looks warming without being heavy :) nice!
That’s true Elaine. It wasn’t heavy at all. Something about chickpeas, they are so lovely and work so well in so many recipes! Love them!
Me too :))
Beautiful looking soup, love greens and beans
Thank you Cheri. It going to be on high rotation ’round here. So many different beans and greens to use in different combinations. Thank you for stopping in and for your nice comment.
How did you know I have a thing for mustard greens at the moment? :-)
This sounds like a great stew to leave bubbling on the stove top for a while and fill the kitchen with warmth and good smells.
You too? I can not get enough mustard greens myself. When I saw the recipe for this (which was completely different from what I actually made) I knew right away I was going to use mustard greens and chickpeas. And it was on the stove for over 2 hours! Heavenly scents.
Another fabulous dish Seana, no fuss prep, great flavours and textures, can’t wait for the weather to cool down so I can try this!
Thank you Sandra. So interesting reading blogs from different climates and parts of the country. We’re waiting for it to warm up and you are waiting for it to cool down. :) Must be “end of the season” syndrome.
Never occurred to me to pair chickpeas with mustard green. Will do so when my mustard greens are ready come spring.
Hope your snow doesn’t take forever to melt so you can get started on your greens! I think I’ll plant mustard greens this season…haven’t grown them before. Great idea, thank you.
I love the addition of the Parmesan rind. My Nonna taught me to save the rinds and use them in soups. They add a wonderful flavour boost. The soup looks so delicious I can almost taste it.
I just started saving the rinds myself and I can not believe how many I have tossed in the garbage! The Parmesan flavor really did come through, it was wonderful. :)
Lovely. The chickpeas are a great stew ingredient.
I love chickpeas in anything, especially hearty soups! Looks great!
What a gorgeous looking stew Seana! Reading through your list of ingredients I can imagine how flavourful this must be and lovely that it keeps well for a few days too…
Thank you. It really is a wonderful vegetarian stew. Very kind comment…
Wonderful! We have some tough-guy spinach still growing in the garden and, whilst edible, it is a little strong and I’ve been wondering how best to use it. This looks perfect, so thank you!
I think your stew is perfect for this inclement weather, I really love bitter greens, grew up on them and my Mom made stews or soups all the time with greens and beans, it was always one of my favorite things to eat. The addition of jalapeno’s is really nice, giving a bit of a bite. I would love to dunk a hunk of bread in right now.
This was one of those very warming meals, the kind you never want to end and the leftovers for lunch the next day was fabulous. I always think of pinto’s and collard greens when I think of greens and beans for some reason, which I adore too. The spicy jalapeño was what really made this special. Nice to hear from you tonight Suzanne.
What a perfect stoup! I love spicy, I love chickpeas, and I love soup! Yumm!
Thank you kindly…I love spicy chickpea soup too!
This looks really good and sounds so healthy–so many great ingredients!
Such a lovely winter dish! I love the fact that you added trimmed arugula, nice touch! :-)
Thank you Serena. I thought it would be really good to have some uncooked greens too. And it was. :) We are really enjoying stews like this one these past few weeks. Looking forward to Spring though!
I love stews! Perfect for this weather…:-)
Delicious….I have to do this:)
:) Well, I hope it’s half as good as your toad in the hole! Great story!
Yummy!
:)
Oh my, how gorgeous. I always want to jump through the screen and grab a pot of whatever you’ve got cooking. Beans and greens…a hearty meal it does make, and so perfect for the cold weather!
haha. Wish I could cook a pot just for you Ngan! :) I would.
I’m finally making my blog rounds! How interesting we had something similar in mind. I LOVE your soup too. The cheese! The cheese! Looks truly delicious!
It is interesting..but I made your recipe last night and it was very different than this. It was fantastic! All of us around the table couldn’t quit sighing and making “loving this food” sounds with your abgoosht. I think I heard someone say “this is soul food”. I thought so too. :)
yes, please! Gorgeous :-)
Nice combination. Haven’t had rosemary all winter. And tried to buy a pot of it last week at the superstore – they had run out. Also like the arugula (rocket) to add that peppery note. Just might be making soup tomorrow evening!
Sounds nice, healthy and comforting!!!!
Omg this is so beautiful. This is my kind of stew. The jalapenos are such a great idea in this. Perfect for this time of year. Beautiful post.
Hi Amanda. This really is a perfect winter stew. We actually added a little more heat by serving it with uncooked minced jalapeños, as well as fresh arugula. It is a nice fresh stew even though it actually simmered on the stove for a few hours. :)
I haven’t seen a chickpea soup before, this looks really yummy. Reminds me a bit of Greek wedding soup with the textures involved.
Hi there! Yes, I can see the resemblance now that you mention it. :) Thank you for visiting my blog today…
Mmm this looks great! I love that and that it’s a nice, hearty meat-free meal with a variety of healthy greens.
Thank you Mary Frances. I really enjoy a hearty meat free meal, and this one is so easily put together and adding the fresh greens upon serving tipped it off the charts! :)
Yum! I love stews like this. Unfortunately it’s still bloody hot here in Perth so I’ll be bookmarking this recipe for when it cools a bit… but I’m drooling over the idea of those gorgeous greens with the chickpeas and spice. Yum!! xx
Well, I’m drooling over your figs today! I would give just about anything for a bowl of those right now. If only we could simply swap places for just one day and enjoy something to help us remember a cooler or warmer season. ;)
This looks like my type of stew, especially with the chiles and the wilted greens, major yum!
This looks lovely! I often cook my own chickpeas from dried versions, along with olive oil, onion, garlic, and maybe cilantro, but then I drain them from the broth to use in separate recipes, and strain the broth to save/freeze that and use it on its own (instead of chicken/vegetable broth, even though Paula complains it’s not the same)… but you’ve made me think I’ve been doing it all wrong! I should have just added greens and turned it into a stew! I love this. :)
This is the kind of recipe that makes me feel warm and happy all over! Not to mention that it looks so pretty!
mmm this looks very good. I’ve also been digging the beans and greens soups. I had a white bean and kale from Hale and Hearty the other day which was fab. Do you think there could be some substitute for the parmesan rind? I’m sure I could leave it out, but I hear they add so much flavor I am hesitant to do it.
Such beautiful colors and so healthy. I’m on an eat-healthy kick to try and shed a few pounds and that includes at least 2 nights of week of veggie meals. This will be perfect :-)
This looks so delicious, and I’m excited how easy it will be to change it to vegan. Great recipe!
Great first shot there with the soup in the blue creuset- i have them too. I think you are on a chickpea kick- i like it. I have been throwing them in soups and salads this week too. They offer a little variety. Good looking recipe. I might be tempted to stray carnivore and throw a little sausage in:)
You should throw in a little sausage for sure. Great idea. You are right, there have been lots of chickpeas lately. We roasted three batches of the spicy crispy ones throughout the weekend. Thank you for visiting today, it’s great to see your presence! :)