Beans and Greens Alla Vodka
Published March 8, 2022

- Total Time
- 20 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 3tablespoons olive oil
- 1yellow onion, finely chopped
- 4garlic cloves, finely chopped
- Kosher salt
- 1(6-ounce) can tomato paste
- ¼cup vodka
- ½teaspoon red-pepper flakes
- 2(15-ounce) cans white beans (such as cannellini or Great Northern) or chickpeas, drained but not rinsed
- 1bunch kale, ribs removed, leaves torn or coarsely chopped
- ¼cup heavy cream
- Grated Parmesan, as needed
Preparation
- Step 1
In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high. Add the onion and garlic, season with salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste, vodka and red-pepper flakes. Cook, stirring, until the tomato paste is a shade darker and starts to stick to the bottom of the pot, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Step 2
Add 2 cups water, the beans and the kale, season with salt and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer, cover, and cook until the liquid is flavorful and the kale is tender, 7 to 10 minutes.
- Step 3
Remove from the heat and stir in the heavy cream. Taste and if it needs more salt, stir in some grated Parmesan. Serve with more Parmesan on top.
Private Notes
Comments
If you infuse the red pepper flakes in the vodka for five minutes before using, you will get a more intense (yet not hotter) pepper flavour. Take a small sip beforehand to see exactly what I mean. (Chemically, you are allowing the alcohol to extract esters and capsaicin from the pepper before it evaporates over the burner.)
To make it vegan, substitute cashew cream for the heavy cream. To make your own, barely cover raw cashews in warm water for 30 minutes, then blend.
Evaporated milk. You could also mash some beans to thicken. My mom likes to puree an extra can of beans in the blender and add that instead of adding milk or cream. She does this for many sauces/soups. Delish and bonus: healthy.
sooo easy. didn’t really feel like cooking and had a bunch of stuff I didn’t really have a plan for. I didn’t have vodka so I subbed veggie stock. wow. so perfect satisfying. and healthy??? basically a salad
Chickpeas and lacinato kale were used to make our dish. I followed the recipe exactly- didn’t need much salt, especially with the Parmesan that some friends brought us from Switzerland. Sooo yummy.
white dutch oven too small for double