Red Bean Gumbo with Greens

In case you couldn't tell, I'm kind of obsessed with beans. I wasn't always. I fact, if you had asked me six years ago, I would have told you I didn't like beans. But in 2004 I moved to a neighborhood in Jersey City that had a large Dominican population and most restaurants, even pizza joints and the pancake house, gave you rice and beans on the side. So I came around to the bean via red beans and yellow rice.



Now, there are usually 4 or 5 miscellaneous sacks of beans kicking around my "pantry" (read: shelves shoved in the corner of our tiny kitchen). I like dried and canned. I like Rancho Gordo and Goya. I like black bean quesadillas thrown together with canned black beans, smashed sweet potatoes, and corn tortillas. I like chickpeas in almost any imaginable form. I even like the sad little cans of vegetarian baked beans, though I can't believe am admitting that in public (it's a rarity. Mostly at barbeques).

So when I was flipping through Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone one day, I spied her recipe for red bean gumbo and immediately added the ingredients to my shopping list. Her gumbo starts off the way most gumbos do-- creating a rusty, deep red roux to give gumbo its signature color. Then in went the modified mirepoix, or the holy trinity-- celery, onion, and red pepper. We let that cook for a while, then added spices, beans, and the cooking water from the kale, that will be added afterwards and let the whole thing come together.

The gumbo is rich, with so much flavor that even sausage lovers and gumbo purists would love this. Rather than serving it over rice, we added about two cups of cooked brown rice to the gumbo itself, creating a thick stew. The yield on this recipe is incredible-- we have some in the freezer, and we both ate it for lunch for four days straight.

Red Bean Gumbo with Greens

2-3 large bunches of assorted greens (mustard, turnip, collards, kale, etc.)

1/3 cup oil

6 Tablespoons flour

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme

1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 Tablespoon paprika

3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 large onions, chopped

2 bell peppers, cut into 1/2" pieces

3 stalks of celery, chopped

5 garlic cloves, minced

3 cups cooked red kidney beans or two 15 ounce cans, rinsed

2 quarts stock or reserved greens cooking water or reserved bean cooking water

Trim the tough stems off of your greens and boil them in a large pot of salted water until tender (it took about 12 minutes with kale, which is what we used). Scoop them out, reserving the cooking water. Roughly chop the greens and set aside.

Note: Kale doesn't cook down like chard or spinach does. So don't assume you can continue to cram more in the pot as it cooks. Make sure you use a large enough pot from the start.

In a large pot (and I do mean large), make the roux. Heat the oil over medium heat and whisk in the flour. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until it is a rusty dark reddish brown, about 15 minutes. Stir in the spices, then add the celery, red pepper, and onion. Cook that all together for about five minutes, then add the garlic, about three teaspoons of salt, and the two quarts of liquid (water, green cooking water, bean cooking water if you cooked your own beans).

Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes. Add the beans and the greens and cook for an additional fifteen minutes.

Taste for seasoning-- we added some tabasco at this point and more salt and pepper. Serve by itself or over rice.