(White) Bean Gratin

The Story

Whenever we are home for the holidays, we celebrate Christmas Eve with a Dungeness-crab dinner. It's the perfect ratio of prep to social time: it takes no time to prepare (especially since we often buy the crab from the local fish monger, pulled directly out of his boiler on purchase) but it provides us with 45-60 minutes of social time at the table, as each person cracks, picks, and eats his/her individual crab. They year, however, the crabs hadn't filled in, and we received the devastating news that the opening of commercial crab season on the north coast of California, and all of Oregon and Washington state, is delayed until January 1st (which, alas, has been pushed back one final time until the 15th!). We could likely have picked up non-local crab at the supermarket, but Eddie and I agreed that would miss the whole point. With this in mind, I set about establishing a Christmas Eve menu that wouldn't be too time consuming but would still be special enough to feel like a holiday.

As the basis of the meal, I picked up an extremely-tasty uncured ham from the local Co-op and decided to prepare two family favorite side dishes--creamed cucumbers (recipe here) and Ensalada Russa (I can't believe I haven't shared this recipe already, since it's a holiday staple. I'll get it up here the next time I make it.)--since we could prepare both early in the day and pull them out at dinner time. I also decided on the always-easy-to-make couscous with vegetables, but I wanted a second hot side dish. Lucky for me, one of the Weight Watchers recipes featured that week on the website was a tasty-looking White Bean, Tomato, and Spinach Gratin. Eddie, my mom, and I prepared it together, and it turned out great. Everyone loved it--enough so that there was only one tiny portion left after Eddie, my mom, Keith, our friend Lola, and I finished the meal (and even then, I imagine politeness may have preserved that one portion!). I'm making the recipe again tonight, tweaked to reduce the Weight Watchers point value a wee bit and make use of what I have on hand.

What You'll Need

• 2 cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed. (I learned that cannellini beans are white kidney beans, and I don't see any reason you couldn't use red kidney beans--or any other decently-firm bean, for that matter--which is what I decided the put the white in parenteses when naming this recipe.)
• 5-6 ounces baby spinach, kale, or other green. We've been getting kale from our farm share recently, so I've been choosing that over spinach. You can certainly add more than six ounces, too. I add as much as I can reasonably wilt in my largest skillet.
• 2 large onions, thinly sliced. (I picked up a small food mandolin, and I can't tell you how much I like it for recipes like this!)
• 2 cans diced tomatoes, drained
• 3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 4 teaspoons olive oil, divided in half. The original recipe called for two tablespoons butter for the second half, but I used the olive oil and it worked fine--and increased the health quotient) 
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup white wine (It's always good to be able to use up an opened bottle in the refrigerator!)
• 2 tsp. fresh rosemary, minced
• 2 tsp. minced garlic
• salt
• cooking spray

Preparation  

• Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat a glass casserole dish (10 x 7 ish) with cooking spray and set aside. 
• Heat 2 tsp. oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onions and 1 tsp salt and cook, stirring frequently, until softened and onions begin to brown, about 15 minutes. 
• Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute. Stir in wine and cook until evaporated. 
• Add beans, tomatoes, spinach, rosemary, and lemon juice and cook, stirring occasionally, until spinach has wilted, about 1 to 2 minutes. 
• Spoon mixture into prepared dish and set aside. 
• Add bread crumbs, cheese, 2 tsp oil, and 1 teaspoon salt and stir until completely combined. Spoon crumb mixture over bean mixture and bake, uncovered, until browned and bubbly, about 20 to 25 minutes. 

Serving
We had this as a side dish for the holidays, but tonight we're making it our meal, since the beans and veggies make it satisfying. By dividing it into three portions, we'll each have a tasty dinner tonight--plus left overs for later in the week! (Weight Watchers, this makes six 7-point servings, three 13-point servings, or any number of other portion/point combinations, depending on quantity and whether you treat it as a side or main dish.)

Potato-Leek Soup

The Story

It's wintertime, and my farm share turns to a (mostly) pick-your-own system. Last Sunday, we collected our first harvest, including a couple pounds of already-harvested potatoes and ten leeks I picked myself. At the time I didn't have any real plan for these items, but I came up with the idea of adding another new soup to our repertoire and began investigating potato-leek options online. Based on our healthier eating habits over the past few years, I immediately discounted anything involving heavy cream, but I made note of the variety of herbs and such they included along the way. There were a few healthier options, too, so I looked at proportions and decided what might work. This is what I ended up with, and the results were pretty darned tasty!

What You'll Need

• Leeks, 2 cups white and light-green parts, cleaned and chopped (Leeks have got to be the dirtiest vegetable out there! Slice them and let them sit in a bowl of water for a few minutes. Skim the leeks off the top, discard the dirty water, and repeat as needed.)
• Potatoes, 2-3 pounds, peeled and chopped into small pieces
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 cups water
• 2 tsp olive oil (This is my magic amount and I use it to replace whatever amount of butter or oil that recipes recommend when cooking on the stove top. It's enough to saute whatever I need in a non-stick pan, and little enough to keep my recipes healthy.)
• salt and pepper. (You'll need more salt than you think, since there are potatoes here; how much will depend on the saltiness of your stock. I put a couple teaspoons in when cooking the leeks in the first step and salted a bit after serving.)
• herbs and spices (How vague can I be, right? One recipe called for fresh marjoram, thyme, and parsley; others had different variations. I used what I had on hand--fresh rosemary, dry oregano, cumin, cayenne pepper--and it was delicious. You know what you like, so start with that and see how it goes.) 
• red chile sauce (I used the cayenne instead, but if you don't have it on hand, a dash of this at the end will jazz things up!) 

Preparation

• Chop leeks and saute lightly in olive oil in the bottom of a medium soup pan. Reduce heat to low and cook covered for 10 minutes. I also added my herbs, spices, salt, and pepper here. You may hold out some fresh herbs until the final stage rather than cooking them, should you choose.
• Add potatoes, stock, and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and let simmer for 25 minutes.
• Using the hand blender, mix until the desired consistency. If you don't have a hand blender, you can remove half of the contents, throw it in a regular blender, and return to the pan. (I would HIGHLY recommend a hand blender purchase if you don't already own one. For a $15-20 investment, you'll get tons of use out of it. Plus it takes up a lot less room than most kitchen electronics.)

    
Serving
Garnish with fresh herbs and serve with fresh bread or on its own. The recipe above, using 2.75 pounds of potatoes, made 5 hearty stick-with-you-through-the-day servings. (If you're a Weight Watcher, each serving is 6 points.)