White Bean Stew

Plan Z Phase: This is a ZReboot 3.5 recipe.

Servings: 6 servings.

As your weight stabilizes you can begin to incorporate things that might be a little more carby into your diet. You just don’t want to do it too often. Keep an eye on that scale.

I learned something while designing this recipe. Cannellini bean have half the carbs of Great Northern beans. The cannellini beans supposedly have a richer flavor but for my money and my carb load, I’m going with the Great Northern beans. This tastes a lot like my mom’s bean soup with the addition of tomato and zucchini. Very Italian.

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp of grated garlic. (jar garlic will do)
• 3 Tbl of organic olive oil
• 1 15 oz can of stewed tomatoes or you can use diced if you prefer
• 2 cups of chicken broth (low sodium)
• 1 15 oz cans of Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 medium zucchini cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 slice of breakfast ham. Look for this in the deli section. It’s pre-cooked. All you have to do is cut off the rim and dice it into cubes.
• ¼ tsp of black pepper or to taste.
• 2 handfuls of chopped romaine lettuce. 3 – 4 cups

Instructions:

In a large sauce pan add the garlic and the olive oil. Cook on medium just for a minute to loosen it up. Don’t brown it or the garlic gets bitter. Add the tomatoes. If you are using stewed tomatoes, you’ll want to break them up with the edge of a spatula while they cook. Add the broth and bring to a low bubble.  For a hearty soup, cook these about 10 minutes. Stir in the beans, zucchini. ham and pepper. Bring to a low boil and turn down to low so it simmers. Stir it every once in a while- to get the gravy/sauce given off by the beans to distribute. This will make it taste heartier; like you’d been cooking it for hours (like my mom’s bean soup). I let it cook about 30 minutes. Then, just before serving add the greens and just let it cook long enough to heat them. Then serve.

Enjoy!

Cheers,