Go Back

City of South Miami Beans With Fennel

Mayor Stoddard's meatless meals trend towards rice and beans. Spain is into Chef AJ and what she calls hippie bowls of grains, beans and greens. Well, these are things I know something about. I always make a big pot of hopping john , that New Year's Day tradition of black-eyed peas and rice. It promises health and wealth and luck and it tastes terrific. I had some extra black-eyed peas this year and used them to make this bean stew fragrant with fennel. Fancy on the table, easy in the kitchen, what's not to love?

Ingredients
  

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 large onion chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 pinch red pepper flakes
  • 1 fennel bulb sliced thin
  • 1 15- ounce can diced tomatoes
  • 2 cups black-eyed peas cooked and cooled
  • 1 bunch fresh kale spinach or the greens of your dreams, washed well, blotted dry and sliced into bite-sized ribbons
  • 1/4 cup anisette or white wine
  • 1 teaspoon cider or sherry vinegar
  • sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Instructions
 

  • In a large soup pot, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add chopped onion, garlic and pepper flakes. Stir to coat and reduce heat to medium. Add sliced fennel and saute vegetables, stirring occasionally, until soft, golden and fragrant, about 15 minutes.
  • Stir in diced tomatoes, the black-eyed peas and wine or anisette. Add chopped greens by the handful and mix gently. Cover and reduce heat to low, so the greens become tender. Let ingredients simmer for another 15 minutes.
  • Stir in the cider or sherry vinegar and season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
  • You can serve it out of the pot, where it will moist but not watery. If you'd like a drier dish, pour beans and fennel into a lightly oiled casserole and bake uncovered at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes, until heated through and lightly crusty on top.