Forks over Knives Italian White Bean & Kale Potato Stew

A slew of people on the McDougall forums are making the latest from the Forks Over Knives web site - Italian White Bean and Kale Potato Stew. I had a load of red potatoes left over and decided what the heck, and went ahead and took a look at it:

Italian White Bean, Kale and Potato Stew
Serves 6

Ingredients
• 1 cup diced red or white onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 28 ounce cans diced tomatoes (salt free if you prefer)
• ¼ – ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 5 cups red-skinned potatoes cut into one inch squares
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 6-8 packed cups of kale, after it has been de-stemmed and chopped
• 2 15 ounce cans Cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• salt (optional)

Instructions
Place a large soup/stock pot over a medium high flame and pour some of the liquid from one of the cans of the diced tomatoes into the pot to cover the base of the pot. When the tomato liquid starts to bubble, add the onion and stir. Lower heat a little. Press garlic into pot. Add red pepper flakes (to taste). Continue to cook and stir, lowering heat as the time passes, for a total of about 10 minutes or until onions are soft.
Add the rest of the first can of diced tomatoes and the entire second can into the pot. Bring heat up to medium-high again so that tomatoes begin to simmer. Place diced potatoes, oregano and parsley into the pot and stir. Cover pot, lower heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.
Place all of the kale into the pot and cover the pot again. Let kale steam and shrink for 3 minutes. Uncover pot and stir in kale. Add Cannellini beans and stir. Taste and season with salt (or not). If potatoes are not as soft as you desire, continue to let simmer.

The first thing I noticed was how closely it resembled Jeff Novick's Fast Food meals. It had his five basic ingredients:

• tomatoes
• vegetables (including greens)
• beans
• starch
• spices

Instead of frozen or pre-cooked potatoes, this one asked us to chop red potatoes into a 1 inch dice. The recipe would go just as well with a bag of frozen Southern Style (diced) hash browns. But as I said, I had red taters left over so stood there with my sore back (I wrenched it out on Saturday reaching down for my sneakers) and washed & diced away.

For the tomatoes I used one can of whole plum tomatoes (no salt added, of course) and one box of Pomi chopped.

Instead of fresh kale I did it the Jeff Novick way and used a 1 pound bag of frozen chopped kale.

And for the spices, I used the Penzey Italian herb mix instead of separate oregano and parsley.

Although I did cook up the onions (also from the freezer) and garlic (from a jar) in the tomato liquid, I then popped all other ingredients right into my pot, stirred it all up and popped the lid on. I turned the gas down to its lowest point, and that's where it'll stay for the next 3+ hours until my husband gets in and we have dinner.

Looks good! I'll probably have to add a wee bit more spices and put the salt & pepper shakers on the table. Looks like another recipe I'll add to my SNAP recipe file, even though it's not officially one.