I grew up in the South, so consolation food will normally have a particular position in my everyday living. And now, with the times finding shorter and the welcome crispness in the air, it’s formally convenience foods period. Cue: mac and cheese, casseroles and stews.
Now, what if I informed you ease and comfort food items can be packed with nutritious elements, simple to prepare with regardless of what is out there in your kitchen area and will make the full spouse and children pleased? If this appears as well excellent to be true, continue to be with me. As a mom of younger twins, I know what dinnertime can glance like some (most) nights when it feels like a race from the clock to pull together a meal. Meet up with my variation of comfort food: Kale and White Bean Pot Pie with Chive Biscuits.
This recipe very first appeared in a story in EatingWell magazine named, “Comfort and ease Greens,” wherever we stuffed all your comfort and ease meals favorites—meatloaf, baked potatoes, stuffed shells and pot pie—with tons of greens. The greens included spinach, collards, Swiss chard and kale, and each and every recipe took the primary edition of a beloved convenience meals and gave it an sufficient green boost. This pot pie was one particular of my contributions to that function, and I however adore creating it.
Ahead of diving into the recipe particulars, do what I do and study the scene in your fridge and pantry. This recipe adapts nicely to just about just about anything you want to throw in there, and I am going to assistance information you through this. Consider this recipe a foundation to build on—there are infinite means to scale again to make it more rapidly and replicate your family’s exceptional desires.
With a several tweaks I am going to stroll you through, this pot pie is even much easier to put together. While the recipe claims this dish normally takes 45 minutes of energetic time, if you made use of geared up biscuits and pre-chopped kale, it can take as small as 20 minutes. Then it just bakes although you have a glass of wine. Or if you want to make the kale-and-white-bean foundation in advance of time, these types of as the evening before or in the early morning, simply just increase the biscuits and bake it up for evening meal that night. The kale-and-white-bean base freezes well too, so you could even make a double batch and prepare dinner 50 % for supper and freeze the rest for one more supper later. Your long run self will thank you!
A single of the anchors of this dish is the biscuit topping. Spend any time in the South, and you’ll notice biscuits are ubiquitous, so I’m nonetheless usually on the lookout for an excuse to incorporate them into foods. Even though I make a homemade biscuit in this recipe with chives and buttermilk, you can take shortcuts right here. Get Pillsbury Grands or Annie’s Organic and natural Flaky Biscuits to hold in the fridge to slice down on time and dishes in this recipe, and you can expect to nonetheless get a super-flaky, delicious car to soak up this pot pie.
Greens! I know the struggle of incorporating greens into foods (see twins stated earlier mentioned), but this meal attire them up tremendous tasty. In this recipe, I use kale, but attempt spinach, Swiss chard, cabbage, collard greens or any mixture of those greens. You could even use frozen kale or spinach, but you will want to thaw the frozen greens separately and drain out the excess drinking water right before throwing them into your pot pie.
Escalating up in a Chinese household, we never ate uncooked vegetables—we cooked all of our veggies. So, a pot pie like this is the excellent recipe for me to adhere to my roots and throw anything at all I have—carrots, celery, peas—all into this pot of goodness. If you have supplemental veggies in your fridge or freezer, feel totally free to toss them in and make this pot pie your personal.
The element that ties this recipe with each other is the beans. What other fibrous protein is just sitting down in your pantry, needs nominal prep and can be dressed up with any taste profile other than beans? If you are not having enough fiber (90% to 97% of Individuals are not), beans are constantly my recommendation. I selected white beans in this recipe, but chickpeas would be an superb substitute. And if you have cooked rooster or sausage left in excess of experience lonely in the fridge, throw that in the pot pie, as well.
Comfort food stuff is not a guilty pleasure in my home—it’s in my Southern roots and my values as a chef to prepare dinner superior food stuff that would make you come to feel great. It truly is the best dish to make your individual. Earning it yours is all about customizing your pot pie with components you know you can expect to like. With delicious flavors, customizable factors and simple-to-stick to steps, you’ll be craving this pot pie every night time as a result of the drop, just like me.
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