Escarole And Chickpea Soup With Garlic Toast Recipes

CHICKPEA AND ESCAROLE SOUP

Steps:

• Roughly chop the escarole and place in a large bowl. Cover with cold water. Set aside.
• In a large pot, heat the oil over high heat. Add the onion. Season with a pinch of salt. Stir to distribute. Cover. Immediately turn heat to low. Cook for 15 minutes or until onions are translucent and beginning to take on some color.
• Remove the lid from the pot, and add the escarole, scooping it from the bowl of water with your hands, leaving the water behind - some water clinging to the greens is fine. Let the escarole cook for a minute undisturbed, then use tongs to stir and encourage it to wilt down, which will happen quickly, 1-2 minutes.
• Add the chickpeas and their cooking liquid - if you are using the slow cooker chickpea recipe, you can dump the entire contents of the slow cooker into the pot (remove the onion half and bay leaf first). This is roughly 6 heaping cups of chickpeas and 4 cups of cooking liquid. Add 4 more cups of water. Add the parmesan rind if using. Season with freshly cracked pepper. Let simmer 25-30 minutes or until the broth, chickpeas and escarole taste nicely seasoned. Taste for salt. If you are using the slow cooker chickpeas, whose broth is nicely seasoned, plus a parmesan rind, you likely won't need to add more salt. But if not, add salt to taste.
• To make the crusty bread, heat a large skillet over medium heat with some olive oil. Cook slices of bread on one side until golden. Flip, and cook the other side till crisp and golden.
• Ladle soup into bowls. Dunk in a slice of olive oil toasted bread. Crack pepper over top. Shave parmesan over top if you wish.

CHICKPEA ESCAROLE SOUP

Steps:

• Cook salt pork in a medium saucepan of boiling water to remove salt. Drain. Cut into ¼ inch dice.
• In large saucepan, heat oil. Add salt pork and onion. Cook until onion is softened. Add garlic and cook 1 minute longer.
• Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes, or until escarole is tender.

ESCAROLE AND BEANS

Steps:

• Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Toss in escarole, turning to coat with oil. Season with salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes, or until tender.
• In a separate skillet, heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Stir in garlic. Pour in beans with juices, and simmer until creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in escarole and parsley; simmer 10 minutes more.