RECIPES

Creamy Beans & Greens Pot Pie

We have a special guest taking over this week – our friend Becca of @cookingwithbecca put a modern spin on a traditional recipe featuring our Greek Gigante Beans and Extra Virgin Olive Oil. We'll let Becca take it from here

iNGREDIENTS

SIMPLi Regenerative Organic Certified® Gigante Beans, cooked

SIMPLi Extra Virgin Olive Oil

SIMPLi Pink Salt & pepper

Thick-cut bacon, sliced crosswise ¼ inch thick

Celery stalks, diced

Leek, thinly sliced

Shallots, diced

Garlic cloves, thinly sliced

Dark leafy greens (like kale, swiss chard, or collard greens), de-stemmed and cut into thin ribbons

Unsalted butter

All-purpose flour

Vegetable broth

Whole milk

Fresh thyme sprigs

Phyllo dough

2 cups

2 tbsp

to taste

4 strips

2

1

3 4 cups

½ cup

3 cups

1 cups

2-3

15-20 sheets

iNSTRUCTIONS

In a large oven-safe skillet over medium heat, add ¼ cup of water and bacon. Saute the bacon until crispy and set aside, leaving the rendered bacon fat in the pan.
Lower the heat to medium-low and add the celery, leek, and shallots. Season with a pinch of salt and cook until softened, and add the garlic. Stir occasionally to keep the garlic from burning, and cook until the garlic starts to turn golden brown. Add your dark leafy greens, stir to combine, and cook until the leaves turn bright green and glossy. Set the veggie mixture aside and wipe the skillet down with a paper towel or dishcloth.
Preheat oven to 375 F.
Over medium-low heat, melt the butter and then whisk in the flour and cook for 15 minutes, whisking continuously. The butter and flour mixture will bubble and look like wet sand towards the end of the 15 minutes. Whisk in the stock and milk a little at a time, and add the thyme sprigs. Whisk for another 15 minutes until the mixture is thick and creamy. Remove the whole thyme sprigs. Season the bechamel with salt and pepper to your taste. Stir in the Gigante Beans, bacon, and greens mixture.
On a nearby countertop or work surface, unfurl a package of thawed phyllo dough. Gently lay out an individual piece of phyllo dough, and with a pastry brush or your fingers, brush the dough lightly with olive oil. Crumple the dough by pushing two diagonal corners together and then crumpling in the remaining two corners until you have a crumpled rosette shape. Place the crumpled phyllo dough piece on top of the pie and repeat until the pie is fully covered.
Bake for 45 minutes until the top is golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Let the pie rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Creamy Regenerative Organic Certified® Gigante Beans and bright sauteed greens are nestled in a velvety thyme-infused bechamel sauce and topped with crispy crumples of phyllo dough.

In my opinion crispy pastry and creamy filling are the best parts of any pot pie but often, the meat inside can be dry and bland. This recipe maximizes the best parts of a pot pie while avoiding any risk entirely by using SIMPLi’s gorgeous gigante beans. The beans get creamier and more flavorful the longer they sit in the pie filling, so you have zero chance of a disappointing bite.

This is a flexitarian approach to a pot pie. While not vegetarian because it does include bacon, it's a veggie-forward dish that's sure to delight. You could make this vegetarian by omitting the bacon and subbing in two tablespoons of butter to saute the vegetables, and it would be just as delicious. Consider adding soy sauce to the bechamel to account for the umami that bacon would have provided.