chicken & greens soup w/ cannelini beans and sweet potato

The past year or two, I've tried to cut back daily cooking time by making one big batch of something on a day when my schedule is more free. Soup-stews work great for incorporating lots of vegetables and having a huge vat of something available in the fridge.

I like to buy organic chicken drumsticks from Costco and make variations of this chicken & greens soup-stew depending on what else I have in the kitchen. You can use whatever vegetables you want, though the staples I like to keep are carrots, onions, greens and plenty of minced garlic. The recipe is very adjustable though - some substitution ideas are using kale, spinach, garbanzo beans, canned tomatoes... plenty of options!

Sorry. Hard to get nice pictures when everything's all steamy.

Chicken & Greens Soup-Stew with Cannelini Beans & Sweet Potato

Ingredients:

• 1/2 TB organic coconut oil
• Splash of grapeseed oil
• 1 TB dried herbs (I use Costco's Organic No-Salt Seasoning)
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• Ground black pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup minced garlic
• 1/2 bundle of celery, roughly chopped
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• ~8 medium carrots, peeled & roughly chopped
• 1 lb of organic chicken drumsticks (~8-10 drumsticks)
• 16 oz stew greens (I get the southern greens bag from Trader Joe's)
• 2-3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled & rough cut
• 2 15 oz cans of cannelini beans (white kidney beans)

Directions:

1. Prepare vegetables, rough chopping celery, onion and peeled carrots.
2. Heat up oil in a large soup/stew pot. When a sprinkle of water sizzles in the pot, add herbs, spices and minced garlic. Stir for a minute or two.
3. When spices are fragrant and garlic is lightly golden browned, add in chopped onion, carrots and celery. Stir and cover to let vegetables sweat.
4. Check and stir every few minutes until vegetables are slightly transluscent, then add in chicken drumsticks. Stir to cover chicken in spices and veggies. Cover for ~10 minutes.
5. Add enough water until almost everything is covered and turn up heat to let soup boil.
6. Add in whole bag of stew greens, poking and pressing them down to be submerged in the water. Once soup comes to a boil, bring down to a simmer for ~40 minutes.
7. Add in sweet potato ~20 minutes before soup is done if you want them to keep some of their chunk shape. If you want less fuss, you can add them with the southern greens, but just know that they will probably break up to become part of the soup broth by the end of cooking time.
8. Add in cannelini beans 10 minutes before soup is done.
9. Stir and add any extra salt or pepper to taste.
10. Serve with brown rice, crusty bread or enjoy a big bowl alone!