It’s October already and time to start thinking of cold weather comfort foods.
Nothing fits that bill quite like beans.
This recipe combines Rancho Gordo alubia blanca beans with generous quantities of parmaesan cheese and chile crisp for a stewed bean dish perfect for those colder nights you spend in your bathrobe with a good book. Here is the link to the Rancho Gordo site and these great beans : Rancho Gordo.
This recipe based upon one that appears in Nagi Haehashi’s new cookbook Delicious Tonight. You can order the book through your local bookstore or from Amazon here.
Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen.
White Beans With Spinach and Parmesan
October 19, 2025
Ingredients
- Lemon Oil
- 1 T. lemon zest
- 2 T. extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/8 t. kosher salt
- White Beans
- 2 T. olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves (minced)
- 1 large yellow onion (chopped fine)
- 3 fresh thyme sprigs
- 1/2 C. white wine
- 8 oz. dried white beans
- 1 C. vegetable broth
- 1/4 t. kosher salt
- 1/4 t. black pepper
- 5 oz. spinach (stemmed and chopped)
- 1/2 C. Parmesan cheese (grated) plus more for serving
- 2 t. lemon juice
- Chile crisp (to taste)
Directions
- Step 1 Rinse and soak dried beans overnight. Cook beans in a pot of salted water until beans are soft. Set aside.
- Step 2 Mix all lemon oil ingredients together in a small container and set aside.
- Step 3 Heat olive oil in a large pan and saute onion, garlic and thyme until the onion is soft and translucent being careful not to burn the garlic.
- Step 4 In a large heavy pot, combine beans and some of their juices, vegetable broth, salt and pepper and heat to a simmer. Simmer beans at medium-high heat for about 5 minutes. You want the liquids in the recipe to reduce to a syrupy consistency. (You can remove some of the bean water at this point if you have too much liquid to get a syrupy consistency.)
- Step 5 Add spinach to the hot bean mixture and stir until the spinach wilts. Add parmesan and lemon juice and stir until the cheese melts and incorporates into the bean liquid.
- Step 6 Serve with sourdough toast on the side. Garnish each bowl of beans with additional parmesan and dollops of chile crisp to your heat tolerance. Garnish with sprigs of thyme.
