Martina McBride's Quick-and-Easy White Bean and Baby Greens Stew

There are a ton of celebrity cookbooks out there - Trisha Yearwood, Chrissy Tiegen, Valerie Bertinelli, Tiffani Thiessen, etc. - and although I start out skeptical, I've actually been pretty impressed with most of them.

Country singer Martina McBride has a new cookbook called Martina's Kitchen Mix that came out at the end of October 2018 and I was lucky enough to get a pre-release copy of it to review.

I'm pleasantly surprised at the mix of recipes in the book, and one that especially caught my eye is this Quick-and-Easy White Bean and Baby Greens Stew (almost sounds like a song title, right?).

Of course, the quick-and-easy part is the most eye catching, but beans, crushed tomatoes, ham, and baby greens sound so homey, comforting and delicious.

Martina isn't kidding when she named this recipe. It takes about 15 minutes to gather the ingredients, open the cans, and chop the garlic and ham. After sauteing the garlic you throw all of the ingredients in the pot except for the greens.

It's amazing how letting it simmer for just five minutes releases so much flavor.  (I halved the recipe and the flavors are still great.)

Even though the beans are rinsed, they soften and bring a slight creaminess to the soup. In every bite you get a touch of chopped tomato, a rich broth, and nice chunks of ham. I found a bag of mixed greens at the store - all of the ones she mentions trying - baby spinach, baby arugula, and baby kale (Dole). They're stirred into the finished soup and allowed to barely wilt. Yum.

We really like this simple soup recipe immensely! There aren't any fancy spices, but the flavors meld to make a soup that will be made again and again when the weather cools a bit. Next time I'm going to substitute about a half-pound of ground mild Italian sausage for the ham and it'll taste a bit like the Zuppa Toscana at Olive Garden.

You'll enjoy this Quick-and-Easy White Bean Baby Greens Stew. A few of the recipes in Martina's cookbook are basics that I already have in my recipe file (Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, Fresh Apple Cake with Homemade Caramel Sauce, Hoppin' John and even the old standby Velveeta cheese dip), but there are few others I'm really looking forward to trying.

I've tagged Smoked Gouda Pimiento Cheese, Very Green Broccoli Soup, Pumpkin Cornbread with Cinnamon-Honey Butter, and County Fair Orange Cake. This will be one celebrity cookbook worth having on my shelf!

See my changes in the Tips and Stuff section of the recipe.  Thanks to Time Inc., Books for the preview:

Excerpted from Martina’s Kitchen Mix by Martina McBride. Copyright © 2018 Oxmoor House. Reprinted with permission from Time Inc. Books, a division of Meredith Corporation. New York, NY. All rights reserved.

Continue to Content

Quick-and-Easy White Bean and Baby Greens Stew

Yield: 5 - 6

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

A little garlicky with chunks of smoky ham, baby greens, and soft cannellini beans in a nice broth. 

Print

Ingredients

• 2 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 (14.5 oz) can petite-diced or crushed tomatoes, undrained
• 3 ½ C chicken broth
• 2 19 oz cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 ½ lb piece of baked ham (½ to ¾ inch thick), cut into ½ inch cubes
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 (5 oz) bag baby greens of your choice (baby spinach, baby arugula, baby kale), chopped
• 12 (¾ in) slices baguette, toasted

Instructions

1. Cook the garlic in the olive oil in a heavy soup pot over medium-high, stirring, about 1 minute. 
2. Add the tomatoes (with juice).  Stir in the broth, beans, ham, and pepper; bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. 
3. Stir in the greens and cook just until wilted.  Top each serving with 2 toasted baguette slices.
4. ad lib:  If you're vegetarian, just omit the ham and substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

Following are the changes I made:

I only used 2 tsp. of olive oil - I think it only needs about half of what's called for or it will be too oily.

I halved the recipe, except I only used about a cup and half of chopped ham.

I added salt, as it needed it.  You can taste and see if you need it.

I used bottled garlic as I didn't have garlic cloves.

I didn't have a baguette, so left that off the top of the stew.

Excerpted from Martina’s Kitchen Mix by Martina McBride. Copyright © 2018 Oxmoor House. Reprinted with permission from Time Inc. Books, a division of Meredith Corporation. New York, NY. All rights reserved.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1 bowl
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 619Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 75mgSodium: 2556mgCarbohydrates: 78gFiber: 14gSugar: 6gProtein: 50g

Nutrition Values are Approximate