Spanish White Beans with Spinach

You know what, I get why posts like these don't draw as much...notice. I mean, it seems no one has ever gotten famous hawking beans. If you want to be popular, you should probably be using lots of butter, lots of sugar, chocolate wouldn't be out of place either. But, see, thing is. I don't bake all that much. I do things like make beans. Then I do things like eat them all myself because beans aren't a big draw in the real world, either.

But these beans are so flippin' good, that it feels like I'm being a little dishonest not trying to get R to eat any of them. Oh, I only made beans today, you wouldn't be interested. They're just beans. (They're not). You know, beans that are good for you. Health food, really. You wouldn't be interested. Heh.

But I bet you, my presumed reader, will be interested. The original recipe calls for sun dried tomatoes in oil, drained. But I didn't find those, so I used dry-packed sun dried tomatoes, somehow managing to stumble on The Best sun dried tomatoes Ever (the brand is Joseph Zavier Fine Foods, found at Gourmet Garage, but I couldn't find a website for you).

So anyway. Beans.

Spanish White Beans with Spinach

From Gourmet, November 2009

1 large onion, chopped

1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped

6 tablespoons olive oil, divided

4 garlic cloves, passed through a press

1/2 teaspoon smoked sweet paprika (pimenton dulce)

2 19-oz cans cannelini beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup water

2 10-oz bags spinach (or failing that, try Boston Lettuce, which is what I did)

Warm 1/4 cup of the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook the onion and sun dried tomatoes seasoned with 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Stir occasionally, of course, and cook until the onion is browned about 6-8 minutes. Add the garlic and paprika and continue cooking for another minute.

Stir in the beans, water, spinach and a bit more salt to taste. Cover the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until the spinach is wilted, about 5 minutes.

Season with pepper and drizzle with a bit more olive oil if you'd like.