Arugula Salad with Great Northern Beans

Recently I wrote about my experience making Not Yo’ Mama’s Banana Pudding and how I shared it with my neighbors.  In response, one of our neighbors shared their some of her garden bounty with us in the form of a bag of arugula with some kale mixed in.  Oregon has had an all time record for rain in June, which is bad for the strawberries, but great for just about all the other plants, so she has a large crop of arugula.  We know how to use most types of lettuce for salads, but we were unsure what to do with the arugula.  We asked her how to use it and she said that it has a peppery taste and that it really complements a hearty main course.

That night we were eating grilled pork shoulder so we had the arugula as a side salad with a little raspberry vinaigrette dressing.  We were amazed at the strength of the peppery taste.  It was almost too strong to finish our salads.  I decided that I needed to find a recipe to tame the arugula.

I looked on the internet and found a recipe from allrecipes.com that I modified based on the contents of our pantry.
Ingredients:
   2 tablespoons olive oil
   2 cloves of garlic, minced
   1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
   3 tablespoons white wine
   1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
   1 (15 ounce) can of Great Northern Beans
      (or any other medium sized bean) drained and rinsed.
   Arugula
   Grated Parmesan cheese

While the oil heated in a large skillet over medium heat, I minced the garlic, added it to the hot oil, and stirred until the garlic started to brown.  Next, I added the can of tomatoes, wine, and Italian seasoning and stirred while it came to a simmer.  I let it simmer for a few minute to reduce the volume of liquid then added the can of beans.  I let this heat for about five minute until the beans were fully heated.  On each individual plate, I placed a handful of rinsed arugula then put a large spoonful of the bean mixture on top followed by some grated Parmesan cheese. 

For dinner, we ate arugula salad with lime chicken and brown rice.  We were very surprised that the beans and tomato mixture tempered the overpowering flavor of the arugula, which now had a very mild flavor.  We really enjoyed the arugula salad and our only disappointment was that we used up all the arugula.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell