Baked Beans with Ham and Swiss Chard

Baked Beans with Swiss Chard

We seldom eat baked beans at our house but we saw this recipe in the Food Network magazine and thought it would be a good way to use some of the Swiss Chard we received in our CSA this week. As always, my Mom and I try to adjust the recipe to the ingredients we have on hand instead of making another trip to the store. My Mom also likes to make dishes that will make a full meal so adding more ham and using our dried pinto beans (we buy in 25  lb. bags from Soranco Bean Products in Twin Falls, Idaho) helps to make it a complete meal. My Mom found some of Utah's Owns Jeri's Gourmet Bar-B-Que Sauce in our refrigerator so we thought, why not, and added a bit of that, too. To finally complete the meal, we mixed this in with about 1/2 pound of cooked penne pasta and being who we are, topped it off with a little grated Habanero cheese from Beehive Cheese. Of course, as always, you can adjust this recipe to your liking by adding or subtracting ingredients to your liking.
Ingredients:

1 tablespoon virgin olive oil                        1/2 small onion, chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped                              2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Kosher salt                                                  Freshly ground pepper

1 cup diced ham (Christiansen Farms)  1-15-ounce can whole tomatoes, crushed

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley                  1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano          3/4 cup barbecue sauce (Jeri's)

1 15-ounce cans navy beans, undrained

2 15-ounce cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 bunch Swiss Chard or mustard greens, stems removed, leaves chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, garlic and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft and golden, about 7 minutes.
2. Add the chard, ham and 1/4 cup water to the skillet; cook, stirring, until the chard wilts slightly, about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juice, increase the heat to medium high and simmer until slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Add the pinto beans, then add the navy beans and their liquid.  Add the parsley, thyme and oregano and return to a simmer. 
3. Coarsely mash about one-quarter of the beans in the skillet with a potato masher or fork to thicken the mixture; season with salt. Transfer to a 2-quart baking dish.  Cover and bake 45 minutes, then uncover and bake 10 more minutes. 
4. This is great served with pasta for a complete meal!

options:
To keep this local:


1. Try using dried pinto beans you can buy at the Downtown market. Take 2 cups pinto beans and soak overnight. Change out the water in the morning and then boil for 10 minutes and let rest for additional hour. The beans are then ready to use.
2. Use fresh tomatoes instead of canned. Tomatoes were not really ready at the Market yet so we using some store bought canned tomatoes but...you could also can your own tomatoes to use in this dish! 


Otherwise, everything but the olive oil can be purchased locally.