Pork with White Beans and Winter Greens

This one-pot supper of Italian-style pork and beans is adapted from a recipe provided by food columnist Lucy Waverman, when she actually acted as a food columnist. Recently, she has been relegated to more of  food trivia columnist. 

I'm sure that her more rigorous approach to re-hydrating dried cannellini beans would yield a more authentic dish. My approach (using canned white kidney beans) was way faster and still got rave reviews. I forgot to take a photo of the finished product. So, the photo you see above is taken from the Oct 24, 2015 edition of the Globe & Mail. It's all Lucy's.  

Ingredients:

• 1 tin of white kidney beans (very well rinsed and drained)
• 1 and 1/2 pounds of pork shoulder, cut in 1 inch cubes
• several sprigs of thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 tbsp. chopped garlic
• 1 tbsp. slivered sage leaves (I used 3 sprigs of rosemary instead)
• 2 cups chicken stock
• lemon juice
• 6 cups thinly sliced kale (or other bitter greens)

Methods:
Season the pork with salt, pepper and thyme. Heat oil in large sauté pan or heavy pot over high heat and sear 1 minute per side or until browned. Remove to a plate and reserve. Reduce heat to medium and add onions. Cook for about 5 minutes or until softened. Add garlic and slivered sage ( or rosemary)  and continue to cook until the garlic is softened, about 1 more minute. Stir in the beans and pork. Add stock to the pot and return the mixture to a boil. Cover the pot and then reduce heat to a simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.

Add the sliced kale to the pot. Cover and cook for another 5 minutes or until the greens are wilted. Add salt and pepper to taste and a spritz of lemon juice.