White Bean Soup with Salt Pork, Kale, and Apples

This is not really a "recipe" as I am not sure how much of most of these things I thew into the pot... more a set of instructions for making a hearty pot of soup/stew while suffering from some stupid case of the winter blehs.

Either hot soak your bag of dried beans (bring to a boil, turn off, go away for a hr leaving it covered) or soak overnight if you are more organized then I am.

Take the rind off of a large chunk of salt pork and put it, whole, into a smallish pot covered in water and bring it to a simmer. Leave it there for the next part.

Put a few tbl of butter (unsalted... we are using salt pork and parmesean here, we do not need to add any more salt to this pot omg) into a large pot over medium low heat.  Chop up 1 yellow onion and toss it in.  Add herbs at this point - I used a lot of thyme, rosemary, sage, and oregano personally.  Also a few whole peppercorns and a shake of red pepper flakes.  It could of used bay but I was out.  Open fridge to look for carrots and find a potato as well.  Chop up potato and put it in bc why not, will give body to soup and potato peel has vitamins in it right?  Throw in a few handfuls of baby carrots.  Smash and peel an entire head of garlic (you heard me, garlic is good for sick ppl) and into the pot.  Cut one medium sweet/tart apple (not a delicious and not a granny smith.. something like an empire or a macintosh) and throw it in also.  Now take your salt pork out of the water and (carefully it is hot) cut it into chunks and throw it in the pot as well.  Get out some good parmesean cheese - the block not the grated stuff if at all possible, and throw in about 2 square inches worth, chopped up, rind included is fine.

Add water to near the top of your pot and bring it to a simmer.  Add your greens - I used 2 bags of "baby kale blend" which was kale, chard, and spinach.  Any hearty green will do altho spinach on it's own would be boring, and careful with pepper if using arugula.  When greens start to wilt, drain your beans, rinse them, and add to the pot.  Put on the cover and gtfo, just checking to stir/add water if needed every 30 mins or so. 

This should cook 2-2.5 hrs, until beans are tender.  When it is nearly done, cut another apple (and some more carrots if you want) up into smaller bits and add them.  You can also puree the soup, or mash it up a bit w a potato masher (this is my preference) to make it less chunky.  If you want to be fancy, go back to the beginning and don't cut up the salt pork.. then cut it up now and fry it and add a few slices to each bowl.  (If you are sick this is too much fkn work really, only do this if you are making this soup FOR a sick person.) You could also have reserved some greens to throw in at the end so they are not all browns. 

Enjoy, and feel better soon.