cannellini bean soup

Sometimes I like spending all day in the kitchen.  Sometimes a plan doesn’t work out the way you think it will.

I got my CSA box full of greens, and assumed most of them would work well in a cannellini bean soup.  I was wrong.  I didn’t know what most of the greens were, and as it turned out, most were too bitter and over powered the flavors in the soup.  So I just fished out most of the greens and ended up with delicious soup anyway, a little less green than originally planned.

You can make this with canned beans and chicken or vegetable broth from a box, or water.  This soup would probably take a whopping 20 minutes to cook.  But I really wanted freshly cooked beans, and happened to have bones from a roasted chicken in the freezer, so mine took a bit more time.

• 1 pound dried cannellini beans
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• Red pepper flakes
• Fresh oregano, minced
• 2 leeks, halved, 1/2″ thick slice (use white part only)
• 3 celery stalks, sliced
• 4 carrots, diced
• 28 ounce can whole san marzano tomatoes, crushed by hand
• Rind of parmigianno-reggiano
• Chicken stock, or vegetable stock, or water
• Fresh greens of your choice (I’ll stick with spinach next time)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Soak beans overnight, covered.  The next day, rinse and drain beans.  Add enough water to cover beans by 1″ in a crockpot, and cook on the low setting until just tender.  This took about 4 hours for me, but it will depend on how fresh your beans are.

Heat olive oil in a deep pan.  Saute garlic, shallots and red pepper flakes until fragant.  Add leeks, oregano, celery and carrots and saute for 5 minutes longer.  Add hand crushed tomatoes, broth, beans and parmigianno-reggiano rind, and continue to cook for 15 minutes.  Add chopped spinach until wilted.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Remove rind from soup.  Serve with a snow flurry of parmesan.

I made my chicken stock by covering the chicken carcass with water.  Add a quartered onion (skin on), a couple of carrots, halved, pepper corns, bay leaf, and carrot tops or Italian parsley.  Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer.  I usually use my crock pot.

Paige is ready for Halloween, thanks to Grandma Sherry.  Are you?