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Is it that time of year yet for hearty soups?
Maybe, maybe not.
In any case, this one is a family favorite, combining a potpourri of colorful vegetables with the creamy texture of white beans.
Want to make those beans from scratch? Here’s how to make them on the stovetop or in a pressure cooker.
White Bean and Vegetable Soup Recipe
Adapted from Bon Appetit magazine.
Ingredients
- 2 15-oz cans cannellini or white kidney beans (or 1/2 lb dried beans, soaked overnight in water), drained
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/8 head of green cabbage, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
- 2 celery stalks, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1 1/2 carrots, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 5 cups (or more) vegetable stock
- 1 medium potato, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
- 1/4 head of red cabbage, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 2 zucchini or summer squash, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- Tabasco sauce (optional)
Method
1 Cook onions, with thyme and garlic: Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion, thyme, and garlic. Sauté 5 minutes.
2 Add green cabbage, tomatoes, celery, and carrots. Sauté 10 minutes.
3 Add beans, 5 cups of stock, potatoes, and basil. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for one hour.
4 Add red cabbage and zucchini. Add salt. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes longer.
5 Serve: To serve, stir in the cheese. Sprinkle in a dash of Tabasco hot sauce if you want to give the soup a little zip.
Serve with ground pepper and bread.
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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
White Bean and Vegetable Soup
This was the first meal my husband and I cooked together after we were married, on our honeymoon in Croatia. We were staying at an Airbnb and short on supplies, so we winged it. We cook a lot so felt comfortable going off recipe. We used dried herbs (a random mixture in the cupboard that I think was oregano, marjoram and rosemary), only green cabbage and leeks instead of garlic and celery. We also used a can of crushed tomatoes instead of fresh, which I probably would have done at home anyway. It adds so much flavour and its way easier. We had chicken boullion so we used that. We didn’t use cheese (couldn’t find it in the market!). I did find it a bit bland but I just added salt to taste and also a healthy amount of Hungarian paprika for added spice which we’d conveniently picked up in Budapest the week before. We served with a drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. So overall a pretty loose interpretation but it was delicious and cheap and we will always remember our first meal together as husband and wife.
What a wonderful story, thanks for sharing Bethann!
This soup was just what I wanted. I loved it! I didn’t have any stock so used a vegetable bullion and it was just perfect. I did a search for the veggies that I had on hand and found this – how wonderful is that!
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Enjoy this soup, but I feel too that it is a bit bland. It needs probably another 1/2 t. of salt and what else could give it a bit more flavor? I didn’t try the Tabasco sauce but perhaps that is the solution. Cumin? Saffron?
Made this with chicken broth and minus the cabbage. Was still pretty good! Good recipe for a simple and comforting meal.
My sister in law just made this soup for me — it is delicious! The addition of the cheese to the broth adds so much flavor and makes it taste a little like French Onion Soup. Yum!
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