#33. White Bean and Spinach Soup

This recipe was printed on the side of a can of Tree of Life Organic-brand great northern beans. I've been wanting to try more healthy recipes, and this soup fits the bill. In fact, as I was cooking it, I thought, "This looks like it's going to be too healthy (i.e. flavorless), so I salted it liberally. Amusingly, when my roommate tried it later, she said, not knowing what I'd done, "If this wasn't so good and salty, I'd think it was too healthy." Anyway, it ended up tasting better than it looks.

The only changes I made to the recipe were to omit the celery (I dislike celery stalks (although somehow I love the leaves)) and to use 4 cups of store-bought veggie broth instead of 5 (they only come in quart sizes!). Also, the recipe doesn't tell you to remove the bay leaf, but you should do that before adding the spinach so you can find it more easily.

Here's the recipe as it was printed on the can, minus all the shout-outs to their own brand:

4-5 servings

1 - 15 oz. can Great Northern Beans
1 Tbs. Olive Oil
1 Tbs. Butter
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1 bay leaf
1 stalk minced celery (I omitted this, but if you're into celery, go right ahead)
1 carrot, diced (I used two, and cut them into slices and half slices (at the thick ends))
5 cups vegetable broth (store-bought cartons are 1 quart, which is fine)
1/2 lb. fresh spinach
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preparation
In a large saucepan (I borrowed my roommate's two-handled soup pot), saute onion and garlic in olive oil and butter until softened. Add vegetable broth, bay leaf, celery, carrot. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add can of drained great northern beans and spinach (I removed the bay leaf before adding the spinach). Cover and continue to simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Serve with fresh baked bread and enjoy! (I served it with some high-quality, store-bought honey whole wheat bread, which somehow took all the flavors to another level.)

It tastes better than it looks:

Don't forget the bread and a nice cup of tea or something:

My first thought on tasting this soup was that I'd spent nearly two hours making something that tasted only marginally better than what you'd get from a can (and between the beans and the broth, I already had things coming from cans, so why did I bother?). But if you want to have better control over the ingredients in your soup (e.g. Campbell's products often contain MSG and other, worse additives) this isn't a bad way to go. Even my roommate, who does not like beans, enjoyed it.

B+