in the kitchen: vegetable soup with beans

I’d been craving soup. With Kassie and CJ coming over for dinner, I decided to make a vegetable soup. After consulting several cookbooks I came up with a game plan.

Vegetable soup with white beans:

Ingredients:

• 2 zucchini
  
• 4 carrots
  
• 1 onion
  
• 4 red potatoes
  
• 1 15 oz can chopped tomatoes
  
• 1 10 oz can corn
  
• 2 leeks
  
• 1 head broccoli
  
• 1/2 c dry white beans, soaked*
  
• 3 cloves garlic
  
• 4 c chicken stock
  
• 2 c vegetable sock
  
• 1 tsp thyme
  
• 1 tsp rosemary, crushed
  
• 2 tsp frozen basil

*I soaked the beans according to the quick soak method on the package, boiling them in about 4 c of water for two minutes and then letting them sit for an hour off the heat.

Directions:

Peel and dice two carrots. Dice the onion and slice the leeks. Dice 1/2 of a zucchini.

Add olive oil to the pot and add the chopped aromatics and zucchini.

Add salt and herbs and sweat over medium heat, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 2 additional minutes.
Drain beans and add, along with tomatoes and stock.

Bring to a simmer, cover with lid askew, and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Meanwhile, chop remaining carrots and zucchini as well as the potatoes into bite size pieces.

Cut the broccoli florets away from the stalk and separate into small pieces. After 1 hour, add the potatoes and carrots. Add water as needed to cover vegetables. Return soup to a simmer, cover and cook 30 minutes. Add zucchini and cook 30 additional minutes. 10 minutes before serving, add broccoli and canned corn.

Prepare soup bowls by adding arugula to the bottom of the bowls.

Ladle soup into bowls and serve with bread. Serves eight.