White Bean Soup

Hi guys!

It's Monday and time for something meat-free. Autumn is in full swing bringing the first cool nights and mornings and I love nothing more than to come home to a hot bowl of soup. I wanted to try the following recipe for some time, but the recipe felt more autumn or winter-appropriate to me so I kept the recipe. It is a white bean soup from Gwyneth Paltrow's book "Notes from my Kitchen Tables". 

Here's the recipe:

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 fennel bulb, stems and fronds removed, bulb thinly sliced
1 large onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
pinch crushed chillies
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 410g (14.5 oz) cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1l (32 fl. oz; 4 cups) vegetable stock
coarse salt

1) Slice the fennel bulb, onion and garlic. Rinse the beans. 

2) Heat the olive oil in a large heavy soup pot over medium heat. Add the fennel and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the onion and garlic, turn the heat as low as it can go, and cook for half an hour, stirring here and there. A little colour is okay, but you really want the vegetables to get soft and sweet.

3) Add the crushed chillies, oregano and pepper and cook for a minute. Add the beans and stock, bring to the boil, lower to a simmer, add salt to taste and let cook on low heat for 1 hour. 

Serves: 4
Active preparation time: 30 minutes
Total preparation time: 2 hours
© Copyright: Gwyneth Paltrow, "Notes from my Kitchen Table", p. 58

Here's how mine turned out:

I had to turn the heat up a bit while cooking the onions, because if you turn the heat as low as it goes, there's not much happening in your pot... I love this soup. The vegetable stock will add a lot of saltiness to the recipe already - if you're using instant stock that is. The onions turn wonderfully soft and sweet and the fennel adds depth to the flavour. An added bonus is that beans are rich in protein and very low in fat. 

Have fun trying and stay warm!