Rosemary White Bean Soup

 

Christmas was good at the Robertson household, and along with an ice cream attachment for my Kitchenaid standing mixer and a new stockpot with a removable pasta insert, Jay and I also received a cordless immersion blender. We couldn’t really decide whether we were more excited about the ice cream attachment or the immersion blender, because they both provided us with so many new possibilities.

Although we could have used the immersion blender to make some dynamite milkshakes or smoothies, we already had some ice cream laying around, so Jay decided to make some soup.

In a recent trip to borrow some fresh rosemary from my mom (she has a rosemary bush growing out of control in her backyard), Jay returned with a large amount of rosemary, roots and all. Since we had so much rosemary ready at our disposal, Jay decided to make rosemary white bean soup.

The pictures are kind of blah because the color of the soup really isn’t that catchy, but don’t let the images fool you. The texture of the soup was silky with just enough bite so that it didn’t feel like you were eating baby food (thank you amazing immersion blender!). The flavor was also deep and warming and was perfect for a cold winter night. Given all the beans in the recipe, the soup was also pretty harty and filling, and considering the recipe was from Ina Garten, it wasn’t too, too terrible on the diet either. The recipe made a lot and lasted for a few days, but I didn’t get tired of the leftovers and in fact ate them every chance I got. I even think the flavor of the soup improved as it sat in the fridge.

I highly recommend making this soup. I also recommend investing in an immersion blender, or locating some nice family members to give you one as a gift.

Rosemary White Bean Soup
(original recipe Ina Garten/Barefood Contessa)
Note: you can make this a vegetarian recipe by substituting the chicken stock for vegetable stock

Ingredients:
1 pound dried white cannellini beans
4 cups sliced yellow onions (3 onions)
1/4 cup good olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large branch fresh rosemary (6 to 7 inches)
2 quarts chicken stock
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Method:
In a medium bowl, cover the beans with water by at least 1-inch and leave them in the refrigerator for 6 hours or overnight. Drain. In a large stockpot over low to medium heat, saute the onions with the olive oil until the onions are translucent, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the garlic and cook over low heat for 3 more minutes. Add the drained white beans, rosemary, chicken stock, and bay leaf. Cover, bring to a boil, and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, until the beans are very soft. Remove the rosemary branch and the bay leaf. Pass the soup through the coarsest blade of a food mill, or place in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until coarsely pureed. Return the soup to the pot to reheat and add salt and pepper, to taste. Serve hot.