July 23
Moving Soup

Menu
- Calzones, leftover from Fortunato Brothers Pizza
- Herbed Vegetable and Bean Soup [View Recipe]
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Ingredients
- .5 tablespoon oil
- 1 small onion (peeled and chopped)
- 1 medium shallot
- 15 small carrots
- 2 ribs celery
- 3 cloves garlic
- salt & pepper
- 14.5 ounces tomatoes
- 2 cups stock (divided)
- 14.5 ounces beans (drained and rinsed)
- 4 leaves sage (cleaned)
- 2 tablespoons herbs (cleaned and leaves picked)
- 1 inch chunk cheese
- .5 cup lima beans
- .5 cup peas
- basil (cleaned)
- red pepper flakes
Instructions
We start by heating a large pot with the oil over medium low heat. We add the chopped onion, about ¾ worth. While the onion slowly cooks, we prepare the rest of the ingredients. We peel and dice the shallot, yielding about 2 tablespoons. We stir this into the pot. Next, we carefully slice the carrots, about 8 slices per carrot, yielding about ¾ cup. We wipe our celery clean and dice, also yielding about ¾ cup. We stir in the celery and carrots to the onions that have already been cooking for 10 minutes and are nice and translucent.
While the vegetables continue to cook, we peel and mince the garlic cloves. We add them to the pot along with a pinch of salt and stir in for a minute. We add the can of tomatoes and raise the heat to medium. We partially cover. Meanwhile, we combine ½ cup of the cannellini beans with ¼ cup of the stock in a 1-cup measuring cup. We purée, using our immersion blender, which will help to thicken the soup.
When the tomatoes have cooked for about 5 minutes, we add the purée along with the rest of the broth and beans. We slice the sage leaves and add the leaves of the herb mix. The chunk of parmesan is also added and the heat is lowered to medium-low. The pot is partially covered and the soup is cooked for an additional 15 to 20 minutes to meld the flavors.
When it is almost time to eat, we defrost the frozen limas and peas in a microwave-safe bowl covered with plastic wrap. This just takes a minute on full power. These are added to the simmering soup along with freshly ground black pepper and the soup is cooked for only another 5 minutes or so.
We serve the soup (discarding the parmesan rind) garnished with basil leaves and red pepper flakes.
Even though we did not help much yesterday (and we got a meal and a half for our minimal efforts), Erin still came over today to take the kids to their swimming lessons. We probably owe her a meal or two at this point. To go along with the leftover pizza and calzones, we make a simple minestrone soup. We're just happy that the soup was good enough to be served with those calzones, of which we are very big fans.