This is a variation on a wonderful Tuscan bean soup that has become a household staple. The original recipe calls for 4 cans of white beans and 6 cups of stock. But I only had one can of white beans and a can of garbanzo beans, so I used them and cut back on the chicken stock, using a particularly rich stock called Kitchen Basics Natural Chicken Stock that Serious Eats in taste tests found among the best for soups.
The end result was a soup that is lighter yet even more flavorful than the original, once again proving that necessity (and a half empty larder) is the mother of invention. And often involves canned beans.
CREAMY CANNELLINI & CHICKPEA SOUP
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, sliced
- 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1-15 ounce cans cannellini (white) beans, drained and rinsed well
- 1-15 oz can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed well
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 1 tbsp dry sherry
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and cook till translucent, 3-5 minutes. Add garlic and thyme and cook for another 2 minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add the coriander, cumin and cayenne pepper and cook for another minute to allow the spices to start to toast and become aromatic. Add the beans, stock, sherry and 1 tsp salt. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup in the pot till smooth. Allow to cook another 10 minutes for the flavors to develop. Add more salt to taste if needed.
Yield: 6 cups soup.
Nutritional info (per 8 ounce serving) : 177 cals, 5.4 g fat (0.7 g saturated fat, 0 trans fats), total carb 25.6g, fiber 8.6 g, sugars 1.1 g, Protein 11.1 g
Funny, I was thinking cannellini beans yesterday–planning to use them for a white bean dip for our Super Bowl Party. Couldn’t find them–forgot at most obvious store–and ended up with Navy beans and it worked out fine.
that’s a gorgeous cutting board! and the soup smells delicious, too.
i’ve been trying to do more with dried beans, less with bought stock, and use the crockpot. this looks like a perfect combo for a good crockpot simmer with ze spices, and then the hand-held blender.
a dried bean quick-soak trick: rinse, boil in a bunch of water, let it sit for one hour. then rinse, and proceed. in the crockpot, everything has time to cook slowly and flavors can mingle. easy peasy.
kathy – I can’t seem to get dried beans right. They always end up so mushy. Will try your trick.
peggy
if you are leaving it all day, set on low. but, mushy beans aren’t a problem for this kind of soup, are they? since the stick blender is involved.
the quick-soak is supposed to make beans less gassy. it definitely does make them quicker to cook in later recipes, and what would otherwise turn into scum gets rinsed off before the second cooking. i’m liking the dried beans because i’m trying to avoid excess salt and so on; and you can add whatever spices strike your fancy during the cooking. plus, inexpensive! but i admit to not having enough experimentation to get the texture perfect for dishes where that matters.