Effortnesslessly: Creamy Bean Soup

This absolutely delicious soup cooks in 20 minutes, has a few ingredients and a 100% healthy. It has instantly become a staple in my kitchen. How about yours?

Blog's Category: Awesome Findings, My Own Fast and Easy, My Staple Food, Vegetarian

Intro

My blog is falling victim of everything good and not-so-good going on in my life. On a good side are my kids graduations and all fuzz going on around it. On a bad side is my badly sprained ankle and all that global political waves happening over the sea on my motherland Ukraine. Hopping around a kitchen on one leg, worrying about my relatives and my lovely Ukraine ain't stimulating my blog post production :). But.. as Daria Dontsova (fiction book author) said in one of her novells, "may be, our fortune sends to us one small disaster after another just in exchange to the one big one?"... so.. no whining!)

This soup recipe is on my posting waiting list for a while..and is awesome. It is simplified White Bean Soup recipe from Epicurious. The difference is: I cooked it without half-and-half and lemon juice which are required in the original recipe. I figured out that after blending, beans were so smooth and creamy that I decided there was no need to add half-and-half (extra-calories, too!). Although, more for the look than taste, I garnished soup with sour cream sauce which is simply sour cream thinned with milk to achieve more fluid consistency.

What is it?

It is very simple, very creamy bean soup with a small chunks of leek. Those chunks of flavorful bits of leek makes you appreciate delicate creaminess of white beans even more.

Taste Description

With amazingly balanced flavors, silky-smooth, this soup jumped in my chart of favorite recipes up to the top ranks. I love the texture - small bits of leek, soft and aromatic, are encased into silky, creamy bean puree. Generous amount of freshly ground black pepper gives you a kick but doesn't stay on a way of delicate flavors of main ingredients - white navy bean and leek.

How to Serve/Store

Serve hot or warm. Soup will keep very well for a several days in your fridge. Along with a simple cheese sandwich, it will make a great take-at-work lunch or will warm you up on a grey wintery day (throw a couple croutons for an extra fun).

Creamy Bean Soup

3 cups of dry white navy beans, soak in water overnight (or 3 canned navy beans)

2 leeks, white and pale part only, chopped

3 chicken broth cubes

4 garlic cloves, minced

4 tbs olive oil

black pepper and salt to taste

finely minced parsley for garnishing

- Soak beans overnight. Bring beans to a boil (make sure beans are covered with water with a water 2 inches above beans. When boiling, turn heat to lowest setting and cook simmering until beans are completely cook and very soft. Keep lid ajar during cooking. At the end, add chicken stock cubes. Before blending, let beans to cool down a little. Blend until very smooth and creamy. Add tap water if needed. Set aside.

- In a large pot, on an olive oil, cook garlic and leek, stirring, on a medium heat, until leek just starts to brown. Add navy bean puree. Adjust thickness by adding more water if needed. Add salt and pepper to the taste. Bring to a boil and cook on a low heat for about 5 more minutes.

- Make sour cream sauce for garnishing: thin out sour cream with a small splash of milk or water to get half-pourable consistency.

- Done! Serve with sour cream sauce and chopped parsley. Enjoy!

Variations

- Bedazzle this soup with a bacon pieces

- Add about 1/2 cup of heavy cream couple minutes before taking soup off heat.

- Squeeze a half a lemon into soup at the end if you like your soup with a hint of acidity.

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IN PICTURES

This time I used ghee instead of olive oil. It doesn't make any difference, IMHO.

You can see on this picture how silky blended beans are. Original epicurious recipe calls for additional step - running blended beans through a sieve. In my case I didn't see any need for this hassle - that's how smooth my beans were. Possibly because I cooked my own beans versus using canned ones.