The belgian lion's white bean soup

8 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
---For the Beans---
1 pounds Great northern beans
2 Carrots
2 Stalks celery
1 large Onion
Fresh thyme
Bay leaves
Sea salt -For the Soup---
2 quarts Chicken or beef stock*
3 Carrots; chopped
2 Leeks (white part only); chopped
1 Red onion; chopped
5 Cloves garlic; chopped
1 bunch Chopped fresh spinach or red Swiss chard; optional

Directions

For the beans: Place all ingredients in a pot and cover with plenty of water. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook until beans are done. Leave beans a bit underdone. Discard the vegetables and keep beans in cooking broth.

For the soup: *1 to 2 quarts of good chicken or beef broth. Chicken or beef is a matter of taste and the amount you use will determine how thick the soup will be. If you serve the soup as one course of a several course dinner you probably want to keep the soup rather thin. On the other hand, this soup can be served as a main course and then could be served quite thick.

Place all the ingredients except spinach or chard in a heavy pan with some good olive oil. Saute the vegetables without browning. Keep them firm.

Strain the beans and add them to the other vegetables. Add the amount of stock you want and bring to a gentle simmer. Add salt and black pepper to taste. If you are using spinach (my preference) or chard, coarsely chop the leaves, discarding the stems and add to the soup.

If you are serving the soup as a main course you may serve it accompanied by a good country bread and grated Parmesan or Swiss cheese.

Posted to recipelu-digest by "Crane C. Walden" <cranew@...> on Feb 7, 1998

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