Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup

Book Update:  Okay, I take everything back I said against “The Runaway Jury.”  I got sucked in and the ending was totally worth the suspension of belief!    Now to go find more Grisham books where I haven’t seen the movie…. 🙂

Recipe:  This recipe was soooo comforting and tasty.  It is FAST and EASY.  I had a lot of Great Northern beans leftover from the White Bean Soup and decided to make another soup out of them.  The original recipe calls for canned beans, but I adapted the recipe for dried beans.  Beans are so much healthier than pasta … and I found they are cheaper, too!  You get TONS of beans in a dried bag of beans.  We love garlic here and this soup fit the bill and tastes great with a grilled cheese or some garlic bread!

How do you convert your current recipes to using dried beans?  One, you could make a ton like I did and freeze the rest.  Two, a much smarter method would be to convert the ounces/cups to canned.  One can of beans is 15 ounces in weight.  After draining, this is 1 and 1/2 cups of beans or 9 ounces of weight.  Cooking 3/4 cup dried beans –> 1 (15 oz.) can of cooked beans.  If you need 2 cans of beans, then cook 1 and 1/2 cups of dried beans.

Have leftover white beans?  I made a bunch and used them in my smoothies, too!

Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup
4-6 servings

2 tablespoons butter
2 shallots, chopped (or substitute 1/4 cup diced onion)
1 large sage leaf or 2-3 small sage leaves
2 (15 oz.) cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained (or Great Northern or 1.5 cup dried beans that have been cooked)
4 cups chicken broth (I always use low sodium)
4 cloves of garlic, cut in 1/2
1/2 cup cream or half and half (or 1/4 cup milk)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

In a medium pot or dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat.  Add onion.  Cook 5-8 minutes until soft.
Add sage and beans.  Stir.
Add broth and simmer.
Add garlic and simmer 10 minutes.  Garlic should be soft.
Puree the soup.  You can do this ladling the soup into a blender in 2-3 batches.  Or, I used my immersion blender so the soup just stayed warm in the pot.
Add cream or milk.  Add pepper.  Heat through and keep warm.

Recipe adapted from Giada De Laurentiis