White Bean Soup - Random Recipe #16

It wasn't really soup weather yesterday, but I had planned to make my Random Recipe for the challenge at Belleau Kitchen and I was bloomin' sure I was going to make it!  The theme this month is 'First and Last' with the rules as follows:


 randomly select a book
2. look at the first and last recipes
3. choose one (or both if you're feeling flash..) of the recipes and make it
4. post the recipe on your blog with a link back to my blog and include the random recipes logo
5. deadline is midnight on the 29th May

 The book I picked was the Good Housekeeping Best 30 Minute Recipes which I see is still available to buy, although I must have had mine for over 20 years.  It's a great book which I have used a lot, but never have I made the first recipe for White Bean Soup.


White Bean Soup
Serves 4

1tbsp oil
125g onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 level tsp copped fresh rosemary or 1/2 level tsp dried
425g can haricot beans, drained and rinsed (I soaked dried cannelini beans overnight then boiled for 30 minutes before adding to soup)
1.1 litres vegetable stock
salt and pepper
Toasted wholemeal croutons and sprigs of fresh rosemary to garnish

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and saute the onion with the garlic and rosemary for 1-2 minutes.  Add the beans, stock and salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Puree half the soup mixture in a blender or food processor and return to pan. Bring back to the boil, stirring all the time. Adjust the seasoning.
3. Serve the soup sprinkled with croutons.  Garnish each bowl with a sprig of rosemary.

This was our first meal outside on the patio this year, my son joined us and, on taking a spoonful of soup, pronounced 'That's really good' with a sound of surprise in his voice!  Praise indeed.

Labels: beans, cannellini beans, haricot beans, Random Recipes, Rosemary, Soup, vegetarian

posted by Janice @ 21:24 4 Comments

Lamb and Cannellini Bean Hotpot

You know how I am waiting for my kitchen to be rebuilt and I'm living in amongst the new units? Well I can't get at most of my cookbooks and I hadn't realised how much I refer to them. There is a little bit of the shelf at the right hand side that is accessible and I managed to extract a little book called Let's Cook Simple Suppers by BBC Good Food (probably free with the Good Food Mag) and in it I found this recipe to use with my lamb chops. The recipe is actually for haricot beans but it does suggest cannellini or flageolet beans as an alternative.

2 onions, chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 x 500g can haricot beans, drained (or use cannellini or flageolet beans instread)
1 tsp dreid oregano
150ml/1/4 pint vegetable stock
200g can chpped tomatoes
8 lamb chops or 4 lamb leg steaks

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6/fan oven 180C. Fry the onions in 2 tablespoons of the oil for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, beans and half the oregano, and stir briefly. Add the stock and tomatoes, season, then bring to the boil.
2. Tip and bean mixture into a large ovenproof dish. Lay the chops on top of a single layer.
3. Sprinkle with the remaining oregano, drizzle with the remaining oil and seaon. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes until the chops are tender and nicely browned.

You may notice in my photograph there are also mushrooms in my version, just a little bit of 'fridge-led' cookery :)

Labels: BBC Good Food Magazine, cannellini beans, lamb

posted by Janice @ 21:01 9 Comments