Rosemary White Bean Soup, Drizzled with Lemon-Garlic Oil for Souper (Soup, Salad, & Sammie) Sundays

There are few things better than the smell of beans soup with rosemary and garlic wafting through the kitchen. When I planned to make this Rosemary White Bean Soup from Ina Garten, I thought the weekend would be much rainier. No matter. It's the kind of satisfying, flavorful, naturally vegan soup that is good any season. I was looking for garlic-filled recipes this week and also saw Ina's Drizzled with Lemon-Garlic Oil which I thought would be terrific drizzled on top of the soup.

I did make some changes to the soup--primarily adding extra garlic and slightly reducing the olive oil and salt in the soup. My changes are noted in red below.

Rosemary White Bean Soup
Slightly Adapted from Ina Garten, via FoodNetwork.com
(Serves 6)

1 lb dried white cannellini beans (I used Navy beans because that's what I had)
4 cups sliced yellow onions (about 3 onions)
1/4 cup olive oil (I used 1 1/2 Tbsp)
2 garlic cloves, minced (I used 3 large cloves)
1 large branch fresh rosemary (6 to 7 inches)
2 quarts vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste--I reduced it to about 1/2
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
(I served the soup with a drizzle of Garlic and Lemon Oil--recipe below)
 
In a medium bowl, cover the beans with water by at least 1-inch and leave them in the refrigerator for 6 hours or overnight. Drain.

In a large stockpot over low to medium heat, saute the onions with the olive oil until the onions are translucent, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the garlic and cook over low heat for 3 more minutes. Add the drained white beans, rosemary, vegetable stock, and bay leaf. Cover, bring to a boil, and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, until the beans are very soft. 

Remove the rosemary branch and the bay leaf. Pass the soup through the coarsest blade of a food mill, or place in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until coarsely pureed. Return the soup to the pot to reheat and add salt and pepper, to taste. Serve hot. (Note: I omitted the food processor part, instead taking two ladles of soup and pureeing it in my blender, then stirring it back into the soup.)

 
Garlic and Lemon Oil
By Ina Garten, via FoodNetwork.com
(Yields about 2 cups)

12 whole garlic cloves, peeled
2 cups extra-virgin olive oil
2 lemons
2 pinches red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Place the garlic in a small saucepan with the olive oil and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

With a vegetable peeler, cut large strips of zest from each lemon and add it to the garlic oil. Add the red pepper flakes and salt and allow the oil to sit at room temperature until the flavors are infused. Store the oil in the refrigerator.

Notes/Results: A simple but tasty bean soup with a enough rosemary to be present, but not too much to overpower. I do think the extra garlic in the soup is needed and the drizzle of the Lemon-Garlic Oil really adds to the soup giving it both brightness and another layer of flavor. The soup goes together easily--you just need time to cook the beans--if if soaked. Mine took about 50 minutes to get to the right texture--maybe because without running into town to Whole Foods, nobody out my way had dried cannellini beans. Rather than puree the whole soup, I like just pulling out a couple of cups to blend. It gives the rest of the soup body but it still is brothy, with good texture. I would happily make it again. 

Linking up to I Heart Cooking Clubs where this coming week is our Monthly Featured Ingredient Challenge: Garlic! Recipes that include or feature garlic from any of our IHCC chefs. 

 
We have some great friends and dishes in the Souper Sundays kitchen--let's take a look!

 
Judee of Gluten Free A-Z Blog brought Hearts of Palm and Avocado Salad and said, "This is one of my favorite salads. The blend of hearts of palm with diced avocado tastes amazing. Hearts of palm is an unusual, yet very healthy, vegetable that is readily available in jars in most supermarkets. It comes from the core of the palm tree and usually imported from Costa Rica."

 
Tina of Squirrel Head Manor shared Veggie Burgers "with an Unconventional Topping" and said, "...I forgot we were out of conventional bread so I adapted by using a French loaf I'd baked earlier in the week. I just toasted the bread and that came out well. Then I discovered I was out of cheese. Hmmmmmm.........obviously I did not plan well. As luck would have it there was a container with leftover cheese grits. Why not."

 
And Beth Fish Reads is here with a salad of White Bean and Asparagus Farro from a new cooking Light cookbook. She said, "The recipe I'm sharing is one I ended up using more for inspiration than actually following step by step. Still, I think this is a solid dish. My photo shows where I ended up. Basically, I added an avocado and some red bell pepper and used a vinaigrette dressing (I'm not a big mayo fan).

 
Thanks to all who joined me at Souper Sundays this week!

About Souper Sundays:

Souper Sundays is back with a new format of a picture link each week where anyone interested can post their soups, salads, or sandwiches any time during the week and I post a recap of the entries the following week.)

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here. 

If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's Souper Sunday's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you. Also please see below for what to do on the post you link up to be included.

and 

On your entry post (on your blog):

• Mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and link back to this post. (Not to be a pain but it's polite and only fair to link back to events you link up at--so if you link a post up here without linking back on your post, it will be removed.)
• You are welcome to add the Souper Sundays logo to your post and/or blog (optional).

 

An InLinkz Link-up

 Have a happy, healthy week!