Garlicky White Bean (Chickpea) Soup: 5 Ingredients or Less for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays

I had been craving a simple bean-based soup and our theme this week at I Heart Cooking Clubs: All Chef's Edition is 5 Ingredients or Less. Of course I turned to Mark Bittman and found his Garlicky White Bean Soup.

Beans of choice, a bulb of garlic, rosemary, plus salt and pepper (not counted in our 5 or less) and olive oil for garnishing and that's it. Because I wanted chickpeas (even though I made a chickpea soup a few weeks ago, they are my favorite), the cooking time is longer than other white beans, even after soaking, but it's worth it and the wait while the rosemary-garlic aroma permeates the house.

Bittman's advice: "Use dried beans, don't skimp on the garlic (when I say '1 bulb' I mean it) and you won't be disappointed."

Garlicky White Bean Soup
Slightly Adapted from How To Cook Everything: The Basics via MarkBittman.com
(Serves 4)

1 1/2 cups any dried white beans, rinsed and picked over
1 medium garlic bulb, cloves peeled
1 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary leaves or 1 tsp dried
salt and freshly ground black pepper
olive oil for garnish

Deb's Note: I usually soak my beans--especially chickpeas--overnight before cooking.

In a large soup pot, place beans, garlic, and rosemary and add 6 cups of water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then lower heat so the soup bubbles steadily. 

Cook, stirring every 20 minutes or so, until the beans are tender and falling apart, 45 minutes to up to 2 hours (or more) depending on the bean and whether they were soaked first. Add more water or broth if mixture gets too thick or dry. 

When beans are tender, sprinkle with salt and black pepper to taste and stir vigorously to break up the beans even more, or you can mash or puree some of the soup to thicken the broth even more. Taste and adjust salt and pepper if needed. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil on each bowl. Enjoy! 

Bittman has two variations--adding chopped greens or peeled shrimp during the last 5 minutes of cooking.  

Notes/Results: Perfectly garlicky, perfectly good. It's amazing what just a few good ingredients and lots of time will do. I ended up cooking the soup about 3 hours total to get the chickpeas as tender as I wanted them, which allowed them to build plenty of flavor from the garlic and rosemary and concentrating the broth. I pureed a couple of cups of the mixture to thicken it, and it was just the right texture. Simple and delicious, I would happily make it again.

Linking Up with I Heart Cooking Clubs: 5 Ingredients or Less.

 
 Let's take a look in the in the Souper Sundays kitchen.

Tina of Squirrel Head Manor brought Indian Cucumber and Tomato Salad and said, "The theme for May's spotlight dish at I Heart Cooking Clubs is Indian cuisine. My first thought was Tandoori chicken or a curry dish but I went with a simple salad. Diana Henry's recipe and column is posted at The Telegraph so I grabbed it there. She says this looks like an ordinary salad but it's fresh and punchy. Must be the chilli and cumin. Certainly smells good when you are heating the cumin."

Debra of Eliot's Eats shared Japanese Steakhouse Ginger Dressing with Salad and said, "My sister and mom had to make a quick trip back recently. They spent one day with us and Sis was telling me about a new salad dressing she had recently made. Her favorite cookbook is Joy of Cooking and she gave me a copy for Christmas many years ago. As she described the ingredients, I decided I had to look up this recipe in my own Joy of Cooking. It’s now bookmarked! The accompanying salad was made of spinach, shredded carrots, chopped celery, cucumbers, radishes and bean sprouts. I had also intended to toss in some snow peas but I forgot. This is a great salad and an even better dressing.   It is definitely a way to get your family to eat their vegetables!"

 
Thanks to Debra and Tina for joining in this week!

About Souper Sundays:

Souper Sundays (going since 2008) now has a format of a picture link each week where anyone interested can post their soups, salads, or sandwiches at 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 your blog post that you link up to Souper Sundays in order to be included in the weekly round-up.

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 to it on your post, it will be removed.)
• You are welcome to add the Souper Sundays logo to your post and/or blog (completely optional).

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a happy, healthy week!