Thursday, September 29, 2011

pasta and bean soup

This soup was really good, even though it was a little too hot in my tiny kitchen as I cooked it. It will be great in the winter! I adapted this from a Family Fun recipe.

Ingredients:
3 14-oz cans reduced-sodium broth (I used two veggi, and one chicken, since that's what I had)
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
4 4-inch sprigs fresh rosemary, or 1 Tbsp dried (I only had dried, but wished I had fresh because it was hard fishing the rosemary out later)
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1 15-oz can white beans, rinsed
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes
1 cup medium pasta shells (I only had spirals, and it worked fine)
2 C individually quick-frozen spinach (I only had fresh baby spinach, so that's what i used)
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
1. Combine broth, garlic, rosemary and crushed red pepper in a 4 to 6 quart soup pot, bring to a simmer. Partially cover and simmer over medium low-heat for 20 minutes to intensify flavor. Meanwhile, mash 1 cup beans in a small bowl (I was going to skip this step, then decided "what the heck" and just did it. I'm glad I did, it made the soup a little creamier)
2.Scoop garlic cloves and rosemary from the broth with a slotted spoon (I had a mesh scoop that worked great). Add mashed and whole beans to the broth, along with tomatoes; return to a simmer. Stir in Pasta, cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until pasta is just tender, about 10-12 minutes (I actually put my spinach in here, too, but whatever).
3. Stir in spinach, cover and cook just until spinach has thawed, 2-3 minutes. Ladle soup into bowls and serve with a sprinkle of parmesan.

We all liked this soup a lot, and it was great as leftovers for lunch today!

2 comments:

Kim Woodruff said...

That sounds really yummy. I'm going to have to make this.

gaylene said...

I hope you guys like it as much as we did :)