Red beans soup

This soup can be made with canned beans , but for better flavour and for enjoying all the nutritional properties at their best, dry beans are highly reccommended. Furthermore, if you cook your own beans you will have a wonderful stock, richer in flavours than just water for your soup.

It is perfect in winter time, but also quite good in spring rainy and gloomy days.

Ingedients:

250 gr dry red beans

1 small white onion

1 small carrot

1 stick of celery

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoon tomato concentrate

few sage leaves and rosemary

2 tablespoon extravergin olive oil

salt

water (a lot)

Leave the beans overnight in plenty of water. Then rinse and boil with water (just enought to cover the beans) and a bay leave.

Start with cold water, once water is boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for an hour with lid on.

When time is up, add the salt, cover and let cool the beans down.

In a pot add the extravergin olive oil, and carrots, celery and onion chopped.

Cook over gentle heat for 5-7 minutes, adding a couple of tablespoons of beans water (in this way vegetables won't burn).

In the meantime, blend about half beans with sage and rosemary, with a bit of beans water.

(you can play around the extact quantity of beans: this will change the final texture of the soup, I quite like half and half :) ).

Then add the tomato concentrate, stir, and add the blended mixture and the remaining beans. At least a couple of ladles of beans water, bay leave (check and adjust with salt if needed).

Leave to simmer for about 15-20 minutes.

I like to serve it with some fresh parsley, or just some extravirgin olive oil (or both) and even with some garlic oil.

Check the other pages to see when and how I ate this wonderful soup :)