Italian White Bean and Spinach Soup

Lorrie in Montreal's Note:

Diabetic Friendly Serve with Parmesan, if you like.

• Total Time: 35 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• white kidney beans, rinsed and drained (cannellini)
• 2 cups water
• 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can chicken broth
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh coarse ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 10 -12 ounces spinach, tough stems trimmed
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• freshly grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. In 3-quart saucepan, heat oil over medium heat.
2. Add onion and celery; cook, stirring, until celery is tender,5 to 8 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook 30 seconds.
3. Add beans, water, broth, pepper, and thyme; heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes.
4. Roll up several spinach leaves together, cigar fashion, and thinly slice. Repeat with remaining spinach.
5. With slotted spoon, remove 2 cups beans from soup mixture and reserve.
6. Spoon one-fourth of mixture into blender; cover, with center part of cover removed to let steam escape, and puree until smooth.
7. Pour into bowl.
8. Repeat with remaining mixture.
9. Return puree and reserved beans to saucepan; heat to.
10. boiling over medium-high heat.
11. Stir in spinach and cook until wilted, about 1 minute.
12. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.

Reviews

[PumpKIM]

Good recipe, but how much beans are supposed to go into the soup? I used a can and realized that if I remove 2 cups of beans to puree, that's all the beans! This is more of a spinach soup that a bean soup.

[Starrynews]

Very good! Filling and warming. I used low sodium chicken broth. The lemon juice was an excellent addition - nice little zip. Thanks for sharing!

[chakrates]

Very easy, very good, and I think it will be even better tomorrow. I used 2 cans pintos, because I had no white beans, 5 cups home made chicken stock and added a chopped carrot & 3 cloves of garlic. The lemon juice and thyme are very important; the thyme makes it fragrant, and it was really flat before I added the lemon juice.