{"id":1347,"date":"2017-06-02T09:00:27","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T15:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/villasentieri.com\/?post_type=recipe&p=1347"},"modified":"2026-09-02T10:59:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:59:19","slug":"white-bean-soup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/2017\/06\/02\/white-bean-soup\/","title":{"rendered":"White Bean Soup"},"content":{"rendered":"

June 2, 2017<\/span><\/p>\n

The weather is turning warmer in fits and spurts here in Santa Fe as I write this in early-May.\u00a0 I\u2019m writing these posts a few weeks in advance due to upcoming travel.\u00a0 Warm days and cold nights, alternating with cold days and colder nights make me think of soup.\u00a0 Filling, warm, humble soup.<\/p>\n

There are few soups that I like better than bean or lentil.<\/p>\n

Although a ham bone is a classic way to start a bean soup, smoked turkey works well too.\u00a0 I had a smoked turkey carcass in the freezer from a bird that I smoked a few months ago.\u00a0 That and the combination of the cold weather made me think of making this classic American bean soup.\u00a0 It made a really great dinner along with a platter of my grandmother\u2019s potato cakes, the recipe for which will be appearing here in a few days.<\/p>\n

This soup is assembled from very basic ingredients, many of which are almost always on hand.<\/p>\n

With warm weather approaching, however, this will probably be the last time I serve such a hearty soup until autumn.<\/p>\n

Which brings up an interesting topic: the effect weather has on our cooking and eating habits.\u00a0 We tend to gravitate toward heartier, richer foods in the winter and lighter foods in warm weather.\u00a0 Our caloric needs don\u2019t really change appreciably from winter to summer so if we\u2019re not gaining or losing weight, we\u2019re probably eating about the same number of calories.\u00a0 But it often doesn\u2019t feel that way.<\/p>\n

Eating seasonally is a good strategy for a number of reasons.\u00a0 Locally grown, in-season, produce tastes better than produce shipped from far away.\u00a0 Many fruits and vegetables start losing nutrients as soon as they are picked.\u00a0 The shorter the time from farm field to table the more nutritious they are.<\/p>\n

Did you ever think about what it takes to have \u201cnot from concentrate\u201d orange juice available all year given that oranges are a seasonal crop?\u00a0 Take a look here <\/a>and here<\/a>.\u00a0 It will give you a sense of what is done to our industrialized food supply.\u00a0 To be sure, we have ready access to more and cheaper food than has probably ever been the case in human history.\u00a0 I\u2019m not suggesting we abandon that, just that we become better informed consumers and make active choices about what we eat and why.<\/p>\n

In addition to tasting better, and being more nutritious, eating seasonally brings back a sense of anticipation and, dare I say, romance, to eating.\u00a0 Tomatoes are at their best in the summer so we eat lots of tomatoes then, for example.\u00a0 Often times, lunch on Saturday in late summer will be thick slices of fresh tomato, fresh mozzarella cheese from The Old Windmill Dairy <\/a>in Estancia, New Mexico, a few torn basil leaves from our garden, a sprinkle of salt and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil along with some homemade bread to sop up all the juices. \u00a0Unless it\u2019s from a can and going into something that\u2019s cooked, you\u2019ll rarely see a tomato in my kitchen the rest of the year.<\/p>\n

The same sort of anticipation holds true with many other foods.\u00a0 Some that come quickly to mind are zucchini blossoms (which I dip in batter and fry) and basil (which I turn into pesto and use to season quick-cooked tomato sauces all summer long but never use at other times of the year).<\/p>\n

Seasonal eating isn\u2019t limited to summer, however.\u00a0 There are traditional winter crops and winter foods.\u00a0 Cavolo nero, Tuscan kale, tastes better after a frost and is traditionally eaten in the late fall.\u00a0 My mother-in-law pickles turnips each autumn which we eat in the winter made into a thick soup with cotechino, a Northern Italian sausage.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, my mother-in-law\u2019s pickled turnips would be made in the autumn.\u00a0 That\u2019s not only when the turnips are ready if you eat seasonally but that\u2019s also when grapes are crushed and pressed for wine.\u00a0 The turnips would be packed into a barrel with the solids left over from the grape pressing and allowed to ferment.\u00a0 These days she makes a reasonable facsimile by simply pickling turnips in red wine vinegar though I keep hoping to find a winemaker in New Mexico who will sell me some crushed grapes to give the original recipe a try.<\/p>\n

Red wine vinegar is always available, and mostly so are turnips.\u00a0 Why don\u2019t we make this at other times of the year?\u00a0 Mostly it\u2019s because of the association of pickled turnips (brovada) and cotechino with winter.\u00a0 We try to maintain the seasonality even when we have the ability to circumvent it.\u00a0 Doing that means there are always favorite foods to look forward to each season that we haven\u2019t had in almost a year.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s too warm where you live to have a hearty bowl of bean soup, tuck this recipe away for a few months and give it a try in the autumn.

<\/div>
\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
\n \n <\/div>\n

White Bean Soup<\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n \n
<\/div>\n
This white bean soup is easy to make and very nutritious. If you have the carcass of a smoked turkey or the bone from a baked ham, use my recipe for Roasted Turkey Broth, substituting the smoked turkey or ham bone, to make the broth for this soup. With a turkey carcass you definitely need to make broth otherwise you\u2019d have lots of bones and bits in the final soup. While this isn\u2019t the case with a large ham bone, I still prefer to make broth in advance so that I can skim off the fat. There is a link in the notes that follow this recipe to my recipe for Roasted Turkey Broth. Even if you don\u2019t have a smoked turkey carcass or a ham bone you can make this soup. My supermarket sells various smoked turkey and pig parts. Just use them to make the broth. Be careful, though, as these products can be much smokier than a turkey or ham that was smoked to the right degree for eating. Failing all of that, use whatever broth you have on hand (or even water) to begin to cook the beans then add \u00bc pound of chopped up bacon with the remaining ingredients.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n Print Recipe<\/a>\n Pin Recipe<\/a>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
Prep Time <\/span>20 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Cook Time <\/span>3 hours<\/span><\/span> hrs<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Total Time <\/span>3 hours<\/span><\/span> hrs<\/span> 20 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Servings: <\/span>8<\/span> people<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/g>\n\n\n\n<\/clipPath>\n<\/defs>\n<\/svg>\n<\/span> Ingredients<\/a>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/g>\n\n\n\n<\/clipPath>\n<\/defs>\n<\/svg>\n<\/span> Method<\/a>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span> Notes<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
\n

Ingredients
<\/div>