To Die For Beans, Greens and Garlic Soup ~ Pennies Per Serving

When I first moved back to the US from Scotland my eldest son took me to a local Italian Restaurant.  I ordered The Beans and Greens, I thought I died and went to heaven.  This dish which costs mere pennies to make per serving was  $9.99 at this restaurant. Looking at the prices on the menu gave me palpitations!!!  Anyway, below is a variation of 'The Italian Beans and Greens' made into a wonderful soup. You can add less stock to turn it  back into a main dish.  


Below is the recipe for a piping hot bowl of garlicky goodness. One of the best soups to slop up with a slice of no-knead buttered bread. Enjoy!

Beans, Greens and Garlic Soup 

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• A Gazillion cloves of garlic (or 4 or so, however many tickles your fancy), peeled and chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 6 cups or so of Vegan chicken flavored broth
• 1 (15.5 ounce) can cannellini beans,drained and rinsed
• 1 cup ditalini or other small pasta  ***I like to use Barley because it never gets soggy. If I decide to use a Pasta I never cook it in the soup. I cook it separately then add it to my soup per serving. I hate soggy pasta***
• baby spinach, escarole,  green chard or other greens
• salt and black pepper to taste
• **Shredded Parmesan/Romano Cheese Optional, I use a Vegan alternative

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat the olive oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. Stir in the garlic and onions; cook and stir until the onions are transparent, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the chicken broth, increase the heat to high, and bring the mixture to a boil.

2. Stir in the beans and ****pasta (I cook pasta separately then add to soup bowls per serving); lower heat to medium, and simmer, uncovered, until the pasta is al dente, or 8 to 10 minutes. Add the spinach and stir just until wilted. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

***NOTE: Unless I am making bread, cake or cookies I never measure ANYTHING.

Stone Soup: Or~ What To Do With Vegetable Scraps

Ellen Kanner: Meatless Monday: Taking Stock

It's possible to save ourselves and the planet and money, all at the same time. Making vegetable stock is multitasking at its best -- you get to do all these things plus get a head start on dinner, too.

It's a bit like the folk tale in which a stranger comes to a village (one of your classic plot lines, by the way). There's been war, famine, poverty, in fact all the horsemen of the apocalypse have ridden through and it's made the townsfolk a little less than friendly. They suggest the man move along.

Right away, he says, but I'd like to stop for something to eat first.

Good luck, they say. You won't be finding any food here.

He smiles. No problem. Got everything I need with me. I'm in the mood for stone soup. He builds a small fire, fills a beat-up pot with water and drops in what he says is his magic soup stone.

Magic and soup are both appealing things to those suffering hardship, and within minutes, the whole ragtag village has assembled to watch. The man stirs the pot and smiles.

Love a good stone soup, he says. But you know what really makes makes stone soup special is a little bit of cabbage.

One of the villagers rescues a sorry-looking head of cabbage he was going to feed to his pigs and offers it to the stranger.

Great, the stranger says, adding the cabbage to the pot. You'll have some soup with me when it's ready, won't you?

The villager is thrilled, also hungry. He agrees.

So, says another villager. What else goes into stone soup?

Carrots are lovely, says the stranger. Perhaps an onion, a potato, and I always like to add some greens like the ones you've got growing wild around here.

Pretty soon, every person in the village has anted up a vegetable or two. Everything goes in the pot with the magic soup stone, and it all comes together to be a rich, life-sustaining soup that feeds them all. No one eats the stone, either, which would make for a very bad ending.

The moral is, we are capable of sustaining ourselves but only by working together. Which brings me back to making vegetable stock and being green.

Rather than wasting precious scraps and the odd bits of vegetables leftover from cooking, throw them all in a bag, like a gallon-sized resealable. Extra points if you use environmentally-friendly bags. Put scraps in bag, throw bag in freezer. Add scraps every time you chop fresh herbs, peel an onion, tear up greens for salad. Carrot, tomato and potato peels, green bean tops and tails, cabbage cores, woody broccoli stems, slightly past-its-prime produce, everything goes in the bag. When it's full and you've got a few minutes, it's stock-making time.

Dump veggie bits into a large soup pot. Add a quart of water -- a cup or two more if you've reached vegetable scrap motherlode. Put the lid on the pot, set the burner on high and let the water come to a boil. Turn off the heat, leave the pot in place for half an hour (or longer), you're done.

Meanwhile, the veggie bits and hot water coalesce, providing gorgeous vegetable broth. Known as passive cooking, it may look like you're doing nothing, but you're making broth and saving energy, both yours and the electricity or gas necessary to heat the soup. Keeping on the lid means the heat doesn't escape and does the work for you.

Let the mixture cool, then strain broth. Vegetable stock can be frozen until you're ready, then use as the base for soups or stews or to add nutrients and flavor when cooking whole grains. Taste varies based on what goes into the broth. However, it's always better than the purchased stuff. There's no salt unless/until you add it. And you never have to lay out another penny for vegetable stock again. For extra points, compost cooked and cooled scraps, as long as there's no animal amongst them.

In a greenwashed world, making vegetable stock is really, truly green, good for the planet, good for you and something from nothing. If it's not quite stone soup, it's still pretty close to magic.

Indian Red Lentil Soup

So what do you do with vegetable stock? Substituting stock for water when you cook beans or whole grains imparts extra flavor and vegetable goodness. It's great in a gazillion recipes, including as a base for soups, like this warming Indian-spiced one. It's cheap to make, quick to cook and fab, nourishing and warming to eat.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1-1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 pinch red pepper flakes or one dried red chili, crumbled
2 large onions, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
1-1/2 cup red lentils
6 cups vegetable broth (see?)
1 28-ounce box or can chopped tomatoes
juice of 1 lemon
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

In a large heavy saucepan, heat oil over moderate heat. Add dried spices and chili or pepper flakes, stirring for 1 minute, or until the oil darkens and turns fragrant.

Add onions, garlic and garlic, stirring until onions soften and become translucent, about 5 minutes.

Pour in lentils, stirring for 1 to 2 minutes, or until lentils deepen in color and are coated with the seasoned oil.

Add the vegetable broth (homemade is cheapest and best) and chopped tomatoes.

Simmer, covered for half an hour, or until lentils are tender, but not mushy.

Stir in lemon juice and cilantro, season with sea salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 6.

Free-Form Vegetable soup master recipe with variations

Vegetable soup Master recipe-- The Recipe Box -- Ellen's Kitchen

From:  ELLEN'S KITCHEN

Free-Form Vegetable soup master recipe with variations

I think of vegetable soups as basically tomato-ey and otherwise. There is a tendency, especially when you start experimenting with soups made from stocks, broths, and juices, for them to taste all the same because they have pretty much the same things in them. Make them different! Take the lists below as suggestions, using different bases, vegetable combinations, and garnishes at different times. 
Each quart of finished soup requires about 3 cups of raw vegetables and/or cooked beans or noodles and about 3 cups of some flavorful stock. A quart of homemade soup only serves about 3 people unless they are being polite.
Plan your additions so that the tenderest items go in last, and so that nothing will be over-cooked by the time the soup is ready. If you are making a very thick soup, simmer over low heat and stir it frequently to prevent scorching. If you use a meat or chicken broth, skim off most of the fat on it, the fat is what gives it the heavy taste many people dislike. However, if you are making a vegetarian soup without other fat, about 1-2 T of high quality vegetable oil per quart stirred in toward the end of cooking will improve it. 

Stock possibilities Water left from steaming or simmering vegetables; green beans or corn are especially goodb Water drained from cooked noodles or beans (is thick, needs seasoning) Stock made from bones or scraps--you can use already cooked bones if that's what you have--strain it well, do not try to serve the exhausted scraps as part of the soup  Water mixed with soy sauce or miso, 2 T soy product per cup of water  Gravy (thinned with water or juice if very thick) Pureed vegetables thinned with water or juice  Water in which meat has been cooked  Wine  Water with powdered vegetable broth added  Beer  Tomato juice and/or carrot juice  Juice from canned tomatoes or other canned vegetables sauces or pastes  Soy, grain, nut or dairy milk Yogurt or sour cream is a good base for cold soups or if added after cooking

Soup Making Notes:
About the cabbage family: long cooking or high heat cooking of cabbage, broccoli, mustard, kale, brussel sprouts or cauliflower, or their cooking waters, causes a breakdown of their sulfur compounds, which givesd that familiar, undesirable cabbage-y boarding house smell. 
The flavor, texture, and cooking time of the soup can be varied by changing the shapes into which you cut the raw vegetables. Leftovers should be added near the end or used to make stock. 
Ingredients, especially vegetables, may be sauteed in oil or butter before adding, may be steamed or may be added raw. This changes the flavor of the finished soup.

Soup Vegetables onions carrots all types of summer squash: zucchini, crookneck, pattypan, marrows tomatoes, fresh or canned: can be peeled and seeded for a lighter effect peppers, green or red chilis (small amounts) corn peas, fresh or frozen mushrooms green onions, shallots, leeks celery all types of greens: spinach lettuces mustard, chicory, sorrel broccoli leaves carrot tops beet or turnip greens parsley celery tops beets (color the whole soup) cauliflower broccoli asparagus cabbage

Starches and other vegetables These absorb liquid while cooking, thickening the soup, and will cook apart to a thick soup if left for a while. If you want them whole, add the pre-cooked starch the last 10-20 minutes of cooking. Potatoes turnips, parsnips, rutabaga winter squash and pumpkin noodles and pasta cooked or partially cooked beans lentils or split peas canned peas cooked grains

Texture Accents These ingredients stay solid or chewy throughout cooking water chestnuts celery root jicama Jerusalem artichoke nuts of all kinds cooked barley bamboo shoots cooked soy beans or grits

Thickening ingredients Add these near the end of cooking, just early enough that they are completely cooked before serving. The soup will thicken. Start stirring. flour (before adding mix with cold liquid) nut meals of all kinds (ground up nuts) sesame meal- whole seeds can be used but are not well digested by the body wheat germ--especially good in tomato-base soups mashed potatoes bread crumbs corn meal

Soup meats Raw meat, other than ground or minced meat, is a good broth base. If added to the soup, it should be added very early so that it can be thorough tender by the time the rest of the soup is cooked. The tougher, cheaper, bonier cuts are preferable because they have stronger flavor. Keep cooking temperatures at a simmer after meat is added. If you boil, rather than simmer, soups containing meat, it will toughen the meat. oxtails neck bones Stew meat bones from roasts or other raw meat chicken, esp. backs, necks (only if organic), wings squid (low heat or it gets rubbery!) turkey, especially carcass and dark meat poultry gizzards and hearts (after cooking, remove, trim, slice, and return to soup) tripe (see menudo recipe) Before serving, remove the bones and skin from the meat, chop the meat and return it to the soup. Don't leave bones and skin, or too much fat, in the soup. Seafood, fresh fish, shrimps, clams and oysters need only 5 to 15 minutes to cook in soup. If you plan to leave them longer, be sure to keep the heat very low to avoid a really fishy taste. Ground meat also takes only a few minutes of cooking before it toughens.

Soup seasonings 1 tablespoon fresh cold-pressed oil per quart. Soy sauce wine curry powder fresh or dried green herbs most spices, including cinnamon and other "sweet" ones vegetable broths and seasonings Best I've found is a vegetable-soy bouillon called Dr. Bronner's Balanced Protein Seasoning. Not the mineral broth, but the protein powder bouillon.

Protein Foods Must be added at the very end or they will become curdled or stringy. cheese yogurt beaten egg--if you want this to blend without lumps or "egg drops", beat some of the hot soup into the eggs, then beat the liquid into the soup. However the Chinese have made a culinaryreputation adding the egg directly to the soup so it forms the little shreds called "egg flowers" nutritional flake yeast

Other last minute additions
sprouts of all varieties
chopped parsley or Chinese parsley/ cilantro
left-over vegetables or soup
dumplings, either meat or grain