soup's on!

the weather, after some false starts, seems to have turned chilly for good. i love the fact that i can't leave my house without a scarf, without which i couldn't achieve that perfect balance of remaining warm while enjoying the crisp, cool autumn weather. these are also the perfect conditions for homemade soup! now, im a sucker for noodle soup from the local chinese restaurant, especially when i have a cold like the one that i've doing battle with over the last few weeks. but sometimes, i need something more hearty, with some texture, something that require me to chew as well as slurp.

one day, when i was in such a mood, i searched my cupboards and found a couple of soup basics:
vegetable broth in a box (what did we do before broth-in-a-box?!)
a half a red onion

some more rummaging produced the following:
frozen spinach
1 can cannellini beans (the white ones, but not the navy beans of which i am none too fond)

so the next twenty minutes went something like this:
heat 1 tbs olive oil
to hot oil, add some red pepper flakes and approx half a teaspoon herbes de provence
cut red onion into slivers - as fine as possible. (they should be ready to melt)
add onion slivers to the hot (temperature), hot (spicy) oil

while the onion is on its way to the much coveted translucent stage, open and drain the cannellini beans and open the spinach. add a pinch of salt to the onions, but not too much b/c the broth comes already flavored - hello time saver!

after translucency has been achieved, add the beans and let them sweat for a couple of minutes. then add a whole box of broth - usually come in 32 oz. containers. that's usually enough for me, but for a decent amount for two and with some leftovers, add another cup and half of water or broth. a good rule of thumb for me: if i'm using low sodium broth as i usually do, then i use all broth. if using regular broth, then i cut it with water.

let the whole concoction come to a simmer - about 5 or 6 minutes. add the frozen spinach and let simmer for another 10 minutes. i like the flavor to really soak into the beans. if using fresh spinach, add it closer to the end so that it has time to just wilt.

this soup is great the next day, too. when using fresh spinach - which looks prettier than frozen - i don't add all of it the first day. after reheating spinach-less soup, i drop in a handful of fresh baby spinach leaves and they wilt instantly and bring a just-made freshness to the dish.

next time: tomato-garbanzo soup...

enjoy!