Creamy, Spicy, White Bean Soup

Serves typical family of 4 for 2 meals with bread and a side salad

Typically winter ingredient soups are rather austere.  This contains the same ingredients (minus the salt pork, ugggh!) and is very inexpensive, but tastes and feels luxurious.  It is rather unusual of me to make such a soup in July, but I found an 25-lb bag of carrots for $8 because it was the end of the season. 

I bought the bag of carrots, sorted through it (the splits go to the dogs, the ones with the moldy ends to the chickens, who will peck at them off and on for a week or two, the rest to us).  I peeled a ton of them, made an enormous salad, bagged some up to serve with hummus or for car snacks and used some for this soup.

Note that in this recipe, the veggies and spices are separated in the instructions.  You can prep the veggies all at once if you like and just add some of them later.  The soup is much more interesting if the vegetables are added in stages. 

BOIL hard one hour, in about 10 cups of water, then drain:

3 c. northern or navy beans

ADD to drained beans and SIMMER together, covered for 3-4 hours:

11 c. water

¼ c. celery tops

1 chopped large onion

4 chopped, peeled carrots

1 chopped rib of celery

3 chopped medium Yukon or red potatoes

1 tbsp. garlic

1 tbsp. gumbo file

2 tsp. dry mustard

1 tsp. each thyme, celery seed, white pepper, black pepper, sage and cilantro

1 tsp. salt

TURN OFF, remove from heat and let cool.

PUREE all of the soup.

POUR back in the soup pot.  ADD:

½ stick butter

¼ c. olive oil

2 more chopped, peeled carrots (chopped fairly small)

1 more chopped rib of celery (chopped fairly small)

SIMMER 15 min or more, until oils are incorporated.  Taste and adjust seasonings.  It is likely if your tastebuds are like mine that you will want a little more garlic, gumbo and salt, but not much – perhaps a tsp. of the first two and a pinch or two of the latter.  Simmer another 20 minutes or more, until recently added vegetables are tender.  Serve with a green salad and a side of bread.

NOTES:  If you buy spices in bulk, this is a very inexpensive recipe.  I particularly like this grouping of spices, but if you are loathe to use so many, skip the cilantro, thyme and celery seed.  Gumbo File is amazingly versatile once you begin using it outside of Cajun cooking.  I even use in in boeuf bourguignon and as a replacement for zaatar with lemon zest.