Creamy Bean Soup with Greens and Pesto

Few things are more comforting that a bowl of hearty soup on a cold winter day. I enjoy making soup in the winter, and this one is a favorite.  Not only is it delicious and nutritious, but most of the ingredients can be easily sourced from my backyard.

Hearty soup, perfect for a cold windy day.

It is very satisfying when your spring, summer, and fall gardening efforts all come together in one pot of steaming soup.

Click Read More to see the complete post.




I like to cook this soup, start to finish, in one pot, which makes clean up easy. You can make this recipe vegetarian or vegan, by swapping out the oils and bone broth with vegetable based ingredients.

Ingredients

1 TBS heat stable oil; lard (from pastured pigs), ghee, or coconut oil
3 medium onions
3 C frozen greens - chopped
1 bulb garlic - about 8 cloves
1 quart canned (stewed) tomatoes
3 C cooked shell beans
1 1/2  quarts bone broth
1 C dehydrated tomato slices - broken into bite size pieces
4 Tbs stock powder
6 oz pesto (can be made in the summer and frozen for winter use)
Sea salt - to taste
Fresh ground pepper - to taste

• Place oil in a large soup pan and heat until melted.

• Chop the onions, saving the outside layer for bone broth, and dump into the soup pot.  Cook until the onions are translucent and tender.

Onions are easy to grow.  Purchase a "storage" variety seed or plant, pull in the fall when the tops have turned brown, cure in the sun, and store in a dark, dry room that stays around 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

A wooden cutting board makes chopping easy.

• Cut up the frozen greens.  You can use lambsquarter, kale, swiss chard or spinach.  The greens are easy to chop if you allow them to thaw a bit, then cut into slices and then in cubes.  I like to use lambsquarter with kale or swiss chard to get different textures.

Wild greens are nutritional powerhouses.  Lambsquarter sprouts in the early spring and can be used fresh in salads and frozen for winter use.  Kale, swiss chard, and spinach are easy to grow, freeze well, and taste great cooked in the winter.

Lambsquarter and swiss chard.

• Add the canned tomatoes (juice and all), bone broth, and greens to pot.

There are few vegetables more delicious than a tomato fresh off the vine and warm from the sun.  To preserve the summer bounty, tomatoes can be canned in glass canning jars and used year round. Bone broth can be made with chicken, turkey or beef bones along with vegetable scraps to add a mineral boost to your soups.

Quality ingredients make a simple soup wonderful.

• Crush garlic directly into the pot using a garlic press.  The garlic press shown below crushes garlic with the skins on, so you don't have to spend time removing them.

Garlic is surprisingly easy to grow.  In Minnesota, plant the bulbs in the fall and harvest in July.  Store with your onions and enjoy fresh garlic until March.

Save time by crushing, skins and all.

• Add the cooked beans. You can use any variety of bean you have on hand.  I have used pinto beans, garbanzo beans, and Great Northern beans.

Shell beans add valuable nitrogen to the soil, while growing in your organic garden and protein to your diet.  You can grow and winnow the seeds for backyard source of organic healthy protein.

Cook your beans in a crock pot during the day or overnight.

• Add the dried tomatoes, breaking them into bite size pieces.

When you have more tomatoes than you can eat fresh, dehydrating is a wonderful way to preserve the harvest and nutrition. Since very low temperatures are used to dry the tomatoes, the vitamins are not destroyed. Dehydrated tomatoes can be stored for several years.

Dehydrated tomatoes add extra flavor and texture.

• Add stock powder.  This is optional, but will add depth, body, and flavor to your soup.

I love this stock powder recipe and add it to all my soups.  A rich complex broth turns a regular soup into a gourmet experience.  The shitake mushrooms in the mix has tumor inhibiting properties and the nutritional yeast provides a big punch of B vitamins. Herbs like oregano and thyme are perennials in Minnesota and can be dried for winter use.

Stock powder makes broth rich and thick.

• Simmer 30 minutes to an hour.  The longer you cook the soup, the more the flavors will blend.  Right before serving add the pesto and heat until warm.

Grow your own basil and make mouth watering pesto in the summer by blending together  olive oil, garlic, cashews (or pine nuts), Parmesan cheese and basil. Pour into jelly jars, cover the top with olive oil, add a lid, and freeze.

Hungry?

Enjoy!