With the drop in temperature to the chilly 60’s, rain and ominous dark skies I decided to bust out the big green soup pot and declare the official start of soup season. After all it is September and, according to some meteorologists, September 1st marks the start of meteorological fall.
Of all the soups I could possibly kick the season off with – why navy bean soup? Well – it was a special request from my mother in law. When the call came in for navy bean soup in I sprung into action and hurried on over for the soup delivery. Did she like it? She LOVED it and, in fact, ate it all and requested more!
Ingredients:
- 1 pound dry navy beans
- 4 cups water
- 1 large Vidalia onion chopped
- 2 large carrots chopped
- 2 stalks celery chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tsp. dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tsp. ground black pepper
- 5 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup unflavored almond milk
Directions:
- Place the dried navy beans in a collander and thoroughy rinse under running water.
- Put the 4 cups water in a large soup pot and bring to a boil. Put the beans in the pot and boil for two minutes stirring intermittently. Take the pot off the burner, put the lid on and let the beans soak for one hour. Pour the beans through a colander to drain the water.
- Saute the onions, carrots and celery in a small amount of water in the soup pot.
- Add the vegetable broth, beans, garlic, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves and black pepper and bring to a boil then reduce the heat and gently simmer for 1 hour and 30 minutes stirring occasionally until the beans are soft.
- Add the almond milk.
- Remove the soup from the stove and allow to cool down then puree using a hand held mixer or high speed blender.
