Saturday, March 08, 2008

Easiest Tasty Winter Soup

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I wish I could say that I enjoyed a bowl of soup this week. I wish I could tell you these leftovers are sitting in my fridge right now... but I can't. Why? It might be because I am masochistically inclined to pile up work into short periods of time, because graduate research involving animals takes up ungodly hours of the day, or because I really can't wait on more minute to finish this chapter of my thesis... it might be that all of those reasons add up to a really, really busy week (soon to be month) with hardly time to shower let alone cook.

And this is the perfect soup - that I so-happened to make almost two weeks ago - for what I am craving this week. It is healthy but filling, wintery but not full of cheese and cream. It is a satisfying, stick to your ribs kind of soup that doesn't take more than 20 minutes of active time to prepare.

Easiest Tasty Winter Soup

1lb dried Great Northern beans

2 small onions

1 head Napa cabbage

1 bay leaf

4 cups water

4 cups stock (vegetable, or free-range organic chicken)

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Put the beans in a large pot with an extra 1" of water to cover. Either: (1) soak overnight, or (2) bring to a boil, turn off heat and soak for one hour. Drain the soaking water and rinse beans thoroughly.

2. Slice the cabbage (1/4")and dice the onion (1/4-1/2"). Add the onion with the bay leaf, water and stock to the beans. Cover, bring to a rapid simmer and cook until the beans are tender (2-3 hours, depending on how old the beans are). Add the cabbage and season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for another 15 minutes.

3 comments:

Jessy and her dog Winnie said...

That looks yummy! Wow all the sudden I'm like really hungry lol.

Anonymous said...

It's so pretty! In a hearty, stick-to-your-ribs sort of way... Hope tomorrow will bring a little break (and maybe something delicious?).

I know what you mean about piling up work in short periods of time. I always manage to arrange it so I'm either working 30 hours or what seems like 300 hours in a given week -- nothing in between. Somehow, I still haven't managed to achieve some sort of balance...

Rachael said...

Jessy - thanks! It's super quick to make...

Liz - it's funny (and I'm glad) that the photo turned out okay. The original version of it is very unappetizing! (Fluorescent light, at night, ugh). Crazy schedules are the academic life, right? I'm trying to learn to embrace the downtime!