Warming Butter bean Soup

I often get asked how I come up with my recipes and this Warming Butter Bean Soup is a classic example. I saw a photo of this warming, rich and moorish looking thick soup on social media and I felt immediately drawn to it. A hearty bean soup like that is so comforting on those cold autumn days and it looked simple to make. Plus, the lovely guy who’s posted the picture on Instagram added the ingredients he used in his captions. And I wasn’t worried about quantities, as I always make up so much that I have leftovers for at least my lunch for the next day. Additionally I just swapped some ingredients.

Using butter beans whilst the recipe said broad beans (why not!) and using a normal onion instead of spring onions means that I just use what I have available, rather than going out and buying lots of stuff. I always substitute ingredients or cut corners in cooking to make my life easier!

I always substitute ingredients or cut corners in cooking to make my life easier!

So off I went, I bought a couple of tins of butter beans  and my main meal inspo for the day was done. A few ingredients only, warming butter bean soup. Perfect! I then went to teach a class of yoga and after that my mother in law stopped by for a quick cup of tea. I love chatting and cooking at the same time, so I started to chop my onions and prepped the other bits I needed, got the soup cooking and loved talking about this and that with Dee.

This soup cooks in no time so we could have a taste of it before we had even finished our cup of tea. The verdict: Nice. Yum! A great taste. BUT…..

There is often a BUT and that’s when the MAGIC happens 😉 Dee said I could puree the majority of the soup (leaving some of the beans aside) as this will make it creamy and therefore much more appealing to the kids. And she was so right. I put a couple of spoons of beans aside, gave the soup a blitz in my food processor and then added the whole beans in again.

This process meant that our warming butter bean soup was a sure favourite with the kids and both Tim (my hubby) and I loved this absolutely delicious soup!

There are millions of fantastic recipes out there – but I feel that a recipe is only then perfect if you enjoy cooking it & you love eating it.

So for this particular recipe I have to thank @the_bethnal_greens family for the inspiration for this classic Syrian dish (aka foul mdamass) and my lovely mother in law Dee, who has always been and always will be at the core of my food and health inspiration. Without her, I might use sugar instead of salt and other crazy substitutes, just because it’s easy 🙂

Anyway, enough blabbering on, here is the recipe for this tasty

Warming Butter Bean Soup

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

1tbsp love oil

1 onion, finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tins of butter beans, drained and washed

1 tin on chopped tomatoes

500ml vegetable stock

2 handfuls of parsley, chopped

1tsp cumin powder

2 tbsp tomato puree

Juice of 1 lemon

INSTRUCTIONS

Pour olive oil into a large pot and heat.

Fry onions for a minimum of 8 minutes until soft.

Add garlic, cumin powder, tomato puree and mix well until the kitchen smells amazing.

Add beans, chopped tomatoes and parsley and cook for another 5 minutes.

Remove a couple of large spoons of the beans and set aside.

Puree the rest of the soup with a hand held blender or in your food processor.

The beans breaking up will make the soup creamy and delicious in taste.

Add lemon juice and fold under the remaining beans that were set aside.

Add chilli flakes and perhaps some more lemon juice to taste and sprinkle for parsley when serving.

Tips:

1. You could add a handful of cashew nuts to your soup and blend this with the beans. It’ll add creaminess and good fats.
2. Make up lots of this soup and keep it in the fridge for up to three days to enjoy for a second meal.
3. Broad beans work very well in this recipe too. 

November 8, 2018Tags: beans, bowl of soup, butter bean soup, butterbeansoup, family meal, plant based soup, soup, vegetable soup, warming soup