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Cannellini Vegetable Soup with Parmesan Toasts

Cannellini Vegetable Soup with Parmesan Toasts

Happy 2016!  Feels so good to be back here after a couple weeks off.  We stayed home for the break and were able to spend lots of time catching up with family and old friends.  Our own family time was filled was lots of cooking, baking, playing, and laughing, but also we experienced our fair share of sibling squabbles and arguments and I lost my patience too many times to count.  It was another realization that I am not yet what I ought to be and there is so much growing to do.  So here’s to fresh starts, new beginnings, and moving ahead with humility and grace.

This soup is the perfect one to reset as we all try to refocus ourselves on healthy eating.  It’s full of plump creamy cannellini beans and enough vegetables to make you feel virtuous.  Sage, rosemary, and thyme is infused throughout and my favorite little parmesan toasts add the finishing touch.  It’s simple, but right now I can’t think of anything more inviting than a quietly simmering pot on the stove.  Wishing you all the best to what’s ahead in this new year.

Cannellini Vegetable Soup with Parmesan ToastsCannellini Vegetable Soup with Parmesan Toasts

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Cannellini Vegetable Soup with Parmesan Toasts

Cannellini Vegetable Soup with Parmesan Toasts
  • Yield: 10-12 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 pound cannellini beans, rinsed, soaked overnight, and rinsed again
  • 2 large garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
  • 3 fresh sage leaves
  • 1-2 sprigs rosemary
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 yellow onions, finely chopped
  • 4 stalks celery, finely chopped
  • 8 medium carrots, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, finely chopped
  • 2 medium zucchini, chopped
  • 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
  • 1 small bunch Swiss chard, stalks removed and leaves coarsely chopped
  • 3/4 pound green cabbage, core removed and coarsely chopped
  • 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt
  • Extra-virgin olive oil for serving

Parmesan Toasts

  • 1 baguette, thinly sliced on the diagonal into 1/4-inch slices
  • olive oil
  • finely shredded parmesan cheese

Instructions

  1. Place with beans in a large pot with 10 cups of water. The water should cover the beans by at least an inch. Add the garlic, sage, and rosemary. Bring to a boil over high heat. Continue to boil for 5 minutes, then reduce heat and simmer partially covered for 1 1/2- 2 hours. Skim away any foam that rises to the surface. Begin the rest of the soup while the beans cook.
  2. In an 8-quart pot or bigger, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, and carrots and cook until vegetables soften, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes. Add the thyme and stir for another minute. Stir in the zucchini and broth, increase the heat, and bring to a simmer. Add the swiss chard, cabbage, and crushed tomatoes. Cover and cook over low heat for about an hour.
  3. Discard the sage and rosemary from the pot of beans. Add the beans and their cooking liquid to the vegetables. Stir in salt and pepper and simmer for another 30 minutes to 1 hour, until beans are soft and tender. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and top with parmesan toasts.

Parmesan Toasts

  1. Preheat the oven to 375.
  2. Brush baguette slices with olive oil and sprinkle on a few teaspoons of parmesan on each.
  3. Bake toasts for about 10 minutes until edges turn golden brown.

Notes

adapted from Molly Wizenberg’s A Homemade Life

 

 

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25 Responses to Cannellini Vegetable Soup with Parmesan Toasts

  1. emily i love your words, moving ahead with ‘humility and grace’ – such a true and beautiful sentiment. as well this soup is everything i want & crave in our cold season, it’s so gorgeous! i am such a legumes lover, and i think they’re forever graceful when luxuriating in warm and steamy broths with vegetables. happy 2016 sweet lady! xo

    • Thank you, Danielle,for your sweet words and encouragement. I do love how legumes add such a comforting heartiness to soups as well. Sending warm hugs over to you. xo

  2. I adore warming soups like this, yours looks like a big warm hug in a bowl – perfect for a chilly January day! Gorgeous photographs!!

  3. This sounds so amazing! I love your blog too. Your photos are so visually stunning and I love how minimalist the design is! Definitely want to scroll/stalk more of your blog later when I have time! ; )

    Pinning this now!

  5. This soup is exactly what I need right now on a very cold Philly morning. And it is just so beautifully photographed.
    So glad you enjoyed your holidays.
    Happy new year! Cheers Emily!

  7. So pretty! So hearty! I love a good bean soup with lots of veggies in it too, because of how healthy and filling they are at the same time.

    P.S. hurrah for getting the top line on the first page of foodgawker. That’s huge, you go girl!

  8. Hi Emily, Happy 2016! This soup looks so warming, comforting, and delicious. I absolutely love Cannellini beans, especially for soups. I once subbed in navy beans and it just wasn’t the same. I was also so excited to see you featured on food gawker- it came up on my instagram!

  10. This looks so cozy and comforting, Emily! Perfect to sooth those squabbles ;). I adore you and your honest heart. I hope you are having a fantastic end to your weekend, and that we sent some snow your way! 😉

  11. Augggh… squabbles and all; so much a part of family life. Agreed, patience is key, but often hard to be mindful of. It’s a practice I feel like I’m always working on! No doubt a simmering pot of soup on the stove would be so welcome right now. It’s sooo cold out! I love cannellini beans, one of my favorite. They’re so buttery, filling and nourishing. Perfect to slip into a pot of soup. Happy New Year my dear!

    • Hi Lena! Yes you can use canned beans, but it won’t have quite the same flavor since won’t the beans won’t have been simmered with the rosemary and sage. To use canned beans, I would use 3 cans of drained beans and extra chicken or vegetable broth in place of the water. Since you won’t need to simmer the beans, I would add them and the extra broth after the vegetables have had some time to cook. Add the rosemary and sage to the vegetable mixture and discard at the end. I hope that all makes sense!

  13. This soup sounds right up my alley. Cannelini beans are by far my favorite bean, with black beans a close second!! I put them in everything though. This soup just looks and sounds like perfection! Thanks for the recipe!
    Much love,
    Heather @ Simple Fresh Natural

    • Thank you, Heather! Yes, aren’t cannellini simply the best? And black beans are a favorite too- so versatile! Thanks so much for stopping by. 🙂

    • Hi Terry, This is one of the few recipes where I think canned beans make an inferior substitute. Since both the beans are their rosemary-infused cooking liquid are used in the final soup, I think using started with the dried beans is important. This minestrone soup would be a good alternative if you’d like to use canned beans. Parmesan toasts would make a great addition to this one as well. Hope this helps.