Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Rosemary's bean soup with Italian cheese chips Today I made my thirtieth soup! Before I start writing about this soup, I'll tell you a little bit more about the contents of The Soup Book . It's divided into these sections: Techniques ; Recipe Choosers ; Summer Vegetables ; Winter Vegetables ; Pulses and Nuts ; Fish and Shellfish ; Poultry, Game and Meat ; Fruit ; Cheese ; and Breads . Techniques covers making stock, preparing vegetables, herbs, spices and pulses, pureeing, thickening, enriching, rescuing, garnishing, storecupboard essentials, and making use of leftovers.  The other sections contain just what their titles indicate! I have made eleven summer vegetable soups, five winter vegetable soups, five from Pulses and Nuts , three from Fish and Shellfish , four from Poultry, Game and Meat , and two from Cheese . It's obviously going to take me a while to get through The Soup Book . I have no idea why this soup is called Rosemary's bean soup. It contains ros...

Tuscan Bean Soup This recipe calls for canned beans (borlotti, flageolet or cannellini) and as I have been tidying and cleaning out our cupboards I've used cannellini beans. I have to mention that the younger offspring has done an impressive job on the cupboards. That's enough about him. Back to me and my soup! Other ingredients include onion, carrots, leek, garlic, tomatoes, tomato puree (I substituted sun-dried tomato paste as there was an open jar of it in the fridge), chicken stock (I had to use a cube as my home-made reserves have been used up) and spinach.When ready it's served with ciabatta bread, grated Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil. So it's quite a rich soup. We've just had the Tuscan bean soup for lunch. All enjoyed it. The adult males were particularly forthcoming in their praise. The spouse liked the "tomato-ey sharpness" and mused that ham stock should be considered as an alternative to chicken stock. Bees' Cheese and other recipes H...