5 Hearty Winter Soups

4. Chard and cannellini bean soup

Photo: Flickr/KayOne73

Blogger Christy Brennand loves the flavor she gets when combining silky white beans and buttery chard in this winter soup recipe, and we bet you’ll also love that this soup is packed with protein from the beans and vitamins from the chard.

Recipe from Christy Brennand, blogger for Botanical Interests’ Seed to Saucepan blog

Serves 4-6

What you’ll need:

1/2 lb chard, stems removed and leaves cut lengthwise in half, then sliced into thin slivers
4 cups cooked cannellini beans (other white beans such as Great Northern, or navy will be a fine substitution), rinsed
1 large onion, chopped
1 fennel bulb, stalks removed and bulb sliced into thin slivers
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
6 cups vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt

 How to make it:

In a large stock pot, sauté onion and fennel in olive oil over moderate heat, until slightly softened, for about 6-8 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

Add beans, stock, bay leaf and pepper, and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Then discard the bay leaf. Add chard and salt, then simmer, uncovered, until chard is tender, 8-10 more minutes.

Adjust salt and pepper seasonings to taste and serve.

Tips to reduce waste: Buy beans in the bulk food section of your grocery store, and use your own small cloth bag to transport it home. Avoid produce wrapped in plastic wrap by purchasing loose vegetables in the produce department or at the farmers market and using your own produce bags.

Rather than buy vegetable stock in a can or carton at the store, you can also make your own stock, using leftover veggies you have in the fridge.

Compostable waste: Onion and garlic skins, chard stems, bay leaf, tops of fennel bulb.

Recyclable waste: Can or carton of vegetable stock.

Trash: Plastic packaging for beans, if you didn’t purchase them in the bulk food department; stock carton if not accepted by your local recycling program.