Winter Bean and Vegetable Soup

Here is a basic soup recipe that you can play with (improvise) for a rich and warming winter soup. It’s sort of a “stone soup” because you can combine whatever you have in the refrigerator and cupboard that looks good to you on any given day. Served with a slab of homemade bread and butter, you have a complete Tolstoyan style peasant meal.

Ingredients

14 c. water
¼ c. split peas
1/3 c. brown lentils
1/3 c. adzuki beans
1 chopped potato
2 chopped carrots
2 chopped celery stalks
6 oz. stewed tomatoes
¼ c. chopped onion (or 1 tsp. onion powder)
2 crushed garlic cloves (or 1 tsp. garlic powder)
½ c. grated cabbage
2 shredded collard leaves
1 tbsp. olive oil
1½ tsp. dill weed (or use fresh dill, if you have some handy, for a real treat)
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
½ tsp. coriander
salt to taste

Directions

Put the water into a large stew pot and bring it to a boil over high heat. Add the split peas, brown lentils, and adzuki beans and lower the heat to a simmer. Cover the pot. Set a timer for one hour.

Chop the potato into cubes no more than ½-inch in size, slice the carrots, chop the celery, and chop the onion. Add these vegetables to the pot and also add the stewed tomatoes and the olive oil. Crush the garlic cloves and add them to the pot. Grate the cabbage and add that to the pot. Add the herbs. Go light on the salt. (Salt can always be added later by individuals as per their own taste.) Remove the central vein from the collard leaves. Roll the collards into a tube and slice cross-wise into thin shreds. Add the collard shreds to the pot. Now be patient. Cook the soup for one hour from when you put in the dried legumes, or until they are soft. The other vegetables will soften before the legumes.

You may wish to add some water to the pot as the soup cooks, depending on how thick you want your soup. Serve this soup hot with bread and butter. Yum! Warm and tasty for a winter night.

Eat well, be well, live deliciously!