Savoy Cabbage and White Bean Soup

I’m forever trying to be good and cook ahead so I have nice stuff to bring to work for lunch.  While I’m dropping a shedload of pounds of the money sort a week on posh sandwiches in Pret A Manger, I’m simultaneously gaining back a few more pounds of the making-my-ass-bigger sort (have you seen how many calories are in the posh cheddar and pickle baguette?  Who invented this beast? Are they MENTAL?).  Meanwhile, I’m buying leafy vegetables for dinner and letting them wilt in the fridge.  This craziness Must. Stop.

I absolutely love savoy cabbage.  It’s crinkly, it’s crunchy, it doesn’t turn to mush when it’s cooked, and it doesn’t smell like a nursing home.  I usually have it steamed then lightly stir-fried with a bit of garlic.  Neil likes to make it with lots of butter, cream and bacon, which is divine, but I am painfully aware that the clock is ticking towards the day where I adopt that refrigerator-shaped physique so prevalent amongst Mediterranean women in their twilight years (at least in my family).  It’s still a way off for me yet, but I’m not tempting fate.

Thus, healthy, hearty, anti-oxidant packed Savoy Cabbage and White Bean Soup.  This is extremely quick and easy to do.  It will take you half an hour tops. The beans make it extremely filling, but you could make it even more so with a bit of fresh bread on the side.  I’d say you’ll get enough for 4 single servings out of this, 2 very hungry people, or dinner and 2 packed lunches.

Here is my artfully arranged cast of characters:

Smoked Bacon, Celery, Savoy Cabbage, Cannellini Beans, Pork Stock, Leeks, Garlic. Camera shy: Romano Cheese.

Savoy Cabbage and White Bean Soup

Ingredients:

• 1/2 a head of savoy cabbage, sliced / shredded / whatever
• 3 cloves of garlic, smashed
• 2 ribs of celery, chopped
• 2 leeks, sliced (a medium sliced onion or a cup of chopped shallots would likely be a fine substitute)
• 2 pints of pork, chicken or vegetable stock
• 3 rashers of bacon (I used smoked), sliced up into bits
• 1 can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (butter beans would be a great substitute)
• 1/4 cup Romano or Parmesan cheese, for serving
• a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, for serving
• salt and pepper

Fry the bacon in a tiny bit of vegetable oil until the fat renders and the bacon starts to brown a bit.  Throw in the rest of the veg apart from the cabbage.  Cook a bit until they soften – about 5-10 minutes (former if you have an awesome gas stove, latter if you have a rubbish electric one like me).

Pour in the stock, chuck in the drained beans, season with some pepper, and bring to a boil.  Turn it down to a simmer and let bubble for about 20-25 minutes.

Quick note about seasoning: If you’re using stock from a cube, I would say to hold off on adding any salt during cooking. I didn’t add any at all – and I like my salt.  The bacon and cheese provided more than enough saltiness.

After about 20 minutes, add the cabbage, and let it simmer for 5 minutes until cooked. You could also add some fresh herbs at this stage, such as thyme, finely minced rosemary, or parsley.  I would have done this, but I forgot.

Turn the heat off.  Very carefully crush about 2/3 of the beans with a potato ricer or if you’re very brave, give it a quick squizz with a stick blender (be VERY careful of splashbacks if you use a stick blender – hot soup and your face is not a good combo!).  I used a stick blender, but I may just stick to a potato ricer next time as I like my soups on the chunky side.

Stir in a few tablespoons of cheese.  Ladle into bowls, grate over some more cheese, drizzle over a little extra virgin, a bit more pepper, and serve.

Ta-da:

Vegetables I Used To Hate: Fennel (Finicchio)

I couldn’t stand asparagus as a kid – possibly due to the fact that, in my mother’s kitchen, it mostly came out of cans (newsflash to all the trendy revivalists – the 80s SUCKED) – and now I’m pretty much obsessed with it.  Mushrooms, courgettes (actually, “zucchini” where I’m from), aubergines (eggplant to us Yanks), artichokes – I used to hate them all.

Fennel, or finnichio in my Italian-American family, is another one that I roundly dismissed for about 25-odd years.  My mom hates the stuff, so I never had that much exposure to it.  I’ve also heard that in Italy, “finnichio” is also used as a derogatory term for homosexuals, but I’m not sure how reliable my source is, and I doubt that would be why my mother never cooks it.

One of my favorite recipes is the Fennel, Tomato and White Bean soup from James Peterson’s Splendid Soups book, a hefty volume with over 300 recipes for every kind of soup imaginable, and a billion different ways to make stock.  I first made this for a vegetarian friend, who later told me she’d never liked fennel till she’d tried this soup, so I think this might be the one to convert my mom.  It’s one of those recipes that’s very healthy without being preachy about it – there’s hardly any fat at all, aside from my own addition of the cheese.