Winter White Bean Soup for Cousin Marilyn

My cousin Marilyn just asked me for this recipe, so here it is, with a few tweaks. Thanks to Matt and Melissa for getting us started with this! This bread is amazing with some crunchy sauteed veggie sausage and Jonah insists that real bacon would be great too. Just so you know.

Also, we usually make beer bread to go along with this. It's the easiest recipe! Takes about 5 minutes to make the dough, no rising necessary, then an hour or so to bake. We've adapted from here: http://www.recipezaar.com/Beer-Bread-73440, but for goodness sake, you really don't need a half cup of melted butter so you can leave it out if you want. Start it about 30 minutes before you start the soup so they're done at the same time.

THE BREAD

3 cups flour
1 bottle beer
1tbsp baking powder
few pinches sugar
few pinches salt
1 tbsp rosemary or any other spice like basil or oregano (optional)
1/2 cup cheese (optional)

Mix all together with spoon or hands. Grease loaf pan. Bake 45 minutes to an hour until brown and crusty. Serve warm. If you let it go stale it makes excellent breadcrumbs.

THE SOUP

2 cans white beans
4 cups broth (we used veggie boullion)
1 onion
1 tbsp dried rosemary
2 carrots
real or veggie sausage or bacon (optional)

Big saucepan
Big soup pot
stirring spoons
Blender or immersion blender
ladle

In the soup pot, chop and sautee veggies in a little olive oil. When they're soft, add broth and sautee a few more minutes. Add beans and rosemary and simmer for 10 more minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Not too much salt- canned beans are pretty salty to begin with. To thicken the soup and improve its consistency and richness, take about 1/2 the soup and put it in the blender for a smooth consistency. Add it back into the soup and serve.