Rosemary White Bean Soup

 

Ina Garten.  Her food looks so good.  The first time I saw her show Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network, she was preparing (if I remember correctly), a roasted chicken for her husband Jeffrey.  I don’t even really enjoy chicken (at least when I cook it), but seeing hers made my mouth water.  You’re a lucky man, Jeff.

It looked so simple, and so tasty.  I was excited to learn, upon browsing the Internet, that she is a purveyor of one of my favorite kinds of food: comfortable classics—think pot roast, simple roasted asparagus, eggs Benedict—done really well, with good ingredients, and maybe modernized a little. 

I perused the sample recipes on her website, and tucked one away in my bookmarks folder for a chilly day.

The Recipe

Rosemary White Bean Soup, Ina Garten, a.k.a. Barefoot Contessa

Apprehension Meter

After reading the ingredient list and even the instructions to this recipe, you’d think that the meter would read at a low to very low for this recipe.  On the other hand, if you’re me and you failed miserably at your first attempt at bean soup not even two weeks ago, the meter spikes a little, and settles at a medium. 

Perhaps the only thing that helped me actually go forth with this recipe was that there was an alternative method to soaking the beans.  This method seemed easier (and quicker), and more or less promised that I wouldn’t end up with a bowl full of stinky, sprouted, uncooked beans.  

Bean soup, take two.

Here’s How It Really Went

Aside from ending up with a fairly messy kitchen and a bleeding thumb, I’d say it went pretty smoothly. 

Before taking a nearly six hour bath in the fridge
 

While the beans drained and rested, I began slicing and sautéing the onions and olive oil.  Since the soup would be making a trip to the food processor later, I didn’t bother slicing the onions very small, or uniform for that matter.  That’s one thing I love about blended soups—you don’t really have to worry about chopping and dicing as much.

As I was making a conscious effort to follow the recipe, I sautéed them on low to medium heat for about 15 minutes.  The way the onions slowly softened and became slightly translucent made me aware that I usually use way too high of heat when sautéing onions.  This, apparently, is the secret to nice, soft, sautéed onions. 

These may have been my best sauteed onions ever.  It was as simple as following the directions...

Next came the chicken broth, the beans, rosemary, and bay leaf.  And that was it.  So easy.  I brought everything up to a boil, then set the alarm on my cell phone (I need to just suck it up and buy a kitchen timer) for 40 minutes. 

Warmth, in a stock pot 

The rosemary and chicken broth, as it simmered on my stove, almost instantly made my apartment smell so homey and comforting.  There’s something about the combination of the two that make you want to snuggle up in a blanket with wool socks on and smile.  I thought to myself, in 40 minutes I’ll be enjoying a delicious, healthy, simple, Ina Garten soup.  Yum.

Try making that almost an hour and a half .  I checked the beans and I checked them again, and not until almost 90 minutes had elapsed was I satisfied with their consistency.  I’m not sure what Ina does differently, perhaps she soaks them overnight, or at least for the full six hours instead of five hours and fifty minutes?  I’ll never know for sure. 

One (sort of) laughable but frustrating moment was when it was time to remove the rosemary sprig before transferring the soup to the food processor.  I fished out the sprig with a slotted spoon, only to find out that all of its little rosemary “leaves” had fallen off into the soup.  Now what, Ina? 

I spent a considerable amount of time grabbing them out one by one with a pair of tongs.  In retrospect, I probably should have just left them in; the soup was prettier with a little green in it. 

Just a few pulses creates a creamy but chunky texture.

After two messy trips from the soup pot to the food processor and back, the soup was nearly complete, just getting its final sprinkle of salt and pepper.

If only the final product—the reward—would have been a little better.

The Verdict

It smelled good.  It even looked pretty good.  But it tasted… alright.  I liked the texture (only pulsing the soup a few times so that you have somewhat whole beans and a thicker broth), and it certainly felt thick and hearty enough for a chilly November night.  But it was lacking in flavor.  Maybe this was because I used low sodium chicken broth.  Or maybe because 90% of the ingredients are white beans.  

Anyhow, this recipe might be good as the first course of a winter dinner party (if you’re chic enough to do that kind of thing), but it’s not something I’d recommend making just for yourself, because by day four, you’re pretty sick of it, no matter how inexpensive it was or how good it made your apartment smell.