Thursday 14 November 2013

Borlotti bean, bacon and vegetable soup

It's soup season.  I've called it.  Over the past few weeks I've been grabbing a pack of soup from the freezer and heating it up at work.  It's like a warming cuddle in my day.  Not that I often get bored of tomato and pesto soup, but a bit of variety is good and although this contains bacon, it also contains a lot of lovely fibre.

Borlotti bean soup




Borlotti bean, bacon and vegetable soup - Makes 5 adult or 10 child portions

Ingredients

350g Bacon
2 Small onions
2 Cloves of garlic
150g Swede (rutabaga) - peeled weight
200g Carrot
1 litre, 1 3/4 pints Water
240g Drained tinned borlotti (rosecoco beans)
A few sprigs of fresh thyme

Method

Chop up the bacon and dry fry in a sauce pan adding in chopped onions and garlic.  In the meantime peel and chop the swede, remove the tips and tops of the carrots and chop.  Once the onion has softened add the carrot and swede.

Boil the kettle then add 1 litre of water to the pan.  Bring to the boil and simmer with a lid on for 15 minutes or until the carrot is soft.

Drain the beans and add to the pan with the thyme.  Once all heated through, blend in a blender and serve with more thyme sprinkled on top if liked.  My little man ate all of his portion and the leftovers reheat well too.

Bean soup



Make it Thrifty:

Look out for packs of bacon offcuts, they're great for making soups like this from because you blend it later.  Also don't bother peeling carrots for soup, just give them a wash under a tap and take the ends off, that way you prevent waste.  By putting a lid on a saucepan when simmering, you can turn the heat right down and save money on gas or electricity.

Fresh thyme is easy to grow yourself but keep an eye out for 'growing thyme' packs in supermarkets.  They often have best before dates on and 'reduced for quick sale' packs once given some water at home last for way longer than the date on the pack.  Also although they don't always survive, I've had some success planting them out in the garden too.

10 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. I had some leftovers from the freezer for lunch today. It was like a warming lunchtime cuddle in a bowl.

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  2. I make soups very often in the winter. I could not resist this borlotti soup. I love the addition of bacon for extra flavour. It is so cold now and it would be perfect!
    I am inviting you over at my blog for a new challenge "Let's Party!". You are very welcome to enter a recipe if you like!

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    1. Oh yes, soup is what you need when it's cold!

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  3. Mmmm. I love a good soup although I rarely get a chance to make my own. What a great idea of work lunches, though.

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    1. I really think making your own soup can be as easy as opening a pack of pre made. Often a lot of the cooking time can be done while you're not standing over it and if you make a big batch you can have loads in the freezer to heat up when you want. If you're really short of time, try my Tomato and Pesto Soup which is really quick to make; less than 15 minutes and freezes brilliantly.

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  4. ooo I'll have to try this one. We have lots of soup in this house in the Winter, mainly to warm us up in our old house. Brrr Thanks for joining in with Thrifty Thursday :-)

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    1. Now you're reminding me of being a student. A lot of soup was eaten...

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  5. MMM, yum, this sounds lovely. I too love making my own soup. Years ago I had a super recipe for carrot and apple soup, which sadly has gone walkabout. Will have to Google it to see if I can find a similar one.

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    1. Ooh carrot and apple. I will give that a go!

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