Brenda’s Italian White Bean Soup/Stew

I made this last week and I had been meaning to post it but I had other things I wanted to post too!

• 1 lb Dried great northern beans (or other white, mild flavored beans -I used White Lima beans)
• 4 Chicken or veggie bullion cubes (Or about 1 quart of broth-I used home-made chicken broth)
• 1 quart of water to cook beans (Omit if you use broth, you can always add extra water if the beans soak it all up)
• 2 tbsp Italian seasoning (I omitted because I used home-made spaghetti which was already spiced to my liking)
• 2.5ish cups spaghetti sauce (or one of the cans from the dollar store -I used home-made I had in the freezer)
• 1 bunch spinach or half block frozen chopped spinach

*Optional* None of these things are required for the recipe to turn out but I will comment on what I added to mine. 🙂

• Up to 1 lb  ground beef or Italian sausage ( I used sweet Italian sausage links)
• Dried or fresh garlic to taste
• 1/4 cup of shredded zucchini (I had some in the freezer so I tossed it in)
• 1/2 cup of sliced carrots (I had some shredded in the freezer so I added that)
• 1/2 cup of Sliced green, yellow, orange or red bell peppers
• 1/4 cup of sliced eggplant
• 1/4 cup of mushrooms
• 1/2 olive slices

Put beans, water, bullion (or broth), seasoning and sauce and garlic if using in pot or crock pot. Cook until beans are soft. If you are adding sausage or beef, brown that and add now. Chop spinach (and other veggies) and add to soup and bring back up to simmer. More water/broth makes it more like soup, and  less water like a thick stew or chilli texture. This makes a TON of food. Definitely enough for leftovers several times though!

My yummy bowl of soup!

My family LOVED this recipe and even my pickiest (Sean!) said we should make it again. It was an easy throw together dinner that is good for everyone. Zephaniah was the only one who couldn’t eat it because he is sensitive to tomatoes and gets a rash but it wasn’t a big deal to boil a few beans and veggies into his own little soup though. I am sending part of the left overs over to a friend that just had a baby along with lasagna, blueberry muffins and vegetarian chilli. Perhaps a few other things too but we shall see how ambitious I am!