Minestrone without the pasta sounds like a punishment until you actually eat this. The beans do the work the pasta used to do, and they do it better, because they hold their shape, carry flavour and leave you full without the heavy nap afterwards. That is the whole idea behind this Tuscan bean broth.
I have cooked a lot of soup in this kitchen, and most of it is forgettable. This one isn’t. Roasting the roma tomatoes first is the trick people skip, and it is exactly the step you shouldn’t. Roasting drives off water and concentrates the sugars, so what lands in the pot is deep and savoury rather than thin and watery. Add the sun-dried tomatoes on top of that and you get two layers of tomato working the same direction.
The other thing worth saying up front is that this soup is built on cheap, honest ingredients. Beans, onions, celery, carrots, a handful of tomatoes. There is nothing precious in the list, and that is the point. Peasant cooking got good because people had to make plain things taste like something, and Tuscany did it better than most. This recipe is squarely in that tradition, just tidied up and made a bit lighter.
It makes a big batch on purpose. Fifteen serves means dinner tonight and a stack of containers in the freezer for the nights you can’t be bothered. I have no shame about that.
Ingredients
Beans:
- 1 cup lima beans (either cooked or uncooked)
- 2-3 roasted garlic cloves (see Basic Recipes)
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped dill
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 onions, chopped
- 3 celery stalks, chopped
- ½ teaspoon paprika (smoked or sweet)
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- 2 carrots, sliced 1cm
- 6 large roma tomatoes, roasted
- ¼ cup chopped sun blush or sundried tomatoes (not in oil)
- 2 litres vegetable stock
- 2 tablespoons roughly torn basil leaves, to serve
Method
- If using dried lima beans, place beans, garlic, dill and bay leaves in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil then simmer for 30 minutes or until beans are tender, drain in colander.
- In another saucepan, sauté onions, celery and paprika in about 2 tablespoons of stock, over medium heat for approximately 5 minutes or until the onions are translucent. Add a little of the salt to bring out the flavour of the onions.
- Add carrots, beans, carrots and roasted tomatoes and stir to combine. Add vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer soup for 30 minutes.
- Add tomato to soup. Return to the boil and simmer for approximately 5 minutes, then serve with fresh basil.
Makes 15 serves.
A note on the beans, since it matters. If you start from dried, that first simmer with the garlic, dill and bay is doing more than softening them. It is seasoning the beans from the inside, so don’t rush it and don’t throw the aromatics in later hoping to catch up. If you are short on time, cooked beans from a can or a batch you already had going are completely fine here. Nobody at the table will hold it against you.
Two more things about technique, because they are the difference between a good pot and a flat one. First, the sweat. The recipe has you soften the onions and celery in a splash of stock rather than oil, and if you keep the heat honest and give it the full five minutes, the onions turn sweet and translucent instead of catching and going bitter. Rushing this is the single most common way people ruin a soup before it has properly started. Second, salt in stages. There is salt in with the onions to draw them out early, and then you taste again at the end, because beans and stock both soak up seasoning as they simmer. Seasoning once at the start and walking away leaves you with a bowl that tastes of almost nothing.
On the tomatoes, roast them until the edges catch and the skins wrinkle and the whole tray smells like the inside of a good pizza oven. That colour on the cut faces is flavour you cannot get any other way, and it is the backbone of this broth. If your romas are pale and out of season, a teaspoon of tomato paste stirred in with them will nudge things along without anyone being the wiser. I would rather you did that than added something artificial.
Serving, make-ahead and a few honest tweaks
This is a soup that gets better on day two, once everything has sat together overnight. It keeps in the fridge for three or four days, and the chef’s tip from the original recipe still stands: extra soup can be frozen. I portion it into single containers so future-me has a proper meal ready, not a block of ice I have to chip at. Reheat gently and taste for salt again, because chilled soup always needs a touch more.
Serve it as it is with the torn basil, or push it further. A slice of good sourdough on the side turns it into a full dinner. A spoon of pesto stirred through at the table lifts the whole bowl, and a little grated hard cheese does no harm either. If you want more body, mash a ladle of the beans against the side of the pot before serving so the broth thickens without any flour. Legumes like these lima beans are a genuinely good everyday food, and if you want the plain-English version of why, Better Health Channel lays it out well, as does Nutrition Australia. For a lighter starter beforehand, our green smoothie bowl works, and if you are cooking your way through the week, the mushroom, chicken and quinoa skillet and our brown rice porridge round out the rest of the days nicely. Want to end on something sweet? The date and lime balls are the easiest thing in the folder.
— Dave Forsythe, Golden Door Living kitchen
