White Bean Soup

I know I have been neglecting you all, of which I apologize. Just to make you insanely jealous, I took a girls trip to Las Vegas. I lost a TON of money . . . . at awesome restaurants!! My number one goal for the trip was to eat raw oysters every day. A goal I met. My other goal was to eat at Top Chef judge, Tom Collichio's restaurant, Craftsteak. Holy smokes! It was the best food of my life!! If you have never had Wayngu Beef (also known as Kobe Beef) it is to die for! All I want for Christmas is a Wayngu cow in my backyard ( is that even possible?) It was fabulous food, not to mention great company and lots of laughs (the highlight was when the waiter humiliated Emily by asking her if they could be facebook friends, she was red in the face for the rest of the night!!). We also ate at one of Wolfgang Puck's restaurants for lunch (can't remember the name, sorry). I was skeptical, once a chef starts putting out frozen foods I get a little concerned. However, the food was great. My friend ordered a white bean minestrone, which inspired this soup.

It is spring break and there is a foot of snow in my yard! So soup season isn't quite over yet. Now the annoying part of this recipe I created is that you really won't get the same soup unless you use the braising liquid from some pork ribs. Once you have removed the ribs from the pot, let the liquid cool enough that the fat solidifies and you can skim it from the top. Then strain the liquid from all the other stuff. What remains is a perfect stock for soup! The moral of the story is always save any braising liquid, always!!

Recipe

1/2 lb white beans (northern beans) soaked overnight

4 c pork stock (or chicken stock)

1 can vegetable broth

2 c water

1 onion fine diced

1 c carrots fine diced

1 c celery fine diced

1/3 c flat leaf parsley minced

couple big handfuls of spinach

salt and pepper to taste

Start the beans cooking in the pork stock and water. Meanwhile, dice up the veggies (except spinach) and saute them in a little oil till fragrant season with salt and pepper. Add to boiling beans and turn down to medium low heat. Add parsley. Cook till beans are tender. Add spinach and cook a little longer. Taste for salt and pepper.

note: if you don't have your own fabulous stock, you might want to add some other seasoning like bay leaf, garlic, sage. . . .