White Bean Soup
Ingredients:
6 strips of uncured nitrite-free bacon*
1 small Parmesan rind**
1 large yellow onion, diced into quite small pieces
2-3 cloves minced garlic
4-5 stalks organic celery, diced
4-5 large carrots, diced
16 oz dry organic white beans***---could be navy beans or cannellini beans. Just make sure they are the same size (unless you are using canned beans)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
8 cups organic chicken broth
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
Directions:
First chop up the bacon. Cook bacon in your dutch-oven (like Le Creuset) or soup pot over medium high heat. Avoid burning. Once bacon has been browned, remove with a slotted spoon, & set bacon aside on a paper-towel to drain. Leave bacon fat in pot to cook veggies.
Meanwhile, if using dried white beans, prepare them in your pressure cooker. Rinse beans. Add water and some salt into your pressure cooker. Cook on the Beans setting. Beans should be al dente to soft but not falling apart. If you have time to simmer them in the pot, amazing. If the beans seem like they need to more time in the pressure cooker, you can run them through again on a shorter setting.
Add diced yellow onion and minced garlic. Saute in bacon fat (or avocado oil if making without bacon). Add some salt and freshly ground pepper and dried thyme.
After onion looks a bit translucent, add in celery and saute a few more minutes.
Add in diced carrots, saute
Deglaze the bottom of the pan with 2 tsp of apple cider vinegar. May also use white wine for this. Sometimes I will use both.
Add to pot: pressure cooked beans, broth, bay leaves, Parmesan rind
Simmer for about 45 min to an hour with the lid on.
Serve with bacon bits crumbled on top.
*Use 1-2T avocado oil if you’d like to make this without meat.
**Eliminate to make this recipe dairy-free.
***Pressure cooking seems to be particularly effective at inactivating lectins. One study found that cooking beans for only 7.5 minutes in a pressure cooker was enough to inactivate their lectin activity.
