Comforting Soffritto Soup (Vegan)

Prep Time 30 mins - 8hrs if soaking beans

Cook Time 1 hour

Recipes makes up to 14 servings

Comfort and savory goodness in a bowl. Every winter there’s a soup I’ll make once a week just because I enjoy it that much, and for a while this soup became a every week once a week soup I’d throw together. I ended up making it so often I just never thought of sharing the recipe. Which is funny because, I thought the recipe was too simple.

I realize if I enjoy it then I know you will too. I think there’s also maybe something new you might learn from this recipe ore a idea you like that will help you create your own variations.

What is a Soffritto?

Soffritto refers to a mix of vegetables that are cooked for a long time. In this case we are cooking down celery, onion, carrots, leek, garlic. Cooking these vegetables for a while really creates and develops alot of special flavor in this soup. So it’s what this soup is all about the care of creating the ultimate Soffritto.

Ingredients

• 1 leek (just the white part not the green leaves, save those and make stock at home or compost)

• 12 oz. dried medium white beans (such as cannellini), soaked overnight if possible or you can use canned. The flavor is not the same in canned beans though, sorry.

• (1) 8oz can of muir glen crushed tomatoes or 7 fresh tomatoes quartered

• 3 sticks of celery

• 2 tsp of coconut sugar or raw honey

• 5-7 cups of vegetable stock (to cover the vegetables add more if you like extra broth)

• 5-7 carrots
  4 garlic cloves

• ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

• 1 of kale, ribs and stems removed, leaves chopped

• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

• 2 bay leaves

• 1/2 cup of chopped fresh parsley

• salt to taste

Method

1.) In a food processor pulse carrots, leek, celery and garlic in a food processor until finely chopped.. Heat ⅓ cup oil in a large pot over medium. Transfer the pulsed veggies from the food processor to the pot and and begin cooking your, “Soffritto”. Cook the veggies for 15 mins until softened and slightly Caramelized. on medium-low heat. Keep stirring every so often. What you want to look for is the vegetables to release their water and intensify their flavor.

2.) Proceed to add your 1 can of crushed tomato puree and bay leaves. Stir to simply combine.

3.) Immediately after adding the puree, add the soaking cannelloni beans some of their soaking liquid about 1 cup. Stir well to combine. Then proceed to add your vegetable broth until all vegetables and beans are covered.

4.) Cook for up to 1 hour on medium heat. If you added too much broth or bean water you can cook with the lid partially off the pot. The steam will leave the pot and the mixture will reduce. If you are shy on broth cover the soup and let simmer on a low boil for that hour.

5.) When beans are fully cooked cooked begin to add in fresh kale, chopped parsley, and finish with fresh cracked black pepper, salt to taste, and a tsp of coconut sugar or raw honey.

6.) Ladle up in a bowl and enjoy.

The best part about this soup is that the flavors really become better and better each day. I think it’s a great soup to make once a week in winter it will only taste better in the days to come. Hearty, healthy, delicious.