The weekends are all about big, tasty meals. Mondays are usually soup, the healthier the better. I try to make something extra good (read: non-fattening) for us on Monday to try and make up for things like, well, let’s see — uh, lamb and Guinness stew and espresso-spice-rubbed pork loin accompanied with goat cheese and roasted garlic tamales. Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be posting about both of those meals this week.
But, here we were at a Monday Meal. I had a bunch of Swiss Chard leftover from the other night and I needed something to do with it. After some rummaging, I found a can of white beans, leftover noodles, chicken stock and an orange. “Hmmm, that all seems pretty healthy,” I thought, eyeing my food processor. Okay, so fine, I added a little cheese at the end, sue me.
Swiss Chard and White Bean Soup:
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
1 onion, coarsely chopped
pinch of red pepper flakes (okay, don’t actually pinch and then risk touching your eyes, just sprinkle)
1 tbsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups chicken broth or stock (I had an open container of stock I needed to use and had 3 cups left — I had used .5 cup the other day. if you have a new package just use the whole thing if you don’t want to have leftover stock, it’s no big deal. Oh, if you are using dry noodles, I’d just go ahead and add a bit more stock anyway.)
1/2 cup red wine (I used some open Merlot)
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tomato, diced
1/2 lb Swiss Chard, stems and center ribs discarded and leaves coarsely chopped
1 tsp orange zest
1 cup cooked leftover noodles or 1/2 cup dry noodles
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
Salt & pepper to taste
Cook onions in olive oil, in a big soup pot over medium heat. Stir occasionally, until softened, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, about a minute more. Add drained beans, broth and simmer, uncovered about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, scoop one ladle of your soup out (wherever it is in the simmering process) and put it in a food processor or a blender. Add your roughly chopped chard leaves and blend until the leaves are incorporated and it all looks kind of like a watery, olive green colored pesto.
After the initial simmering time, add the blended material into the soup and stir. Voila! It’s all green now. Add noodles (if you are using dry ones) and simmer 10 minutes more minutes or until noodles are done. If you are using leftover noodles, stir them in after about 8 minutes of simmering. Also add the chopped tomato, thyme leaves and orange zest at this point.
Taste and add salt and pepper to your liking. Before you are ready to eat, remove pot from the heat and stir in the cheese. Serve with crusty bread or crackers.
You could also, of course, just add the Swiss chard in pieces and let it wilt down, but I like to blend! Blend! Another idea — if you enjoy the dirt je ne sais quois taste of the red chard rib, (I don’t but jwa does), don’t discard these — chop them up and sauté in olive oil for 4-5 minutes and then use them to garnish your bowls of soup. Of course, they may sink to the bottom, then they’d probably be more like a buried treasure than a garnish.