White Bean and Leek Soup

The weather turned chilly this week in Upstate New York, leaves are falling and crunching under our feet. It's time to get out the sweaters and scarves  --  and once again it feels like soup weather. I searched in Grandma VandenBergh's old Dutch cookbook for a hearty soup recipe, and found a relatively simple one for a bean soup with leeks and celery:

Smooth White Bean Soup  (Gezeefde Witte Boonensoep)

Celery and leeks

1 1/2 cups (300 grams) dried white beans
2 1/2 quarts (2.5 liter)  water
1 teaspoon (10 grams) salt
4 leeks
1 or 2 stalks celery
2 tablespoons (40 grams) butter or margarine
1 bouillon cube

Beans and leeks in the soup pot

- Wash the beans and soak overnight in the water.
- The following day, cook the beans over low heat in the same water for 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
- Slice the leeks and chop the celery; add to the soup along with the salt and simmer for another 30 minutes.
- Add the butter or margarine last, along with the bouillon cube, or a teaspoon of gravy seasoning.
- Serve with croutons or slices of toasted bread.

The recipe calls for passing the boiled beans through a sieve or colander so that only the hulls remain in the sieve. However, I was not successful in carrying out this step  --  maybe I don't have the right type of sieve or colander! Anyway, a bowl of this soup was a hearty meal that warmed me up after a morning of raking leaves.

White Bean and Leek Soup

  
Eet smakelijk!  Enjoy your meal!

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Dutch Vocabulary

boter  =  butter
preien  =  leeks
selderij  =  celery
soep  =  soup
witte boonen  =  white beans
zeef  =  sieve
zout  =  salt