This soup could also be called: Everything At The Farmer's Market Soup or In Kelly's Back Yard Soup. But that would be doing the soup an injustice because the real hero in this dish are the butter beans, aka "lima" beans. Which, by all accounts was a risky soup for me to serve given the "ew" from Dr. Thyme regarding the lovely lima. I've tried to sneak this bean in dishes before. "Are those lima beans. . . you aren't putting those in there, are you?!" Gawdforbid! My response is close to what my mother used to say (but never quite exactly because I'd need to have a cigarette hanging out of my mouth for that)--I simply say: Well, this is what the cook wanted!
Soup in front of us both last night, then the Yum from him, then from me, "Uh, just an fyi, those are LIMA beans in there." And there really is no need for me to say much else. The soup still received high marks and Dr. Thyme completely loved it! Score one for the sneaky mom cooking strategy.
The weather this weekend was superb. I mean as darn near perfect as you could ask for here in misery. . .I mean Missouri. I'm still pretty hostile about the lost weekends we suffered through with our one hundred degree days. I won't forgive mother nature on this one. It affected our quality of life, probably even shaved several years from my personal longevity. So I remain a bit peeved with her is all. HOWEVER, finally we get a glorious day and I just could not bear staying home another moment. So out we went.
Picture taking for us when we hike is mandatory. It is also mandatory to include photos of people, i.e., the two of us (even if one of us--me--has hat head!) in the grand scheme of whatever flora and fauna we are tackling. I mean I cannot even begin to tell you the number of photos I have absolutely NO interest in because, well, because they lacked US! I am like, where was this. . . how many photos can you take of that side of the river for crying out loud! So we came upon this HUGE oak tree and I am like, Whoa, that has GOT to be the largest oak I've ever seen! So we stood in front of it, trying our best to capture its gigantic-ness. A little aside: I am no longer taking photos of us because the pictures always show a bit too many of those "Almost Fifty Life Lines!"--so said camera operation goes to Dr. Thyme who has a longer arm than me and can pretty well take a decent photo given this added "distance" his arm allows. As you can see, we still have a bit of work to do to get the shot better than this one. But you get the idea. That tree behind us was spectacular. We just sat and stared at it. Then, after reviewing picture Dr. Thyme says, My god, my head is the size of a pumpkin! I laughed so hard I nearly needed urgent help with the bladder. But looking at the photo together we deemed it: Charlie Brown Takes A Hike. Sort of after the whole Charlie Brown head thing and the Great Pumpkin episode . . . maybe you had to be there.
We stopped in at the Visitor's Center at Babler State Park (just in case you wondered which park this was--and yes, it is a gorgeous park when it's not 120 degrees outside) and bought hubby this nifty little hiking stick. He loved it. Even better: his vision is so much improved than it was the last time we'd attempted a hike (and he kept hitting rocks and nearly falling)--this go around--he was stunned with the clarity he had with his eyes and no falling! He loves to talk about "The new eyes!" Bless his punkin' head heart.
I cannot get enough of bridges. Any bridge. I am like, Wait! We need a picture!
And then there was this little "thing". He speculated aliens. I had no clue. But here it was just sitting there right, smack dab in the middle of the trail. Dr. Thyme forbade me from touching OR moving said "object". (He's very much into science fiction and rolls with that crowd and thus, I was NOT to touch said potential alien life form). It's very cute, his sci-fi adoration.
This soup came together in a jif. All you need is. . . a Pressure Cooker! I swear by my pressure cooker.
(It bears repeating.) One hour out til husband gets home and I didn't break a sweat or cuss or anything--just pulled out old PC and viola--the beans were ready for adding to the broth in twenty minutes. Easy. So easy.
Vegan Butter Bean, Roasted Red Pepper And Basil Soup
*Adapted from Love Soup by Anna Thomas
1 cup dried lima beans, rinsed (*or 1 can of large lima beans)
1/2 onion chopped
8 cloves garlic minced
1 large red pepper (raosted over an open flame or you could use jarred roasted red peppers)
3-to-4 large fresh tomatoes chopped
1/2 cup fresh basil
1 zucchini diced
2 cups fresh spinach
2 teaspoons dried oregano
pinch of thyme
2 cups veggie broth or water (*plus additional water if needed)
1 veggie broth cube
juice of half a lemon
sea salt
fresh ground pepper
olive oil
In a pressure cooker, prepare the lima beans. (You could use canned, I suppose.) Take red pepper and carefully roast. Either in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or over an open flame, turning constantly with tongs until the skin is charred. This should take you about five minutes. Carefully remove pepper from flame and set aside to cool. After a minute of cooling, place red pepper in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow pepper to sweat, then remove pepper, place on cutting board and remove seeds and stem, then lay flat sides of pepper on cutting board and remove blackened skin. Then chop the pepper up, set aside. Prep all other veggies and set aside. Heat about two tablespoons of olive oil in soup pot, then add onions. Let the onions cook for a good twenty minutes over low-to-medium heat--you want them to just begin to caramelize. Then, after that cooking time, add all the remaining ingredients, give it a good stir and cover and allow to simmer for 25 minutes over low heat. Remove lid and allow soup to cook an additional 40 minutes or so to let the flavors really come together. If the soup seems too thick, add a bit more water. Take a half a lemon right before serving and add the juice to the soup. Serve soup with a drizzle of flavored olive oil and side of crusty bread! Yum!
This looks and sounds delicious!! Hope you are well!
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