🥘 Carole’s bean and bacon soup…

As temperatures plummet, cook this hearty soup. Stuffed with vitamins and flavoursome herbs, this is a winter warmer to keep colds at bay.

Delicious and ready in 25 minutes

Make the soup in a saucepan and use a stick blender, or use a Thermomix©

🥘  1  🍽 Serves 4  🛒 10 ingredients  ⏱ 25 minutes €4

Ingredients:

  • 1 pack smokey lardons
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 bell red pepper, chopped and deseeded
  • herbes de Provence
  • 1 tin / jar cannellini beans
  • 1 stock cube (vegetable or chicken)
  • 1 tbsp tomato puree + 1 tbsp flour
  • 1 tin chopped tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • chopped parsley (lots of it)

Step by step:

  1. Fry off the lardons and chopped onion, until softened and starting to brown
  2. Add the chopped bell pepper and a good sprinkle herbes de Provence, the flour and chopped parsley. Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and 500ml hot stock
  3. Cook until the peppers are soft. Add the cannellini beans and cook for another five minutes.
  4. Season to taste, and serve with a swirl of olive oil and crusty bread

Tips:

  • Be sure to rinse your beans unless you want a thicker soup
  • We used Kallo organic vegetable stock cubes with excellent results.
  • Use a good helping of chopped parsley to garnish
When only the best will do!
Available in most supermarkets £1.80

Five things I do for fun…

Interesting prompt from Clare to think about five fun activities. Firstly, without sounding too virtuous, I consider myself lucky to be able to ponder this. If I had been born to different circumstances, things would certainly be different.

  1. Time with family
  2. Reading
  3. Travel
  4. Music
  5. Cooking

  1. We are blessed to have time with family in an increasingly complicated and uncertain world.
  2. Research or escapism and I’m always keen to hear reading recommendations from people.
  3. Camping and exploring regions, nature and cultures, travel certainly adds to life.
  4. Never a day without music for me, classical, rock, pop or ideally sixties soul, bring it on.
  5. Luckily, I am married to a good cook and she loves to cook for the whole family. Occasionally I try my hand at simple recipes, usually with dire consequences.

A recent success in the kitchen was Carole’s Key Lime Pie

Bloganuary – Day 23

🥁 At a glance list…