Creamy White Bean and Bacon Soup

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups of dried cannellini beans
• 5 strips of bacon, cut into tiny pieces
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 tbsp. (or more) of fresh rosemary, chopped
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 tbsp. tomato paste

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Soak your beans overnight covered in water. Drain the next day and set aside.
2. In a large stockpot, add the bacon to the pan and cook until bacon pieces are brown and crispy. Remove and let drain on a paper towel.
3. If there’s a lot of bacon grease in the pan, dump out all but 3 tbsp. of it.
4. Saute onion, garlic, and carrots in the bacon grease until vegetables start to get tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the rosemary and cook for an addition 1 minute.
5. Gently pour in the chicken stock and add the drained beans. Whisk the tomato paste in until all has dispersed and incorporated into the soup.
6. Bring mixture up to a boil then cover and let simmer gently for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7. When the soup is ready, carefully use your blender and gently pulse the bean mixture until a desired creamy texture is achieved. You see whole beans in my picture – that’s because I gently pulsed and left some beans whole because I wanted texture in my soup. You’re more than welcome to blend the entire mixture to be more of a puree consistency. If you’re worried about blending too much, you can always ladle out a few scoopfuls of beans, blend the soup, then add the beans back in. Really, it’s all up to preference! 🙂
8. Serve hot with bacon pieces on top.
9. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Recipe from: tablefortwoblog