LEFTOVER SLOW COOKED TUSCAN BUTTER BEAN SOUP

So you've made a big batch of my Slow Cooked Tuscan Style Butter Beans for your BBQ and even though they were super delicious you still had a load left over at the end of the evening. No one wants to throw away perfectly good food now do they so why not transform your leftover's into a delicious soup which you can either eat straight away or freeze and enjoy as a quick supper at a later day. All you need is a few vegetables and some garlic to act as the base of your soup, some fresh herbs to give the flavors a kick up the bum and a good vegetable stock.

 I'm whipping out the slow cooker again to make this soup. Really, chucking everything into a slow cooker and letting it do it's things couldn't get any easier. If you don't have the time to let the soup slow cook then don't worry you can still make this soup on the hob in about 30 minutes just by bringing the mixture to a boil and then reducing to a simmer until the vegetables are tender. Simples! If you haven't been making my Tuscan Style Butter Beans (shame on you!) it's OK - you can drain a 400g tin of them instead. Not quite as yummy, but still mighty fine to use in the soup!

Here is the recipe; it will make enough soup for four and trust me, it couldn't be anymore easy to follow;

Butter Bean Soup

300g Butter Beans

4 Chopped Medium Tomatoes

2 Peeled And Chopped Carrots

2 Peeled And Chopped Red Onions

1 Chopped Stick Of Celery

2 Grated Garlic Cloves

3 Sprigs Of Rosemary

6 Sage Leaves

500ml Vegetable Stock

Salt And Pepper To Season

1. Pop your slow cooker onto high and tip in the butter beans, tomatoes, carrots, onions, celery, garlic, rosemary and sage before pouring over the vegetable stock. Top up the stock with water if you need to so that the stock is just above all the veg, season with a good pinch of salt and pepper and then cover and leave for between 3-6 hours until all the vegetables are tender.
2. Carefully blitz your soup until at your desired consistency. If you want some proper chunks in your soup, ladle out a few spoons of the vegetables before you blitz to chuck back in again before you serve. Taste your soup and season with more salt and pepper if needed before serving.

Dish your soup out into large bowls and if you have any left, sprinkle over some chopped rosemary and sage leaves as a bit of a fancy garnish to make things look a bit pretty and to add a bit of fresh herbiness to proceedings. Make sure you have some chunks of warm buttered crusty bread to go alongside the soup and mop up every last drop of this gorgeous soup. The flavor of the herby vegetables will burst into your mouth on first spoonful with the gentle butter bean flavor coming through at the end to make this soup like a little hug in a bowl. Who knew leftover's could taste so good with such a minimal amount of effort?