Recipe: Escarole & White Bean Soup a Healthier Version
Soup in the winter is my all time favorite thing – sometimes I can swap full blown meals for a huge pot of soup. It fills you up, it’s nice and warm and it tastes delicious. Winter time is also cold and flu season, so many of us will likely feel a little under the weather and nothing says TLC like a pot of delicious soup. My favorite lately has been escarole and white bean soup. I used to always order it from our favorite Italian take out place, but I just knew that once I figured out how to make it, I could do it better and maybe make it a little more healthy. Escarole and white bean soup is usually made with lots of olive oil – which is not bad for you, but in large amounts is surely not good for your diet. When you order food you never really know what is in there, how it is made, how much salt or other ingredients. When I make my own food I feel that I am in a lot more control of what is going into my body. So one cold New Jersey weekend I decided to figure out the recipe and try my hand at making it myself.
What you will need to make your pot of soup:
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 bulb of garlic to dice up
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (I like to use McCormicks or Mrs. Dash)
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 2 14-ounce cans vegetable broth, or reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 2 15-ounce cans cannellini beans, drain out the liquid
- 1 head escarole chopped up
- 1/2 cup freshly shredded hard Italian Parmesan cheese
- sea salt to taste
- 1 container of organic, low sodium chicken broth
- 1/2 container of regular chicken broth
How to prepare:
Escarole is going to look like a lot of greens at first, but once it softens while cooking it looks like 1/4 of the size. I chop mine up and make sure to rinse it really well. 
Cut up and chop your garlic into small bits to add into the soup. Make sure to remove the outer layer of the garlic and discard.
In a large pot you will add your chicken broth and olive oil on a medium to low heat. Slowly begin to add in your seasonings (salt and italian seasoning).
Add your escarole into the pot and mix it around. Also add in your white beans and your Parmesan cheese. Make sure that the escarole gets coated by the broth and cover the pot and put on a low heat for about 30 minutes. You will see the escarole start to get softer and drop down into the broth as it does.
This pot made lots of bowls of soup and what I knew I wouldn’t eat in a few days I just stored in my freezer and took out to defrost when I knew I wanted some more. This soup fills me up because of the escarole and the beans. It also really is my favorite soup and tastes absolutely delicious. Make sure to try this and let me know what you think!
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