White Bean and Garlic Soup

Has it really almost been two weeks since I last posted?!  Well I can assure you that I have been so busy that is has been hard to keep track of what I did yesterday morning!  I’m starting to realize how important sleep is.  😀  (And my body likes me a lot better when I sleep as well.)

Well, there are so many things I have to talk about!  First off, I have actually made it to the gym twice this week!  I swear I used to be good about going 4-6 times a week, but like just got so busy.  On the contrary, I have had a good 2 week start to my veg-diet and I’m already learning so much about it!  For starters, I can tell you that I initially was going to go  lacto vegetarian, so I include dairy in my diet, but no meat, including eggs.  But I soon realized how many items that I love have eggs in them.  So I am not lacto-ovo vegetarian.  I’ve also been reading up on how healthy it is to be vegetarian, or even vegan, but I think I may have a hard time being vegan.  Haha.  Another thing I found interesting was the importance of raw foods!  I never knew a whole lot about raw food and if you are interested in more, you should check out Kristin’s Raw (http://kristensraw.blogspot.com/).  It was very insightful for me!

First thing on my long list!

White Bean and Garlic Soup from AlmostVeganBlog.com

This is one of my favorite recipes because it includes A LOT of garlic!  I made mine a little different than Amber, but it was still delicious.  And I’m very excited to share it with you because I got to use one of my most favorite kitchen tools!  My garlic peeler!

Can you believe I didn’t even know these existed until my friend Henry showed me?  I used to peel each clove of garlic separately with the help of a baby knife!

Okay, okay…onto the recipe…

2 heads of garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1 tsp salt

dash of pepper

1/2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed

1 tsp dried sage

2 vegan bouillon cubes

4 cups water

2 cans white beans, rinsed and drained

1 bay leaf

First you will want to peel the garlic.

BEFORE GARLIC PEELER:

AFTER GARLIC PEELER:

Heat the olive oil in a deep pot on medium heat, then add the chopped onion and garlic cloves, whole.  ( I have found that mincing the garlic before heating it works better.)

Saute for about 5 minutes, then add the salt, pepper, and fennel seeds.  Stir for another minute.  Microwave the bouillon cubes in the water until they are able to dissolve.  Add the broth, beans, sage, and bay leaf and bring to a boil.  Then put it on low heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Fish out the bay leaf and puree with an immersion blender.  Puree until smooth and voila!