i invented a new soup this morning.

i’d already been thinking about making a super simple winter soup this week, with white beans and greens and homemade broth. but then i used all the greens i had in a batch of pesto the night before.

time to improvise.

as it so happened, a friend had recently brought over a surplus of produce from the food coop where she works. i had a few beautiful bulbs of fennel in the fridge, which i normally wouldn’t have on hand at this time of year. 

so here’s what i did: (full disclosure, i wanted to document the making of this some more, but two of the three light bulbs went out in the kitchen and it was still dark this morning when i was putting everything together. and, as you can see, the visual effect of this soup is really nothing to write home about. the taste… that’s another story.)

i sautéed one good-sized bulb of fennel, chopped, in a few Tbsp of olive oil. 

i had a half a carrot in the fridge which i also chopped and added. 

after a few minutes on medium, covered, i added four cloves of garlic, covered again, stirring occasionally, till tender (about 8 minutes). salt and pepper were also involved. 

then i added a quart of homemade vegetable broth, a heaping cup of white beans (i cooked those earlier this week), and a half a sweet potato, baked (also from earlier this week). 

if i’d had greens on hand ~ collards and parsley are my go-to’s at the moment ~ you’d better believe i’d have thrown a few handfuls of those in at that point too. but, as previously mentioned, pesto had happened. and i’m all for being flexible and using what’s on hand. 

i brought all this to a boil, then simmered, covered, for ten minutes. cooled briefly, then blended well. 

this was an excellent improvisation, if i do say so myself. my son had it for lunch, and came home asking for more. 

as he was consuming the rest of it, he said: “mom, i don’t know how you do it.”

and that, my friends, is by far the best endorsement i could hope for.

i mentioned i would have added greens if i had them on hand.

color, and having a balance of colors in the meals i eat, is really important to me. i had some black quinoa on hand which i hadn’t made in a long time, so i rinsed a cup of that, soaked it for an hour, then cooked it in broth. i had this with the soup on the side for lunch, which ended up going together beautifully.

delish.