Vegetarian White Bean Soup

Are you looking to eat a little healthier this year? I’ve recently switched to a vegetarian diet for a number of reasons so I’ve been on the hunt for new and delicious recipes. Lots of white bean soup recipes call for ham or ham bone and most are cream-based so not very good for the waist-line either.

I subscribed to about a million vegetarian/vegan blogs and have spent the last few weeks salivating over new recipes and adding them into my weekly meal planning to try them out a few at a time. This soup from vegetarianventures.com definitely did not disappoint and with a few substitutions is a perfectly acceptable shelf-stable food storage recipe to add to my arsenal!

Ingredients:

1 T. olive oil
1/3 c. freeze-dried onions
1 c. freeze-dried green peppers
3 gloves garlic (or 1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
1 T. cumin
Flour (for coating)
4 c. vegetable broth
3 15-oz cans Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed (or use dried bean equivalent)
1/4 c. freeze-dried green chilis
3/4 c. freeze dried sweet corn
2 c. warm milk (powdered milk for food storage version or almond milk for vegan version)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Lime juice to taste

Directions:

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large pot. Add onions, peppers, and garlic (no need to reconstitute first) and barely saute them to bring out the flavors. Stir in the cumin. Sprinkle flour over vegetables and stir until well-coated. Add vegetable stock slowly while stirring. Add in beans, green chilis, and corn. Increase heat and bring to a boil. Then turn down to medium-low and allow to simmer for 15-20 minutes. All of the freeze-dried items will fully reconstitute in that time. Stir in the warm milk and let simmer for a few more minutes. Remove from heat and season as desired with salt, pepper, and lime juice.

Top with cilantro, cheese or vegan cheese, avocado, tortilla chips, etc. as desired. So delicious!