September 6, 2011

potato lima-bean soup



Place
3 1/2 cups cooked white lima beans
1/2 cup okara
2 cups vegetable broth

in a blender and puree completely. You might need to do this in two batches, depending on how powerful your blender is. Set the bean puree aside.

Heat
2 Tablespoons olive oil
in a pot over medium heat. Add
1 small onion, diced
2 carrots, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 potato (about 10 oz.), finely cubed (about centimeter cubed)

to the oil and saute until vegetables are covered with oil. Cover the pot and allow to cook over medium-low heat, stirring often to ensure the vegetables don't burn.

After 15 minutes, add
1/2 cup soymilk
and stir. Cover pot and cook for an additional 10 minutes, continuing to stir often to avert burning. Then add
2 Tablespoons white whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons dried thyme
black pepper, to taste

to the vegetables and stir until they are coated with the mixture. Add another
1/2 cup soymilk
and stir until the mixture thickens a bit. Then add
the pureed lima beans
to the pot and stir until ingredients are well incorporated. Heat through, stirring occasionally, until it is hot enough to serve.

Verdict: I liked this a lot, except some of the carrots and potatoes were a bit undercooked. I blame myself -- I didn't chop these vegetables into uniformly small pieces as I should have. Chalk that one up to laziness. Maybe I could have shredded them in the food processor -- then they'd be in even smaller pieces! Learn from my mistake, and be sure to chop these veggies up into very small pieces. Or, if you want to add an extra step, you can precook them in boiling water until they have softened.