Why I No Longer Puree My White Bean Soup

Learning to cook for myself — with a recipe at the end

Christmas 2021. I was gifted a beautiful cookbook titled Vegetables — The Ultimate Cookbook by Laura Sorkin. I had been experimenting with a higher ratio of vegetables and legumes in an effort to decrease costs and increase the health benefits for my family. So a book celebrating vegetables as the focal point of dinner was a welcome gift that could perhaps break up the vegetable “side dish” rut we had been in.

My use of the word beautiful was quite intentional as the depiction and photography of vegetables in Sorkin’s book were stunning. I imagine this is what the gophers must feel as they ravage our summer gardens — I had bookmarked several recipes in the first pass through alone:

Mushroom toast with whipped goat cheese, ham hock and collar green soup, celeriac bisque, and cold bean salad with blue cheese and walnuts. The zing and the sweetness lofted up from the images. I dreamed of the savor and delight that would be as I turned each page. And then I found it — White Bean Soup.

A marriage of tender white beans, rendered pork, and wonderful aromatics (onions and minced garlic), finished with the bright cut of acidity from a lemon. That Friday, I had the beans soaking. Saturday: showtime. The recipe was straightforward, clear, and to no…