[Recipe review] Tomato, courgette, white bean and basil soup (The perfect pantry)

Baked beans had shown to lower total cholesterol levels and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, according to wikipedia, so I’ve been looking for new ways to cook white beans with vegetables, other than common meat-based spanish fabada (or soyrizo for based vegan fabada).

I followed this perfect pantry’s recipe. Well, more or less, as always. I didn’t use cheese, nor replaced it with anything. I didn’t use heavy stock, just added extra celery, and did not use enough tomatoes, just two cherry ones. But I did use dried beans instead of canned, that gives it more vitamins, is cheaper, has better taste and I bet is more filling. Just bear in mind dried beans do grow a lot from dry to soaked, and to keep an eye not to run out of water.

Ingredients:
– white beans
– olive oil
– courgette, chopped
– tomatoes, chopped
– dried thyme
– fresh basil leaves

Directions:
Start turning on the alarm the night before you want to do this. Soak beans in water when it rings.
The day after, I started with the sauté onion and garlic then boiled soaked beans with water, tyme and celery for more than one hour. Is calles slow cooking for a reason, I guess.
Then I added the chopped courgette and tomatoes and boiled for some ten to fifteen minutes more.
Serve.

Overall rating… meh. Don’t get me wrong, beans were delicious, but they always are. I guess it’s really good if you’re used to baked beans with tomato, because this recipe them an italian twist. But for me, it still lacks something, and I’m not the kind of girl to rely on heavy vegetable stock or cheese for that. Will keep on searching!