As most of you know, throughout last week I was worried about my mom’s safe journey to US and now that she has arrived I’m a little busy, so I have not been able to visit all your blogs or reply individually to all your lovely comemnts.  So please excuse me, I’ll catch up with you guys very soon! 

This week I tried RedChillies’ pasta and beans soup.  The soup is very simple to make but has a lot of flavors going in from the peppers, celery, garlic and oregano.  I didn’t have mini peppers, so used a combination of regular size red pepper, yellow pepper and green pepper.  I also used extra 3 cups of vegetable broth. (Look “My Notes”)  Thank you for the recipe RedChillies.

My Notes:
I always prepare my pasta and beans soup directly in a pressure cooker.  I don’t cook the pasta separately.  I add all the ingredients for the soup, including the pasta and extra water or vegetable broth as required and leave it for 1 whistle and turn off the stove.  The pasta is cooked to perfection and also has the flavor of all the vegetables, tomatoes and herbs because it is cooked with it instead of plain salted water.

Since I made the soup in a pressure cooker directly, I’m sending this to Archana’s One Dish Meal Event.  The cooking time is approximately 30-45 minutes inculding prep time and the measurement yields 4-5 servings easily.

JZ at Tasty Treats has passed me the Rocking Girl Blogger Award. 

Thank you very much JZ.  I would like to pass this award to
RedChillies
Roma

For the past couple of days I’ve been busy preparing for my mother’s arrival here on Wednesday.  It’s so exciting!  This is her first time to US, so a lot of planning going on.  Even though she has visited us when we were residing in Canada back in 2005, she is tensed now (me too!).  Actually I’m not worried about her traveling alone, it’s that the past one year has not been good for her.  So praying that nothing should get messed up.

As the day is nearing, I’m feeling so restless and don’t feel like blogging or cooking anything.  But this afternoon I saw that Hetal of Isha’s Kitchen has passed me the Inspiration Award and it really inspired me to try a new recipe.  Thank you very much Hetal. 

Finally I made this soup from the Vegetarian Book, my husband got for me from Barnes and Nobles.  It’s the bargain priced book.  For $10 it’s a steal I would say, with so many wonderful pictures and amazing recipes.  I think this one is a very popular book among food bloggers.  I see a lot of recipes around from this book.

I made a couple of changes to the recipe like using canned beans instead of dry beans, crushed tomatoes instead of fresh ones and vegetable stock instead of water.  Let’s get into the White Bean Soup recipe.

Ingredients:
Canned Cannellini Beans, Drained & Rinsed - 3 cups
Bay leaf – 1
Olive oil – 5 tablespoons
Onion, medium, finely chopped – 1
Carrot, finely chopped – 1
Celery rib, finely chopped – 1
Tomatoes, medium, peeled and finely chopped – 3.  Alternatively you can use ½ cup of crushed tomatoes.
Garlic, finely chopped -  2 cloves
Fresh thyme leaves – 1 teaspoon or Dried thyme – ½ teaspoon
Vegetable stock/water – 3 to 4 cups
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Procedure:
1.  Heat the oil in a saucepan.  Add bay leaf, onion and cook.

2.  Add the carrot and celery and cook until they are soft.

3.  Add crused tomatoes, garlic, and thyme to the sauce pan.  Cook it for another 5 minutes.

4.  Meanwhile puree 1 cup of the beans either in a food processor or a blender adding little water.

5.  Now add this puree, remaining 2 cups of beans and the vegetable stock to the sauce pan.

6.  Simmer for another 10 minutes.

7.  That’s it.  Serve with your favorite bread.

I’m sending this to Sangeeth’s Eat Healthy – Protein Rich Event.

My Notes:
1.  Dried beans was used in the original recipe.  In that case take 1.5 cups of dried cannellini or other white beans.  Clean the beans, rinse thoroughly in cold water and soak it in a large bowl overnight.  Check here for detailed instructions on How to cook dried beans?