Creamy White Bean and Bacon Soup

Ingredients you will need:

• 2 cups of dried cannellini beans
• 5 strips of bacon, cut into tiny pieces
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 tbsp. (or more) of fresh rosemary, chopped
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 tbsp. tomato paste
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

1. Soak your beans overnight covered in water. Drain the next day and set aside.
2. In a large stockpot, add the bacon to the pan and cook until bacon pieces are brown and crispy. Remove and let drain on a paper towel.
3. If there’s a lot of bacon grease in the pan, dump out all but 3 tbsp. of it.
4. Saute onion, garlic, and carrots in the bacon grease until vegetables start to get tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the rosemary and cook for an addition 1 minute.
5. Gently pour in the chicken stock and add the drained beans. Whisk the tomato paste in until all has dispersed and incorporated into the soup.
6. Bring mixture up to a boil then cover and let simmer gently for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7. When the soup is ready, carefully use your immersion blender and gently pulse the bean mixture until a desired creamy texture is achieved. You see whole beans in my picture ­ that’s because I gently pulsed and left some beans whole because I wanted texture in my soup. You’re more than welcome to blend the entire mixture to be more of a puree consistency. If you’re worried about blending too much, you can always ladle out a few scoopfuls of beans, blend the soup, then add the beans back in.
8. Serve hot with bacon pieces on top.
9. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Notes: You can use canned cannellini beans if you want.  

Source: tablefortwoblog.com

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