butterbean soup in bird bowl
Do you want to feel enveloped in goodness, comforted with a warm blanket of velvet – welcome to butterbean soup. This soup is blended to give a cream like consistency without any of the cream. So ease yourself into the week guilt free.
Ingredients
500g dried butterbeans (or two tins)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion
Garlic clove
1 carrot
1 celery stick
700ml vegetable stock
1 bay leaves
Fresh thyme (or Rosemary)
Chilli oil
Directions
Soak the beans overnight, if using dried. Remove the skins from the beans. Heat the oil and add the onion, celery carrots and garlic sweat for 15 minutes with the lid on. Add beans , stock, bay leaves, thyme and bring to the boil for ten minutes then simmer for 40 minutes until the beans are soft (if using tinned beans you only need to add them to the other ingredients and simmer for 5 minutes). Remove the bay and thyme before blending you may need to add more stock – serve with fresh thyme leaves and a drizzle of chilli oil.
Health benefits
This soup will help you concentrate, stops headaches, stop you coughing and give you loads of energy!
Butter beans are really good for you they are very low GI (glycaemic index). This means that blood glucose (blood sugar) does not rise as high after eating beans as it does when compared to many other foods. This beneficial effect is probably due to two factors: the presence of higher amounts of absorption-slowing protein in the beans, and their high soluble fibre content. The presence of fibre is also the primary factor in the cholesterol-lowering power of beans. They also contain magnesium which amongst other things helps prevent migraines.
If that wasn’t enough this soup has lots of Iron. Iron is an integral component of haemoglobin, which transports oxygen from the lungs to all body cells, and is also part of key enzyme systems for energy production and metabolism.
Thyme contains an essential oil that is rich in thymol, a powerful antiseptic, antibacterial, and a strong antioxidant. The oil of thyme is used in mouthwashes to treat inflammations of the mouth, and throat infections. It is a common component of cough drops.
Did You know…
The story goes that in his later years the Louis XIV suffered a very bad tooth ache and his dentist botched the job of pulling his teeth so badly that he badly damaged the King’s upper jaw and palate. The result? When the King tried to drink his soup, it would come out his nose.
