Curried White Bean Soup with Shrimp

This is a delicious soup adapted from a Jane Brody recipe.

If you have time, soak about one pound of white beans in water over night. They can be navy or great northern.  The next day rinse the beans and bring them to a steady boil with plenty of fresh water to cover for an hour. Rinse again. You can skim off the foam if you like as it cooks. Portion out six cups of beans, save any extra to put on salads or use for another recipe. If you don’t have time, use a few cans of drained beans, just guess how many cans you would need to make between 5 and 6 cups of beans (I’d say 2 or 3).

Return to stove and add chicken to broth to cover and set to simmer. 

Sautee in a fry pan in a few tablespoons of oil, chopped onion, carrots, celery until soft. I have added lots of other veggies through the years just to mix things up a bit. A fun addition once was Swiss chard, I chopped the stems to add to the sauté and then finely chopped the greens and added them at the very end. Experiment with what you like.

Add the sautéed veggies to the simmering beans and broth. With a potato masher give the contents of the pot a good swoosh. Make sure you stir the smooshed beans off the bottom of the pan so they don’t burn. Choose you level of smooshyness you want. It can be smooth and creamy or chunky and hearty.

Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of curry powder, if you hate curry this can be eliminated.

With the soup gently boiling add peeled and halfed shrimp, once the shrimp is pink turn off stove so the shrimp don’t over-cook. If adding chopped greens now is the time. The heat of the pot will wilt them.