White Bean and Spinach Soup with Brown Rice

The weather is turning cooler, the sun is setting earlier, kids are back to school, and football season has started - I think it's time to start making soup!

I make soup every Sunday and once it cools, I immediately dish it into 5 single serving containers. Lunches for the week - done! Over the past few years I have made close to 50 different soup recipes. I have a few favorites that I go back too quite often, but I also am always in search of a new recipe. I have several recipes pinned to my Food board on Pinterest, including this one that I tried last weekend - Savory Bean and Spinach Soup.

The recipe was from Fitness Magazine, and was written as a slow-cooker recipe. I'm not a fan of making soup, or much of anything really, in a slow cooker. I like to build the flavors in a soup, and feel you can only do that with stove top cooking, so I took this recipe and turned it into a stove top recipe.

Even though I cooked this in a pot, it still only took just under an hour. Most of that time was the soup simmering as the rice cooked; active time was about 20 minutes.

This soup was so hearty and filling, yet healthy. Normally I eat a sandwich along with soup for lunch, but I didn't need the sandwich after eating all the beans and rice. I ate it for 5 days in a row and never tired of it, and think this will be one that I will make again soon.

White Bean and Spinach Soup with Brown Rice

Adapted from: Fitness Magazine

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 sm yellow onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped  
• 1 15-ounce can small white beans or Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed  
• 3-4 leaves of fresh basil, chopped
• Pinch of dried thyme
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup uncooked brown rice   
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper  
• 1 sm bag of fresh baby spinach, chopped

 Directions

• Heat olive oil in a large stock pot over medium high heat
• Add the onion and garlic, sauté 2-3 minutes
• Add the beans, basil, and thyme, stir
• Add the broth and tomato sauce and season with salt and pepper; let simmer for 10 minutes
• Add the rice, cover and reduce heat to medium. Let simmer for 30 minutes, or until the rice has cooked through
• Add the spinach and stir until wilted
• Optional: the original recipe noted adding Parmesan cheese at the end, but I didn't feel it was necessary.

   

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