inspired by a small bunch of turnips provided in our weekly c.s.a., my love of beans, and a desire to use a fresh local sausage, i came up with this recipe. though i originally intended to make it a bit creamier, i really loved the brothiness of this soup and recommend serving it this way. it highlights the texture of the beans--and presents nicely. however, if your heart is set on a thick creamy bean soup, i'm sure it will be tasty that way, too. after the beans are cooked and have reached a safe temperature, remove a cup or two of beans and turnips, mash or blend them, and stir them back in. reheat the soup before serving.
ingredients:
- 12 oz. dry navy beans, rinsed
- 8 oz. fresh pork sausage (i used: rose's butifarra*)
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 medium sweet yellow onion, chopped
- 1/2 - 1 fresh fresno (or jalapeño) pepper, chopped
- 7 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup diced fresh turnips (from our c.s.a. -- coon rock farm)
- 1/2 cup diced cherry tomatoes
- 1 tbsp. sea salt
- 1 tbsp. fresh ground black pepper*
- 1/2 tsp. dry ground cayenne pepper*
- 8 cups of water
- 1/3 cup white wine vinegar
- 1 heaping tsp. chicken better than bouillon (BtB)
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs of rosemary
- 3 sprigs of thyme
- 1/8 cup white wine vinegar
preparation:
- preheat oven to 325F.
- remove fresh sausage from casing and brown in a cast-iron dutch oven on the stove top at medium/medium-high heat until a medium-dark brown gradoux (see my cooking philosophy for an explanation of gradoux) forms on the bottom of the dutch oven.
- add olive oil, onion, fresh pepper, and garlic to sausage in dutch oven. stir occasionally and scrape gradoux from the bottom of the dutch oven until vegetables begin to wilt.
- add turnips, tomatoes, salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper to vegetable-sausage mixture. stir well.
- add washed beans, 6 cups of water, 1/3 cup of white wine vinegar, BtB, bay leaves, rosemary, and thyme. stir well.
- bring mixture to a boil and boil beans for 3-5 minutes. remove foam that forms from boiling beans with a large spoon or stir occasionally to get rid of it.
- cover beans and transfer to oven for 2 hours.
- stir in 1/8 cup of white wine vinegar and top with fresh ground black pepper immediately prior to serving. if you want to be extra fancy, garnish with a sprig of fresh rosemary or thyme, or drizzle a bit of chopped rosemary/thyme atop the soup!
* this is a locally made sausage in durham. the listed ingredients are pork, wine, salt, garlic, sugar, onion, peppercorn, coriander, nutmeg. just pick your favorite fresh sausage for the soup, and it should be tasty!