“The soup itself is a very simple dish,” says Chef David, the founder of BRICK in San Clemente and soon-to-be founder of Finca, a new restaurant coming to the San Juan Capistrano River Street project. “I wanted to make a one-pot dish, so you can enjoy a delicious meal with minimal mess to deal with afterward.”
Follow his directions below to make this comforting winter soup yourself, and if you’d like to step up your cooking by using the best locally grown, seasonal ingredients, click here to subscribe to our Harvest Box.
Serves 2 (can serve more if you add more broth)
| Salad Ingredients | |
|---|---|
| 1/2 cup | celery, diced |
| 1/2 cup | fennel, diced |
| 1/2 cup | carrots, diced |
| 1/2 cup | red onion, diced |
| 1 cup | Amish paste tomatoes (or any tomato product) |
| 1 cup | cooked heirloom beans (we used The Ecology Center Southwest Gold Beans) |
| 1/2 cup | broccoli raab, chopped |
| 4 cups | vegetable broth (chicken stock can also be used) |
| – | thyme |
| – | bay leaf |
| – | rosemary |
| – | parsley stems |
| – | black peppercorns |
| 1 | head of lettuce, chopped |
| 2 | oranges, peeled and segmented |
| 1/4 cup | green onions, chopped |
| 1/4 cup | parsley, chopped |
| 1 | loaf of sourdough bread |
| 1 | clove of garlic |
| – | butter |
| – | olive oil |
For the salad simply combine the lettuces (torn into large pieces) with a dressing of Seka Hills Olive Oil (3 parts) and Aceto Red Wine Vinegar (1 part). Add some chopped Chives, (and any other fine herbs that you have Parsley, Tarragon, Dill, etc.), some sliced radishes and cucumbers. Season with a little salt and pepper.
Peel the celery, then place celery, carrots, onions, and fennel on a cutting board and dice them using a sharp knife. Heat a medium-sized pot on the stove, add a drizzle of olive oil, and then add the diced vegetables. Sauté for 5 minutes.
Add beans to the pot alongside the diced vegetables, then pour broth to cover or about 1 inch above. Add salt and pepper and additional seasoning of your choice—in this case, I’m using a sachet filled with thyme, rosemary, bay leaf, parsley stems, and black peppercorns. Add Amish paste tomatoes, or any tomato product, bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes or until the beans are tender. (If you are using canned beans instead of soaked beans, add them at the very end instead, and be careful not to overcook. Overcooked beans, or hard-cooked beans, will split.)
Chop the broccoli raab and set aside to add later to the soup.
While the soup is cooking, start preparing the salad. On your cutting board, chop the lettuce into bite-sized pieces and add to a large bowl. Chop green onion and parsley and add to bowl. Peel your oranges and cut along the pith to make segments. Squeeze the juice from the leftover orange core into a bowl and add olive oil to later use as dressing.
Slice the sourdough bread while heating a pad of butter on a cast iron skillet. Add the bread to the skillet and toast both sides. Remove the bread from the skillet, peel a garlic clove, and rub a generous amount onto one side of each slice. Add a pinch of salt to each slice and set bread aside.
Once the soup is cooked, remove sachet of herbs if you’ve used one, add broccoli raab, and stir. Ladle the soup into bowls and add a crostini to each bowl. Serve with salad and enjoy!
