Potage Albert

I found this simple little soup in an old Canadian cook book. Most of them contain recipes which now fall somewhere between thoroughly obsolete and utterly boring, so it's always a bit of an exciting moment when I find something that looks serviceable. However, a little while later I found the same recipe in a just slightly older cook book called French Household Cooking, put out by Country Life in 1908. Tsk, tsk.

 

The first recipe was much simplified in transition, and it changed again in my hands. I thought it needed some goosing up in the way of seasonings and some acid to sharpen it. The original made use of late summer produce, and I'm sure it's delicious fresh from the garden, but it makes a quick, easy and tasty winter soup with frozen beans and canned tomatoes.

 

4 to 8 servings

30 minutes prep time NOT including cooking the beans

 

3/4 cup of white beans, cooked

     (about 2 cups cooked white beans)

2 cups bean cooking water OR chicken stock

2 cups diced potatoes

2 cups diced canned tomatoes

2 cups diced frozen green beans

1 medium onion

3 or 4 cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons bacon fat OR butter

salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 1/2 teaspoons rubbed basil

2 tablespoons vinegar OR lemon juice 

The beans need to be cooked in advance; or you can use a tin. Save the bean cooking water for the soup, unless you are using chicken stock. 

Scrub and trim  the potatoes, and peel them if necessary. Cut them into large dice and put them in a heavy-bottomed soup pot with 2 cups bean cooking water or chicken stock. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes, until tender. Mash coarsely right in the broth. 

Add the white beans, the tomatoes, and the green beans chopped into short lengths. Set the soup to simmer. Meanwhile, peel and chop the onion finely. Peel and mince the garlic. 

Heat the fat or butter in a skillet and cook the onion over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes until softened and reduced in volume. Add the garlic and basil, and cook for another minute or so. Add these to the soup, and deglaze the pan with a little of the broth, adding it back in when you are done.

Season the soup with salt and pepper as needed, and add the vinegar or lemon juice. Let it simmer for a few minutes until the raw scent of the vinegar (if that's what you used) is gone. Serve hot.

 

 

 

 

Last year at this time I made Lentil, Buckwheat & Walnut Loaf.