Just Say No to Marry Me Recipes: Bean Soup

First, there was Marry Me Chicken, and later came Marry Me Salmon, Marry Me Chicken Spaghetti, Marry Me Soup, Marry Me Bundt Cake, Marry Me Cookies... Egad! No wonder I eat alone. I'm not looking for a proposal. 

Not just any ordinary bowl of beans. It has the potential to garner marriage proposals

Then again, a popular cake came out in the 1980s named "Better Than Sex Cake." This chocolate dessert acquired the title because the cake was "sinfully" delicious. So, one Sunday dinner at Mom's, she served this delicious devil's food cake with caramel and whipped topping sprinkled with bits of Heath toffee bars. My siblings and I raved about the cake to Mom, and casually, she mentioned the cake's name, "Better Than Sex." That's the last thing you want to hear from your mother. I never ate that cake again. Mom scarred me for life.

Now that I think about the "Dump Cake" and "Dump Casseroles," they do not exactly make my mouth water. Please be cautious about what you name recipes. Don't scare people away! 

The hardest part of the recipe is chopping and sauteeing onions. 

The other day, I received a daily email with a variety of recipes, and the one that popped out to me was "Marry Me Bean Soup." For some reason, beans and a marriage proposal do not belong together - if you get my "drift" - literally. However, I was curious about the ingredients, and it dawned on me that the thing these savory "Marry Me" recipes have in common is the ingredient, sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil. Okay, I love beans, but I'm not seeking a marriage proposal. 

As I often do, I tweaked the ingredients to make the recipe my own. It's an easy recipe, bringing hearty and satisfying results. The ingredients below make two servings, but you can easily double the ingredients for four servings. From setting out my ingredients to the final serving, the time I had invested in the recipe was less than 30 minutes. The most time was used to chop a half cup of onions. 

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons butter

• ½ cup diced onion

• 2 cloves garlic, pressed

• ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper

• ½ teaspoon paprika

• 1 (15-ounce) can Great Northern beans or Cannellini beans

• ½ cup chicken or vegetable stock

• ½ cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil

• ¼ cup tomato sauce (I didn't want to open a can of tomato sauce, so I used a jar of spaghetti sauce that I already had opened in the fridge)

• ½ cup half and half (or cream)

• ½ cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

• 2 cups fresh spinach (or two packages of frozen 10 oz spinach that have been thawed and water squeezed out)

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil (or 2 teaspoons of dried basil)

• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Melt butter in a Dutch oven. Add onions and cook until soft and translucent, 5 to 6 minutes. Add garlic, crushed red pepper, and paprika; cook and stir until onions and garlic are fragrant, about 1 minute. Add beans, including liquid, from the can. Cook until simmering, about 5 minutes. Stir in chicken broth, sun-dried tomatoes, and tomato sauce. Add heavy cream and Parmesan cheese, and stir until well combined.  Add spinach and basil.  Cook until spinach is wilted. Season with salt and pepper

Like magic, the spinach shrinks! 

The finished soup

Tweak it and make it your own: This is the beauty of this recipe. Yes, you can make it vegetarian using vegetable broth instead of chicken. Instead of cream or half-and-half, coconut milk works and gives it an exotic flavor. If you want a more substantial soup for meat lovers, add bite-size pieces of rotisserie chicken, crumbled pieces of cooked sausage, or slices of smoked sausage. And yes, you can add your own beans that you whipped up from dried using two cups (with liquid) of cooked beans. 

Serve topped with shredded cheese and drizzle some oil from the dried tomatoes. Croutons or even a "fancy" grilled cheese sandwich made from French bread and a variety of semi-hard cheeses like gouda, provolone, and Swiss would make a tasty side. 

Perhaps I need to change the name of these tasty beans to,
"I Was Married for Twenty Years and Do Not Need Another Marriage Proposal Beans." 

Eat well!