This is one of my winter favorites. It’s yummy, nutritious, and the veggies (rutabaga especially) and color (mostly shades of white) connect me to the Nordic side of my heritage.

I use these bags of root vegetables that my local coop (Mississippi Market) sells. It’s fairly easy if you have access to these bags as you don’t have to figure out what to buy and will sometimes be surprised with new veggies to try.

If you can’t find these bags, then gather 3 pounds of carrots, parsnips, turnip, rutabaga, celeriac, sunchoke (Jerusalem artichoke), potatoes, and/or sweet potatoes.

If you use dried beans, you’ll need to plan ahead a day. (We always have both dried and canned in the pantry.)

Servings:  No idea. Maybe 8?

Ingredients & Instructions

1) Prepare beans (we used Cannelloni but in retrospect red kidney beans would have given some nice color). Either:

  • Soak 1 cup beans (any type) overnight and then cook for 1 – 1.5 hours. We used all the beans in the soup but you might not want so many. (I think we actually did more than that for the above dish.)
  • Or, use 1-2 cans of beans, depending on how ‘bean-y’ you want it.

2) Peel & Chop:

  • 1 Onion
  • 2 stalks Celery
  • 1-3 gloves Garlic
  • all the Root Vegetables

3) Saute onions and celery (with Oil) in a pot for a few minutes. Add garlic near the end for just a couple of minutes (don’t let it brown). Add the root vegetables and swish around to saute them briefly.

4) Add roughly 32 oz stock or broth (packaged or homemade, veggie or whatever you prefer). Quantity will depend on how condensed it is. Usually I add about as much water, but some packaged stocks say not to.

5) Add cooked beans

6) Season with:

  • Penzey’s “Bavarian” Seasoning (or whatever you prefer)
  • We added some dried Sage and Rosemary from our garden
  • Salt & Pepper to taste

7) Bring to boil and then simmer for about 30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender but not mushy.

8) We didn’t do it, but some chopped Parsley on top would have added nice flavor and color.

This could be simplified by throwing all the ingredients together into a Crock Pot. I haven’t experimented with how long to cook it then but maybe 3 hours on low? Let me know if you try it.

Share