Fennel, Tomato And White Bean Soup

Hey guys, it's Dani. Now, last week we did a fennel 101, and we covered all the basics of fennel. So this week I wanted to come back and give you a simple, delicious fennel recipe that is easy enough to make for dinner tonight. For this quick bite, I'm making my clean and delicious fennel, tomato, and white bean soup. So the first thing you wanna do is get a nice, big, heavy bottom pot heating up over a medium heat. Once the pot is hot, you're gonna add a tablespoon of olive oil, and that oil is gonna heat up right away since our pot was already hot. And to that, I'm adding one chopped onion, two bulbs of thinly sliced fennel, two small bulbs. Now, if you had a big bulb, you'd only need one, and two cloves of chopped up garlic. Give that all a big, fat pinch of kosher salt, and then we're just gonna let this cook for about eight, 10 minutes, or until the onions and the fennel are looking translucent. Once you see that the onion and the fennel are beginning to look translucent, I've even got a little caramelization going on here, which is great because that's gonna add a depth of flavor. Then you know you're ready for the next step. I'm gonna add in one 14-ounce can of crushed tomatoes, four cups of low-sodium chicken broth, one can of cannellini beans. Sometimes they're called white kidney beans. That's gonna add a little bit of protein, nice texture to the soup, a pinch of salt, a little black pepper, and then a couple teaspoons of fresh chopped thyme. Now, if you didn't have fresh thyme, no big deal. Go ahead and use about a half a teaspoon of dry thyme. I'm gonna crank my heat up to high, let this all come up to a boil. Once you've got your boil, bring it down to a simmer, and let it go for about 20, 25 minutes. Now, it's really important that you give this soup the 20, 25 minutes to simmer, because what happens is the water evaporates out of the soup, and the tomato really thickens and condenses, all the flavors intensify, and we end up with a quick-cooked soup that tastes like it's been on the stove all day. So it's been about 20 minutes, and as you can see, our soup has reduced quite a bit. It started up all the way over here, and now it's all the way down here. So it's nice and rich and creamy. To finish it off, I'm gonna add in five ounces of baby spinach. Now, I know that looks like a lot going into the pot, but it's gonna reduce down to barely nothing. You could also do a little fresh kale or some Swiss chard here, but you're probably gonna need to give that a few extra minutes to simmer since it's a little hardier. You want it to get nice and tender. Once your spinach has wilted down just like this, you're ready to serve. So get yourself a nice big bowl, scoop it in, and then top this with some fresh-grated Parmesan cheese. Mm, the tomato base with the sweet, warm fennel. This soup is perfect for a cold afternoon. Thanks so much for watching, guys. I'm Dani Spees, and I'll see you next week with some more clean and deliciousness.