Tuscan White Bean Chicken Soup

Bean bonanza continues. There is only one more official week of winter, so I wanted to share with you one more of my favorite soup recipes. Of course, this one has beans in it because of our monthly focus–are you sick of beans yet?

Beans or no beans though, this is one of my all-time favorite soups! A good family friend of ours had a recipe similar to this but it was in casserole form (thanks Brenda :). I loved the flavors of the dinner, but thought I would actually like it better as a soup. The results were perfect! If you liked our Gumbo Soup from last month, this soup has a similar flavor but much easier to make. For this soup I cooked up a crock pot of white beans and let them cook overnight on low heat. In the morning the beans were tender and soft and ready for the soup. There was enough beans for the 9 cups for the Tuscan Soup recipe, and then plenty to make white bean cupcakes (recipe from yesterday), 4 loaves of white bean bread (recipe coming soon) and a batch of my favorite cornbread recipe made with white beans (details coming soon :). Cooking a large batch of beans will save you hassle in the future and allow you to cook several of your recipes with the added nutrients of beans.

Here is the recipe for this ultra delicious soup! (You know me..this soup will feed an army, so you can half the recipe if you need, or just freeze the extras for a later meal)

Tuscan White Bean Soup

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Servings: 6

Author: Deals to Meals

Ingredients

• 3 chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 16 oz. sausage links cut into 1/4 inch slices
• 1 onion diced
• 2 t. olive oil
• 11/2 c. carrots chopped
• 1/2 c. celery
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 2 cans chicken broth
• 2 t. thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 cans white beans drained
• 1 t. fresh parsley
• Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

• Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces. In a large pot sauté the chicken pieces in olive oil. Cut the sausage links to 1/4 inch pieces. Add to the chicken and saute. Dice the onions and add to the meat. Saute until golden brown. Add the remaining vegetables into the pot. To make cutting the celery and carrots easier, put them all into a food processor and pulse until they are all cut up and diced, small pieces are okay. Add the chicken broth and seasonings to the soup and simmer until chicken is cooked through. Salt and pepper to taste. Open the can of beans, drain and add the beans to the soup and simmer until ready to serve. Serve with crusty bread.