Irish Soup To Warm Your Winter Bones
David Flynn and his twin brother Stephen are the bright inspired minds behind The Happy Pear in Greystones, County Wicklow: an all-round temple to healthy delicious food in the form of a natural food market, café restaurant, and juice and smoothie bar.
All the happy pears...
With the calendar officially declaring the dead of winter now, and us here in Ireland wrapped under a thick blanket of snow, David has shared some tips on choosing ingredients and cooking for the chilly season.
His secret weapon for this time of year is an extra hearty Irish soup recipe, with root veggies and beans, to keep us all warm until the Irish Coffees come out tonight!
David and Stephen Flynn from The Happy Pear
Our cooking reflects the seasons. These days we are making more comforting, warming, wholesome dishes, and light summery dishes have been put on the shelf till late spring. I am really enjoying making chunky vegetable soups at the moment. With them, it’s nice to put some sort of bean or lentil through it as it gives a different texture, and make sure to use lots of different vegetables so that each spoonful is like a lucky dip! And, of course, using some herbs and seasoning is the most important to get the taste bang on.
We love to use local ingredients; they turn us on and make us very grateful to our local farming heroes! Right now, there are still lots of local produce available. Root veg are bountiful, namely: carrots, beetroot, celeriac, potatoes, parsnips, and onions. There are still some local greens knocking around too, such as spinach, mixed leaves and rocket.
With all that in mind, this chunky soup with butterbeans, spinach and of course loads of vegetables, is guaranteed to tick those warming, wholesome boxes at this time of year. Enjoy!
Chunky Irish White Bean, Vegetable & Spinach Soup
Preparation time 15 minutes. Cooking time 45 minutes. Serves 6 people.
Ingredients:
- Bright local carrots for our winter soup
3 red onions, chopped finely
3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
5 stalks of celery, chopped finely
3 carrots, chopped finely
1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
1 fennel bulb, chopped into bite-sized bits
1 potato grated/chopped very small (to thicken the soup)
1 tablespoon of salt
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 can of butterbeans
3 tablespoons of mixed herbs (if you can use fresh rosemary and thyme even better)
½ teaspoon of black pepper
2 litres of water with 1 vegetable stock cube
100g of baby or teen spinach
- Fry the onions and garlic in a little water at a medium heat for 5 minutes.
- Add the chopped celery, carrots, fennel bulb, potato, salt and fennel seeds.
- Mix everything together in the pot, and cook at medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
- Add the black pepper, the chopped tomatoes, the butterbeans, mixed herbs, the 2 litres of stock and turn up the heat to high. Bring to the boil.
- Once boiling, turn the heat down and leave simmer for 40 minutes. Add in the spinach just before serving for color and freshness!
Find out more about Greystone’s favourite veggie foodstore and cafe The Happy Pear.
For a similarly warming Irish dish, try our recipe for Traditional Irish Stew.
I’m stealing this recipe, it sounds wonderful!!! Love soups.
Thanks for sharing!
I’m going to try this recipe
What are butterbeans?
Oh, this sounds delicious! I am going to try to make this next week!
Hi Jacqueline, butterbeans are also known as lima beans, flat, round, tasty little devils that we find widely here canned. They’re great in salads and soups, and handy for veggies (like myself) to pop into the odd lasange.
If you didn’t have butterbeans, you might subsitute kidney beans or cannellini beans. Happy cooking!
Hey Aileen…have tried this, and it is wonderful! Any idea on how to make Brussels Sprouts more appealing to the kids tomorrow? Have a very Merry Christmas all – and a very, very happy new year!
Brussels Sprouts = baby cabbages? Will that work? Or you could add some red chilli to really spice them up.
As a Dubliner who has never been to Greystones, I’m making a trip this weekend thanks to this blog post. I can’t wait for a yummy vegetarian lunch in the Happy Pear… and I believe there are some great little galleries and shops in Greystones too.
I visited the Happy Pear in Greystones late last year and it lifted my spirits for a month! Such a gorgeous place over flowing with great food and produce.
Oh yum! Can’t wait to try out that soup recipe, sounds delish.
Jacqueline, butter beans are large white beans. You can buy them in a can in most supermarkets. They’re quite tasty.
Let us know what you had there Maryrose! Their menu changes daily so there’s always the element of surprise. The flavours they meld together are amazing, there’s alchemy going on in that kitchen I tell ya!
thank you for sharing the recipe with us, it is very kind of you ,i’m a big fan of soups & certainly this Chunky Irish White Bean, Vegetable & Spinach Soup going to be one of my favourites .