I kept expecting rain on Sunday, but never received any. However, my anticipation spurred me to play in the kitchen rather than outside. I wanted to try a recipe for hot pepper butter. While working through the details of that, I made a terrific white bean soup. That’s what’s for dinner.

Since dinner was decided on the spur of the moment, the “quick-cook method” was used rather than soaking the Great Northern beans overnight. Cooking the full 2 lb-bag makes sense for us because leftovers rarely go to waste at our house. The other really great thing about the dinner is how incredibly inexpensive it is?

Sorting through a bag of beans, cull out the strangely shaped and mottled-colored ones. I didn’t find any clods of dirt, but have in the past and believe that sorting through beans is worth the effort. Rinse the beans off in a colander then pour them into a large pot; cover with 3 quarts of water; put on a lid and bring to a boil. After two minutes or so, turn the burner off and let the beans sit for an hour. During that time I thawed frozen chicken stock.

After an hour, drain the beans in the colander and rinse very well with cool water. Returning the beans to the pot, cover in chicken stock and water to equal 3 quarts and bring back to a boil. At boiling, add seasonings. I added salt, pepper, 3 bay leaves and 1.5 teaspoons each of cumin seeds and celery seeds. Cover the pot and turn down to a simmer for another hour, stirring occasionally.

I decided to add onions, celery and garlic to the soup. In a skillet, spray a small amount of olive oil and sauté a large chopped onion and three ribs of chopped celery. Don’t forget to lightly salt and pepper. Mince a couple garlic cloves, cook the vegetables for another couple of minutes and add all to the pot of beans.

Wanting more color, I picked a large bunch of kale from my garden. After cleaning and cutting away the tough stems, chop the kale into small pieces and add to the pot. Taste the beans and liquid. Add salt if necessary and check the beans to determine if they are done. Mine were still a little tough and that’s good because I wanted the kale to cook.

After another 20 minutes, I checked the beans again and they were perfectly tender yet firm. Dinner was meatless but full of vitamins and protein from the beans, vegetables and chicken stock. A vegetarian could use vegetable stock instead and still have a hearty, healthy meal.

While dinner was a success, I think my hot pepper butter recipe is going to need more work. I’ll keep playing with that and when I’m happy with the results, I’ll share.