White Bean and Rosemary Soup

Any soup that starts with canned beans sounds like a cheap-out, but this one is gloriously full of flavor because of the zing of the raw garlic, the earthy freshness of the rosemary and the hint of umami from the Worcestershire. You can heft this up with a lot of things - greens like spinach or kale; meaty proteins like chopped ham or sausage; or the crunchy texture of croutons or panko. But I still love it as a silky smooth (and unintentionally vegan!) soup on its own with a hunk of bread to scrape up all the extras. 

Ingredients
2 (15 ounce) cans cannelloni beans (organic, low sodium preferred)
1 large branch rosemary (or roughly 2 tablespoons)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Kosher salt (or more to your preference)
Dash of freshly ground pepper

Drain the beans (don’t bother rinsing) and remove the rosemary from the branch. Add the beans and rosemary into a blender with the olive oil, garlic cloves, stock, Worcestershire sauce and salt. Blend then heat — you can do this in your blender if it has a soup setting; you can transfer all the soup into a pot and heat on the stove; or you can heat in a large bowl or single servings in the microwave. Serve hot and top with the pepper and any additional toppings or additions you desire (see the headnote above).