Recipe: French White Bean Soup with Cockles
Yet another book about healthy eating? Yes, but wait. This is not a diet book, and it won’t give you any so-called ‘glow’ either. Insane is an honest story about an achievable, diverse and balanced eating pattern. With the necessary self-mockery and perspective, author Vanja van der Leeden shows how she found balance in her eating habits. In Insane, she shows how she generally eats at home. Like this delicious French white bean soup with cockles and curly parsley gremolata.
Vanja: ‘My father was an architect and good at many things (building, drawing, McGyvering), but cooking was not one of his fortes. His repertoire used to consist of French white bean soup, chili con carne or Hawaiian toasties, and that was the rotation each weekend. I gave his French white bean soup an upgrade. It contains beetroot, it is topped with gremolata (a mixture of lemon zest, garlic and parsley, ed.) and the cockles provide a delicious broth.’
Here’s how to make Vanja van der Leeden’s French white bean soup with cockles and curly parsley gremolata:
- Finely chop the onions. Heat a large pan, pour in 2 tablespoons of olive oil and gently sauté the onion in it. Meanwhile, finely chop 3 garlic cloves and add them to the pan along with the bay leaves. Dice the tomatoes and add them with the smoked paprika. Stir-fry for about 5 minutes.
- Remove the strings from the celery and cut it into 2-centimetre pieces. Peel the beetroot and cut it into slices. Add the vegetables along with the soaked beans and soaking water. Pour in 1 litre of water. Add the salt and thyme leaves and bring to the boil. Simmer covered for 1 hour. Add extra liquid if necessary if too much has evaporated.
- Meanwhile, soak the cockles in plenty of salted water for 10 minutes – this causes the shells to open and washes out the sand. Cockles are real sand diggers, so don’t skip this step. Then rinse them thoroughly under cold running water.
- Make the gremolata while the cockles are soaking. Finely chop the curly parsley and mix it in a bowl with the lemon zest and juice. Finely chop the anchovy fillets and stir them in. Thin with the olive oil.
- Check whether the beans and beetroot are tender.
- Heat a large frying pan. Crush the final garlic clove and brown it in 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Turn up the heat, add the shells and deglaze with the wine if desired. Cover the pan and cook until the shells open, about 5 minutes. Shake the pan carefully to ensure even cooking.
- Pour the released cockle liquid into the bean soup. Serve the soup with cockles, gremolata and freshly ground black pepper.
Tip: for a quick version, you can use canned beans, but they do contain more salt. You can also prepare the dish in a pressure cooker.
Title: Insane
Author: Vanja van der Leeden
Price: €34,99
Publisher: Nijgh & van Ditmar
