Cookaholics Bulletin Board

This recipe came to me by email the other day and I thought it looked really good and hearty and nice for a meat-free meal.
Since we have a cold front coming in next week I think I'll put it on the schedule.

White Bean and Fennel Soup

1 bag (16 oz) cannellini beans
1 fennel bulb (about 1 1/2 lbs), trimmed, quartered, cored and sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tsp Italian seasoning
6 cups vegetable stock
1 head escarole, cored, rinsed and chopped
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
1 cup mini pasta, such as farfellini
1 tsp salt
Grated Parmesan and freshly ground black pepper

Place cannellini beans in a bowl with 4 cups cold water. Cover with plastic and soak overnight.

Drain beans and transfer to a 6-quart slow cooker. Add fennel, onion, garlic and Italian seasoning. Pour in stock and 2 cups water. Cover and cook on HIGH for 5 1/2 hours.

Uncover and stir in escarole and diced tomatoes. Re-cover and cook 30 minutes more.

Meanwhile, bring a medium saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook 9 minutes or as per package directions. Drain. Stir pasta into soup along with salt. Ladle into bowls and top with Parmesan and black pepper.

Servings: 6

Sounds good. I love beans and fennel.

Our temperatures have plummeted since the weekend. From the high eighties now to the fifties so it's really a good time for a big cauldron of hot soup.
I'm heading later todaay to get the fennel bulb and the escarole.
In case I can't find escarole, is there a good substitute?

I'd use kale.

Thanks, I was able to find escarole at my grocer's.
This soup, cooking away in the crockpot smelled amazingly good.
And it tasted just as good as it smelled. Served with a salad and some of my rustic no-knead bread, toasted and buttered. A lovely meal and a nice change.

That sounds quite good. I might adapt it for regular cookin'

Paul, I'm sure you won't be disappointed, it was better than I would have even thought.
I did have to substitute the pasta, there's no farfellini anywhere around here. And, fortunately, I already had some dried cannellini beans on hand because they can't be found either, I have to order them online. Living in a small town can make food shopping adventuresome. But every once in a while I am taken completely by surprise when I find an ingredient that I didn't expect.