Scarborough Fair Stew - AKA White Bean and Escarole Soup With Herb Swirl

For dinner last night I combined the recipes Kale and White Bean Stew with Chicken and White Bean Soup with Herb Swirl. I would call the soup Scarborough Fair Stew as it includes the herbs parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.

I made the herb oil per the recipe but used less herbs only because I harvested what I could from my herbs and bought the sage. I didn't want to spend $10 on just herbs at the grocery, and the grocery was out of parsley. Next time I won't skimp on the herbs because I think it would have added more flavor to the recipe.

I blended the recipes by using 1 small onion, 1 shallot, 3 carrots, 3 celery stalks, 3 garlic cloves, 1 cup pureed roasted tomatoes (3 big plum tomatoes), 2 bags of frozen white beans, 1 cup wine, veggie broth, cup of jasmine rice, handful of spinach, and half a bunch of escarole, and sherry vinegar, and LOTs of salt and pepper.

I would add the entire bunch of escarole next time. It seemed like a ton at first, but then wilted way down. Also the soup seemed very thick so I added 2 more cups of veggie broth, and it still thickened a lot when it cooled down! 1 cup of rice seemed adaquate, but maybe I would cut it down to save on broth next time. 2 bags of frozen beans was a lot, next time I might just add 1 bag.

The soup didn't have as much flavor as I had hoped, but it was really good. We garnished with leftover garlic croutons (from the caesar salad sunday) and several dashes of hot sauce (cholula).

*addendum

The soup became a lot more flavorful (and thick) from sitting overnight.