Chop up the vegetable bin

My vegetable bin in the fridge always has some bits and bobs of things. Even more so now since I did a bit of vegetable hoarding two weeks ago. Decisions had to be made - toss or create. Pre CV, toss would have been the easy answer. Today, I chose to create.

I chopped up an onion, a couple of carrots, three cloves of garlic, some celery including the leaves. In a saucepan, I heated a couple of glugs of olive oil and added the onion and let it cook a bit. Salt. Then added the carrots. Cook a bit. Added a 1/2 t of red pepper flakes. Toast a bit. Then the celery. After it all got a bit soft, I added 4 cups of water and a spoonful of better than bullion chicken broth base. I threw in a sprig of thyme. Covered the pot and let it all gently simmer till the veg was soft but not mush. That took about 15 min.

I rummaged through the cupboard to find the canned bean selection. Cannelini! Opened that can drained and washed the beans and then dumped them in the pot. Salt. Cooked another ten minutes. Tasted for seasoning and determined it was just great - spicy, full of flavor. Grabbed the immersion blender and gave the soup a couple of turns to puree some of the beans and veg. Top with finely grated parm. Lunch is served.