Brothy Mushroom Bean Soup with Carrots

feed a cold and also feed a fever

things you’ll need: beans (you can use canned but it’s better if you make a bean broth), mushrooms, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, tomato paste, water (and/or bean broth, porcini broth, or any soup base), butter and/or olive oil, salt and pepper.

I was sick (certified not Covid) and all I wanted was to eat soup and whine (a lot). As I typically begin my cooking process, I googled ingredients: mushroom bean soup. I wanted to make this black bean soup with carrots and this mushroom soup with kale and white beans and this mushroom lentil adzuki bean soup. Instead, I made a carrot-heavy, alubia blanca bean soup with mushrooms and a tomatoey base but forgot to add any greens.

incidentally gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan if you skip the butter.

Chapter 208

You are under the weather, replete with the I Don’t Wannas. Maybe you’re sick because you are low on Time, taxing your Can Do system, and now you have Acute Cannot with pervasive Whining. The only cure is to Don’t. Tomorrow (or the day after), you will feel fine as long as you take the time that you need to feel better.

Having certified yourself Covid-Free, everyone knows that the most serious medicine for this ailment is tea/ginger ale, television, and soup.

Put on a standard pot of beans with some carrots, celery, onion, garlic, a little olive oil, half a pound of beans, and enough water to cover by three inches. Let that boil for 10 minutes while you make a cup of tea.

Drop it down to simmer and let it cook for a few hours (depending on your beans) while you drink your tea, take some medicine, and watch a few episodes from the comfort of your sickbed. Check the beans between episodes and get some more water. When they are almost done, salt to taste and let them sit until you’ve done nothing for long enough that you feel like doing something.

Clean and slice a pound of mushrooms. Rough cut a bunch of carrots, a few celery stalks, and half an onion. In your trusted soup pot, sauté the mushrooms with plenty of butter and a little salt until they’ve released their liquid and begin to brown.

In the meantime, strain your bean broth and snack on the cooked carrots as you separate the beans.

Mix about a tablespoon of tomato paste with a little bean broth. Add the concoction to the mushrooms to deglaze the pan. Because you are sick and the mushroom sautéing and deglazing was all the effort that you had left after the chopping, dump in the rest of your vegetables, the strained bean broth, and enough water (or another soup base). Let that simmer on low while you lie down again. Take some crackers with you.

When the time comes, as determined only by your desire for soup weighed against your desire to get out of bed, add the beans to the soup and season to taste.

No matter the sick, you always think it’s Covid. You have gas and think it’s Covid. You spike a tiny fever and it couldn’t possibly be the toothache and swelling that you’re ignoring because it’s obviously Covid. Your body-aches and gastro distress certainly have nothing to do with your life, any microaggressions or traumatic stress, the war that just started or the others that do not end. There are still reasons to be worried, it’s good to take it seriously, but it’s ok to just be sick.

Take a nap and have some soup.

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