Pinto, Amaranth and Chard Soup

As I said, more soup recipes coming. Bianca has been waiting for a chance to perfect her soup making abilities since she made that minestrone from her Nonna's typical recipe. Her goal: a soup, not a stew. As Bianca began acquiring things for the soup, I liked the idea of Bianca taking control and changing up the usuals. She bought pinto beans this time and together we chose amaranth for the grain. The chard was a last minute surprise from a friend's garden. I told Bianca she needed to make this recipe her own which she had really already done, but one thing was still needed: a secret ingredient! Now this was last night, she wasn't too fond about the idea but she had all day to think about it and what does she come up with.... garlic! When I didn't react too excitedly since garlic is one of the most common ingredients, she responded, "hey, I didn't put garlic in it last time!" This is true, so everyone, the new and secret ingredient is garlic!

Recipe
Ingredients List
1 leek
1 small red onion
2 quarts of low-sodium vegetable broth
1 bunch of parsley
1 bunch of chard leaves
2 zucchini
3 or 4 little carrots
2 stalks of celery
1 can stewed tomatoes
3 bay leaves
a pinch of cloves
thyme, rosemary, basil
black pepper
3 cloves of ...garlic!
pinto beans, about 1 1/2 C
amaranth, about 3/4 C

Step 1) Chop the leek and the red onion, and saute in until golden brown. You may choose to saute them in a couple tablespoons of olive or grapeseed oil.
Step 2) In a large soup pot, pour all the vegetable broth and add the leek and red onion. Slice the zuchinni, carrots and celery into 1'' slices. Remove stems and chop parsley, you'll want to use about two cups. Add all of the spices and don't forget the secret ingredient! Of course you'll want to crush it before you add it in there. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low, cook for 2 hours.
Step 3) Wash the chard and de-stem. Slice and add to the soup with the beans and amaranth. Cook for another hour still on low temperature.
After 3 hours the soup is ready and can be enjoyed! You can always add more broth or water to make the soup the consistency that you would like. Bianca and I have decided that the soup comes out with a thicker broth because of adding the grains and that in soups with no grains you get a thinner broth. However, she really liked it and I enjoyed it as well. Amaranth is fun because it's so tiny, I'm sure most of you have never even heard of it so please try this one out! This soup paired nicely with thin slices of crispy polenta.

Also, take note that this recipe makes a large batch of soup. Bianca and I like to make a lot because then you have leftovers for busy nights when you don't have time to cook. Soups always freeze well so we tend to freeze the leftovers so they will last even longer. Be careful with freezing thought because once you defrost it you can't freeze it again, so watch the portions you freeze. It helps to use two Tupperwares so you can have two nights of the leftovers :) Just some tips for college cooking.

Enjoy,
<3 Dani