About 18 years ago I decided to cut all dairy products from my diet. At that time, I had no idea that there was even a word for that kind of diet…vegan,  let alone, other people and cookbooks that were vegan.  The first few months were very hard.  I found a cookbook, which shall remain nameless, that I tried to use but the recipes tasted horrible. And then by divine providence I came across the Country Life Cookbook. It was amazing—the food was not only edible it was really good!

But somehow in the flood of cookbooks and blogs and recipes that is now available, I had forgotten about my first favorite cookbook. So last week I was in search of a new soup recipe and I remembered the Navy Bean Soup from the Country Life Cookbook.  It is so good, why had I stopped making it? And for an added bonus, it even has greens in it! It’s a great way to eat my greens, because I usually don’t like them.

Navy Bean Soup

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 cups water
• 2 cups potatoes, diced
• 2 cups kale or collared greens
• 1 ¾ teaspoons salt
• ¼ teaspoon cumin
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
• 3 cups cooked navy beans or 2 cans

1.     Sauté onions and garlic in a medium sized soup pan.

2.     Add the remaining ingredients and cook for 20-30 minutes until potatoes are tender.

I hope you enjoy the soup! The chips on the side in the picture are a new version of the Chili Cheese Frito recipe I posted last week. This time I used Mrs. Dash’s Fiesta Lime seasoning with some salt and yeast flakes.  Very yummy.