Soupe Paysanne a Boire et a Manger

This is basically a bean and vegetable soup. All the usual suspects are present (onions, leeks, garlic, carrots, shallots, celery, turnips, cabbage, navy beans). The veggies and a ham hock are sauteed in duck fat (or whatever oil you like), and then you add the beans and water (5 count 'em 5 quarts), bring to boil and then simmer for four hours.

My husband liked the end result, but I thought the veggies had basically leeched all their flavor into the broth. With so much cooking, there was also no real crunch or firmness to the veggies -- so the texture is almost silky.

The photo of the soup in this book shows it as a rich brown -- but mine (and I made no changes to the recipe) was more a golden yellow. And the recipe makes a ton of soup -- had to use my largest stockpot.

I ended up wishing I'd added some thyme when I sauteed the veggies -- and maybe added some blue cheese to the finished soup.