Soup's On

A recent issue of Delicious Living magazine, available at The Heritage Natural Market, contained a recipe for Jasmine Rice Soup with Cannellini and Rosemary.  Everything about that sounds delicious to me, so I brought a copy home.  I'm always excited when I have an excuse to snip a stalk of wonderfully fragrant rosemary off the plant I have growing in the garden.  Rosemary is such a sensory delight!

As with most recipes, I tend to view them as loose guidelines and end up following my own train of thought.  The preparation of this soup was no exception.  For starters, I have a rice blend with brown and red basmati rice, rye berries and pearl barley which I felt was a lot more interesting for the soup than just jasmine rice.  I also used both cannellini and kidney beans for more color and variety.  The soup gets a velvety taste from stirring balsamic vinegar into simmering onions, garlic and crushed red pepper before adding in the tomatoes, broth and rice.  Another surprise flavor comes from the addition of a freshly roasted red bell pepper toward the end of cooking.  It gets a healthy dose of fresh baby spinach toward the end of cooking as well, making this soup a powerhouse of nutrition.  The final touch of freshly chopped rosemary and freshly ground black pepper just before serving sends a beautiful aroma wafting through the kitchen.  Thanks to my sister's baking experiment, I enjoyed some fresh foccacia along with my soup.  Delicious!