Ribollita - A Tuscan Nutritional Powerhouse Loaded with Beans, Greens & Whole Grains

 

 

Tuscan Ribollita - Not Beautiful to Look At - But, the Taste is Perfection!

 

"In the Tuscany region of Italy, the way to transform leftover bean and vegetable soup into the ultimate comfort food is to reheat the soup with dry or toasted bread, then blend it into a thick, comforting pap. This is called ribollita, which means “reboiled.”

-Martha Rose Shulman's "Recipe for Health: Ribollita,"  New York Times, April 18, 2011-

 

 

 

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I've been dying to try Martha Rose Shulman's recipe for ribollita ever since it appeared in the New York Times, on April 18, 2011. 

Too bad it was published on the eve of Passover, the one week out the year when I can't eat bread!   Oh--in case you missed it--this is basically a rich minestrone blended with grainy country bread.

Well, I finally made it on Tuesday, and "oh baby"--this one is a keeper!   Of course, I tweaked Martha's recipe--using vegetable broth instead of water--adding more vegetables--using fire-roasted tomatoes with green chilis--and cuttting out the oil!   It was so flavorful, that it didn't need a speck of salt or pepper --even made no-sodium vegetable broth.   The  red chili flakes--and the fire-roasted green chili tomatoes--did the trick.

This is THE PERFECT MEAL!  

It has it all:  beans, greens, whole grains, and it's loaded with carrots, onions, garlic, and tomatoes.  Not one ingredient that doesn't lend a nutritional power punch.  And the texture is divine--creamy, rich, stomach-and-soul-satisfying.

Check out the nutritional content below: One 300 calorie bowl has about 15 grams of protein, about 17 grams of fiber, 169% of vitamin A, 72% of vitamin C, plus calcium & iron.

What did my taste-testers say?  I brought a large container into work yesterday so my healthy librarian taste-testers--all with sophisticated palates--could give me a reality-check!  It was unanimous, "This is delicious!"   "Love it!"  Healthy librarian Marlene, who doesn't like to cook--and doesn't have the time--even if she did, asked, "Can I buy some from you next time you make a batch?"

 

Penn State University: The Secret Way to Weight Loss & Good Health - Pureed Vegetables

 

Perfect-timing!  The day I made my ribollita, "Adding Food & Subtracting Calories," by Tara Parker-Pope, appeared in the New York Times, May 3, 2011.

This is basically a big, "Duh!"   Sneak pureed vegetables into your meals and you'll increase the nutrient content--and lower the calorie count!   Welcome to the plant-based world, where vegetables go into all of our meals--even our oatmeal!

 

"Dieters may get better results by adding puréed vegetables to some of their favorite dishes, according to a February article in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, "Hidden Vegetables: An Effective Strategy to Reduce Energy Intake and Increase Vegetable Intake in Adults."

But in the Penn State [University] study, the goal wasn’t to trick people into eating vegetables.  Adding the purée bulked up the dish and resulted in fewer calories per serving.

Other research by Dr. Rolls (of Penn State), author of the popular diet series “Volumetrics,” has shown that eating soup or salads before a meal can also curb the appetite and result in eating fewer calories over all."

 

Beans, Greens, Grains and More - A Hot Dinner "Smoothie"

 

It's Like Making a Vegetable/Bean/Whole Grain Green Smoothie--100% Nutrient-Dense

 

 

The Healthy Librarian's Ribollita  (based on Martha Rose Shulman's recipe)

Click here for the recipe on one page:

 

Serves:  6

Prep time:  Two hours--30 minutes of actual work, 1 1/2 hours of watching the soup boil. 

Be sure to make this on a day when you're hanging around the house for the afternoon.

Big Tip:  Read through the whole recipe before getting started!

 

Ingredients:

 

6 ounces (1  cup) white or borlotti(?) beans, soaked, if desired, for four hours and then drained  (can do this the night before)  I soaked mine.

2 medium to large (not giant) onions - one cut in half to boil with the beans, as they precook.  One chopped to saute separately with the vegetables

3 large garlic cloves, 1 crushed, the rest minced  (the minced one is added to the beans as they precook.  The chopped ones are sauteed separately with the vegetables.

Salt to taste  (I didn't use any, not even a sprinkling!)

2 large carrots, diced

1 celery rib, diced

Pinch of red chili flakes  (I used more, maybe 1/2 tsp)

1/4 Savoy or green cabbage, cored and shredded (2 cups shredded)

2 14-ounce cans (or 1 28-ounce can) of  chopped or crushed fire-roasted tomatoes with juice  (note: I used Muir Glen Fire-Roasted tomatoes--1 can was plain & the other one had Green Chilis (it was all I had, but I recommend it--it added a wonderful flavor)

3/4 pound (1 bunch) Swiss chard, kale or a mixture, stemmed, cleaned and chopped or cut in chiffonade (3 cups chopped greens)  I used chard.

A bouquet garni made with a bay leaf, a few sprigs each thyme and parsley (note: I didn't make the "bouquet garni".  I just threw in 1 bay leaf, but be sure to remove it before blending the soup, some chopped parsley,  a few shakes of dried thyme)

6 thick slices of country bread, whole-grain (about 6 ounces)

Preparation:

1. Place the beans in a medium saucepan, and add 4 cups low or no-sodium vegetable broth, the halved onion and crushed garlic clove. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, add salt to taste, cover and simmer 1 hour. Remove the onion halves, cool, chop, and reserve for the last 30 minutes of cooking.  Taste and adjust seasonings.

2. As the beans cook, heat up a heavy soup pot, and add the (other) chopped raw onion, carrots and celery. Cook, stirring often, until the onion is tender, about five minutes.  Add a few tablespoons of broth to the pot if the vegetables start to stick, or get too dry, deglazing the pot.  Add the garlic and chili flakes, and stir together for 30 seconds to a minute until fragrant. Add the cabbage. Cook, stirring, until the cabbage wilts, three to five minutes. Add the canned tomatoes. Cook, stirring, until the tomatoes cook down a bit  and smell fragrant, five to 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt-I didn't add any!

3. Stir in the cooked beans and their liquid, add the bouquet garni (or just the bay leaf, parsley & thyme), 1/2 cup of water, the reserved chopped onion that cooked with the beans, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer 30 minutes or less, until the beans are tender. Taste and adjust seasonings. Now, add the greens, raise the heat and simmer covered for another 15 minutes. The greens should be falling apart in the soup. Remove the bouquet garni--or the bay leaf.

4. Meanwhile, while the soup simmers, preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Place the bread slices on the rack, and toast until dry but not browned, about 15 to 20 minutes. Break up into pieces. Remove about 2 cups of the soup and set aside--this will be added back at the end, after the rest of the soup is blended--to give some texture to the soup. Add the toasted bread to the soup pot. Submerge in the soup, and remove the soup from the heat. Let stand for 20 minutes until the bread is soft.  Now you have a choice in how you want to blend the soup & bread mixture.  You can blend it with a hand immersion blender, the pulse action of a food processor, or on a slow blend with your Vita-Mix.  You want the consistency to be like that of oatmeal.  I used my Vita-Mix.  Once the soup is blended, you can add back the 2 cups of "unblended soup"  you set aside, and heat through. The ribollita should have the consistency of oatmeal. Dilute with water as necessary. Taste and adjust salt and pepper. Spoon the ribollita into bowls.

Note: You can make ribollita with 5 to 6 cups of any type of leftover minestrone using the bread proportions above.

Yield: Serves 6

Advance preparation: Ribollita will stiffen up considerably if you make it too far in advance. If you do so, thin it out as desired with water or stock.

 

Nutrition Facts Martha Rose Shulman's Ribollita ala Healthy Librarian
Serving Size: 1 serving
Amount Per Serving
Calories	286
Total Fat	1.5g
Saturated Fat	0g
Trans Fat	0g
Cholesterol	0mg
Sodium	602mg
Carbohydrate	55g
Dietary Fiber	16.6g
Sugars	12.4g
Protein	14.7g
Vitamin A 169% Vitamin C 72% Calcium    14% Iron 27%

 

Martha's Prettier-Than-Mine Ribollita

My Ribollita - Not Picture-Perfect, But Just as Delicious

 

 

Comments

[mollyjade]

That soup looks fabulous!

[Carol]

Do you think it would work with cooked brown rice, instead of the bread? (for us gluten intolerant folks ...)

[wendy (healthy girl's ktichen)]

This looks amazing. Can't wait to make it when my kitchen is ready. Was thinking of adapting it for the crockpot until then. Do you think it would work?

[Reader in Tuscany]

Hi, and thanks for the recipe.

I live in Tuscany, so we eat this fairly often, but I would love to try your version with whole grain bread and leaving out the salt.

(It's going to be pretty tough to convince me to leave out the olive oil!) I have such low blood pressure I don't usually worry too much about salt, but my husband unfortunately has the opposite problem. (Do you know what it is like to try to convince a Florentine he is better off without prosciutto e schiacciata?)

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that 'borlotti' beans are nearly identical in appearance and flavor to pinto beans, though a bit smaller. Tastier than white beans (cannellini) in my opinion. (But then I grew up eating refried pinto beans in California.)

[Sue]

For those of you who want to try borlotti beans (and other unusual heirloom and traditional beans grown organically in Napa) check out the website for Rancho Gordo: New World Specialty Foods. I made a pot of beans from Vallarta beans recently that were out of this world.