Tuscan Bean Soup

Well, I'll spare you all the terrible food photography this time. Katie asked for this recipe, so I figured I might as well post it and then if anyone else is interested the recipe is right there. Jeremiah says that this isn't actually Tuscan Bean Soup, but once you let go of expectations of authenticity, it is a tasty, simple soup. Of course I didn't follow the recipe exactly, so I'll try to note my alterations coherently.

Ingredients
1 cup packaged peeled baby carrots, coarsely chopped (I chopped up big carrots until I had a pile a little bigger than the pile of chopped onion)
1 small onion, chopped (I used half of a big onion)
3 Tbsp. olive oil
2 15-oz. cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained (I cooked a bunch of dry white beans - abt 2 to 2 1/2 cups dry beans)
1 32-oz. box reduced-sodium chicken broth (I used 1 quart water and 4 tsp boullion, although I ended up adding the water I cooked the beans in and a little more boullion.)
2 to 3 tsp. dried Italian seasoning, crushed (this was too much, I will try just one tsp next time)
1 5-oz. pkg. baby spinach (I tossed in a couple of big handfuls out of my big Costco bag of spinach)
Freshly cracked black pepper
Cracker bread (optional) (I've never even seen cracker bread.)


In 4-quart Dutch oven cook and stir carrots and onion in 1-2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat 3 minutes. Add some of the beans, broth, and seasoning. Bring to boiling; slightly mash the remaining beans and add to the soup. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. The originally recipe has you saute the spinach separately but I just through it in the pot at this point. I know I let the soup simmer for longer than it called for. I also pureed some of it - Aiden and Nyah and I like smooth soups. Serve with cracker bread. Jeremiah and I had the soup with grated parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil. Makes 4 servings.