Recipe adapted from Molly Wizenberg’s Ed Fretwell Soup
This soup is adapted slightly from my friend Molly’s recipe called Ed Fretwell Soup, which can be found in her book A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table. I’ve swapped out certain ingredients to include more seasonal, cold-weather crops, such as kale and delicata squash, and also amended the instructions for Instant Pot or similar device. Now, some of you may immediately get tense over the thought of wrangling with a winter squash rind, but fret(well) not! As its name suggests, a delicata squash’s skin is delicate and simple to work with. In fact, I wouldn’t even bother peeling it. When cooked, the skin becomes tender and easy to chew.
Ingredients
- ½ pound dried white beans, such as navy or cannellini beans
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
- 2 stalks celery, finely chopped
- 4 medium carrots, sliced into thin rounds
- 1 large garlic clove, peeled and smashed under the side of a knife
- 1 medium delicata squash (~1 pound)
- 3½ cups vegetable broth
- ½ bunch of kale (any variety), stalks discarded and coarsely chopped
- ½ small head of green cabbage (~6 ounces), coarsely chopped
- 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
- 2 fresh sage leaves
- 3½ cups water
- ½ tablespoon salt
Preparation
Put the beans in a bowl and cover with cool water by about 1 inch. Soak them overnight or 6 hours before cooking.
Set your Instant Pot to Sauté Mode, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, onions, celery, and carrots, and sauté, stirring frequently, for 5-10 minutes. Add the garlic, delicata squash, and broth and let simmer, still in Sauté Mode, for another 5 minutes. Add the kale, cabbage, and tomatoes, allowing it all to bubble in Sauté Mode for another 30 minutes to cook off some of the liquid.
Drain and rinse your beans, then add them to the Instant Pot full of vegetables, along with the water and sage. Pressure cook on high for 15 minutes, allowing the pressure to naturally release for at least 20 minutes. When you’re ready to eat, discard the sage leaves, add the salt, and give it all one last stir.
Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and/or a sprinkle of Parmigiano-Reggiano.
