Lima Bean Soup ~ A Low Calorie, Low Budget Recipe

Hello, friends!

I hope you all haven't forgotten about me even though it may seem that I've forgotten about y'all!  I just figured I'd take a week off and then, after that one little week, it seemed more and more difficult to get back into the swing of things here on the blog and at home in the kitchen!  It's seriously been really quiet here in my my kitchen, only cooking out of necessity and not for enjoyment at all.  I'm not sure the reason for such a bleak outlook on food and cooking, but as December started to come to a close, I felt myself wanting to get back into the kitchen to try some new recipes.

The snow we had recently helped a bit, too!  Nothing puts me in the mood to cook like a snow storm!  So, while the snow was coming down, I spent some time in the kitchen throwing together a frugal, no-meat soup.

A month or two ago, I picked up a few different bags of dried beans figuring they'd come in handy this winter and help with keeping the grocery bill low as we recover from the overspending that always happens during the holidays.

While Grace was occupied with her new toys, I spent a lot of time trying to decide how I wanted to prepare those bags of beans in the next few months and chose a very easy Lima Bean Soup first.  While the original recipe is super easy, I did need to make a couple small changes to avoid a trip to the market.

half portion of Lima Bean Soup

Lima Bean Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. bag dry lima beans 
• 4 cups water
• 5 carrots, diced
• 1 large onion, diced 
• 2 celery stalks, diced 
• 1 tsp. garlic, minced 
• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 4 vegetable bouillon cubes 
• 8 cups water
• 1 bayleaf (optional) 

Directions:

• Rinse and sort through dry beans.  
• Bring 4 cups water to a boil, add beans and boil for 2-3 minutes.  
• Cover, remove from heat and allow beans to soak for 2 hours. 
• Drain and rinse beans.  
• In a skillet, saute carrots, onion, celery and garlic in hot oil until onions are translucent.  
• Add beans to the skillet and saute for 2-3 minutes, stirring to combine the beans with the vegetables.  
• Transfer vegetable/bean mixture to a large crock pot.  
• Dissolve bouillon cubes in 4 cups of boiling water and pour over the veggies in the crock pot, stirring to combine.  
• Pour another 4 cups of water over the veggies.  
• Add bay leaf if desired.
• Cover and cook on high for 4-6 hours, until beans and vegetables are tender.  
• Remove bay leaf and serve.  

Total Calories:  1991* 
8 servings @ 249* calories per serving.  

* calories are approximate and may not always be accurate.  

This soup is really tasty.  Not as flavorful as some of my favorite soups, but great for something a little different.  I wish I was good at keeping track of the cost of ingredients or at scoring great deals on produce, but I'm sure this soup is the cheapest dish I prepared in a long time!

I ate 2 half portions of this soup the first night I made it and froze the rest for some low calorie lunches throughout the rest of the month!


I've linked this recipe to the following blog carnivals and linky parties:

• Hearth and Soul Tuesday Blog Hop hosted by Premeditated Leftovers