Semi-Meatless Mondays?

I've been noticing a lot of "meatless mondays" ideas out there. The most impressive so far has been the city of Ghent in Belgium. They have declared one day a week to be vegetarian for its citizens! The idea is that the less meat consumed, the less emissions is the long run. Cue the 'applause' for letting vegetables play a bigger part of their everyday lifestyle. 

Okay, I admit that is a commitment...maybe baby-steps is the way to go. How about if I start the week off with a steaming hot bowl of soup to warm up? Can you say Fasolada? So simple and so hearty, it's a Greek vegetarian soup with plump, white beans as the primary ingredient. I think I love this soup because it tasted like those tomatoey Gigandes Elephant beans. They always come in a little plastic tub from Greek delis (sometimes you can even find imported ones in a tin).

When I was a kid, my dad took me to the Greek Food Festival every year. He thought that lamb was one of the great acquired tastes in life that required training from early childhood in order to develop a full appreciation by adulthood (others include black licorice, spicy food, organ meats, blood sausage, etc). I became obsessed with all the sticky-syrupy pastries that somehow seemed to stay flaky even though they were drenched in honey. We ate a lot of Greek food when I was growing up. My dad thought it was important to try everything at least once (his motto was very much "you don't have to eat it again if you don't like it, but if you don't try it at all, you don't know what you're missing out on..."). He didn't want us growing up going to the same Chinese restaurant every week, eating the same dishes all the time. So instead, we went to Greek restaurants all over Vancouver. Maybe this is why I love making Fasolada. 

Well, also because I usually have most of the ingredients around the kitchen and I can make it without going grocery shopping.

Fasolada

As always, when it comes to soup for me, the quantity of the ingredients tends to vary depending on what I have left over in the fridge. Usually I am pretty liberal to making substitutions too, but in this case, you want to stick to the carrot/ celery/ tomato/ bean combo because they when they meld together with the oregano, delicious.

You can also simmer for longer or less time, depending on how soft you want your vegetables to get. I usually go a full hour and the result is a lovely sheen of olive oil, coloured orange from the carrots being cooked down. Perfect for dunking some homebaked bread...

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 onion, minced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 shallot, minced

3 celery stalks, diced

3 carrots, diced

19oz can white beans, drained and rinsed

28oz can diced tomatoes

6 cups vegetable stock (or 2 vegetable bouillon cubes and hot water)

1 tsp dried oregano

pinch dried red pepper flakes

seasoning salt and white pepper to taste

Heat oil in stockpot over medium heat and add onion, garlic and shallots. Cook 2 minutes, then add celery and carrots. Cook 10 minutes until starting to soften. Add canned beans and tomatoes along with stock. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add oregano and season with peppers and seasoning salt at the end after the soup has cooked down, because canned tomatoes have a salty kick after simmering for so long.