Chicken Soup with Beans

Three weeks back in the parking lot and Bernice's Table is finding its pandemic rhythm. Fifty-one people came Tuesday. We are back over fifty. We are outdoor in October in Birmingham, which means the weather is with us—the fall evenings here are genuinely beautiful, the temperature right for eating outside, the light good—and the setup has improved with each week, the volunteers knowing their stations, the flow from the serving line to the tables working more smoothly, the whole operation feeling less like a modified indoor thing and more like what it is: a table set wherever the table needs to be set, which is wherever the people are.

I have been writing more. The blog has been active—I published twice in October, once about the return of the outdoor table, once about the October foods, the fall squash and the apple things and the first serious soup of the season. Sister Aisha says the readership has been growing, that the pandemic has sent people to food writing the way people always go to food when the world is frightening: looking for the anchor, the known thing, the reliable warmth of the stove that doesn't change when everything else does. I write and people read and I am not sure I will ever fully understand the chain but I trust it. The chain is working. I can feel it working.

Calvin and I had a date night this week—fully at home, because pandemic, but an intentional home date, which we have been doing since Dr. Langley suggested it: one evening a week when we eat at the kitchen table with candles and the good dishes and no theology books and no phone, and we talk, and sometimes we don't talk, and the point is the presence, the choosing to be in the room together rather than ending up in the room together. Twenty-eight years of ending up in rooms together. Now we are choosing. The choosing is better. It is much better.

The date night Calvin and I shared this week called for exactly the kind of food I had been writing about — the first serious soup of the season, something that fills the kitchen with warmth before it even reaches the bowl. Chicken Soup with Beans was what I made: humble enough not to require a fuss, nourishing enough to feel like a real gift to the table. There is something right about setting out the good dishes for soup, about saying that a bowl of beans and broth deserves candles and the absence of phones. We chose to be in that room together, and this was the meal we chose it over.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 medium carrots, sliced into rounds
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 can (15 oz) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes, with juices
5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 cups fresh baby spinach
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped (for serving)

Instructions

Sauté the aromatics. Heat olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
Brown the chicken. Add the chicken pieces to the pot. Season lightly with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is no longer pink on the outside, about 5–6 minutes.
Add vegetables and broth. Stir in the carrots, diced tomatoes with their juices, chicken broth, thyme, and rosemary. Bring the pot to a boil over medium-high heat.
Simmer the soup. Reduce heat to medium-low, add the cannellini beans, and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes until the carrots are tender and the chicken is cooked through.
Finish with greens. Stir in the fresh spinach and cook just until wilted, about 1–2 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper as needed.
Serve. Ladle into bowls and top with fresh parsley. Serve with crusty bread if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Chicken Soup with Beans — The Bowl I Made for Our Intentional Table