By January 2021 arrived and we were still in it—but now there were vaccines starting to move through the distribution system, which changed something in the mood of the country and also in our house. Hannah was tracking the rollout like a weather system. Caleb asked me if I thought it was safe. I said I was going to get it the moment I could and that he should too. He said okay and then he actually did, which is the important part.
The new year energy was different this time than last January. Less naive optimism, more careful, earned hope. People had been through enough to know that turning a calendar page doesn't change anything on its own. But the vaccines were real and they were coming and that meant the shape of things was going to shift again, eventually.
In the meantime: cold, short days, the garden under frost, the pantry doing what it was built to do. I made a lot of bean soups this month—different varieties, different preparations, tracking them in the food journal. Cherokee Trail of Tears beans one week, pintos cooked in a way Hannah's grandmother used to make them the next, dried October beans with a piece of fatback a week after that. Each one different. Each one some version of the same conversation with the land about what grows here and what sustains people.
Lily published her first paper from the ethnobotany program—a short piece about documented Cherokee plant use in the Eastern Band records compared to Western Cherokee documentation. She sent me the draft before submission and I read every word. It was good. Careful and specific and honest about the gaps in the historical record. Danny would have read it five times and called her with seventeen questions.
That month of bean soups wasn’t just about eating — it was about keeping faith with the pantry and with the land, the same way you keep faith with anything that has ever sustained you. The white bean soup I kept coming back to was the simplest of them all: white beans, escarole, a good broth, garlic. Nothing to hide behind and nothing that needed to be anything other than what it was. That felt right for January 2021 — careful, honest, enough.
White Bean Soup with Escarole
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 stalks celery, sliced
- 1 medium carrot, diced
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 2 cans (15 oz each) white cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 6 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 small head escarole, roughly chopped (about 4 cups)
- 1 Parmesan rind (optional, but worth it)
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Grated Parmesan cheese, for serving
- Crusty bread, for serving
Instructions
- Build the base. Heat olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and carrot and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened — about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
- Add beans and broth. Stir in the white beans and pour in the broth. Add the Parmesan rind if using. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes to let the flavors come together.
- Mash for body. Use the back of a spoon or a potato masher to gently crush some of the beans against the side of the pot — this thickens the broth without losing the texture of whole beans.
- Add the escarole. Stir in the chopped escarole and simmer another 5–7 minutes until wilted and tender. Remove the Parmesan rind. Taste and adjust salt and black pepper.
- Serve. Ladle into bowls and finish with a drizzle of good olive oil and grated Parmesan. Serve with crusty bread for the broth.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 220 | Protein: 12g | Fat: 6g | Carbs: 30g | Fiber: 8g | Sodium: 480mg