Light Bites - Tuscan Bean Soup

This week was my pick for the Light Bites Group. I picked this soup because it sounded interesting and healthy. I also wanted something I could put in the freezer and eat after baby #3 came. And this soup is packed with protein so a perfect baby moon food. I didn't know what to expect I am not a huge fan of bean soups, if I had my pick I would eat cream soups all the time. But I love soup and it breaks my heart that I am the only one in the family that loves soup. I let this soup simmer for a couple of hours on the stove and I kept tasting it and it was fairly bland but I resisted the temptation to add any more spice because I knew the balsamic vinegar at the end would either make it or break it. The balsamic tops it off so well and then the parmesan! Wow! It was delicious. I ended up changing this recipe a fair bit, not on purpose but out of lack of options and poor reading. I sent Mike to the store to get some canned chickpeas, he could only find a chickpea and fava bean combo so I thought, "Why not?" And then as I was opening the cans to make the soup, the can that I had in the pantry that I thought was chickpeas actually turned out to be lentils. So this in now a 3 bean Tuscan Soup. Enjoy!


Ingredients
Adapted from Cooking Light

2 cups finely chopped onion
8 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
1 teaspoon minced fresh or 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 (15 1/2-ounce) cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained or a mixture of fava beans and lentils
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 to 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
6 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Directions
Spray a large soup pot with pam quite liberally. Add onion and garlic, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in the water and the next 5 ingredients (water through tomatoes), and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes.
Place 2 cups soup in a blender or food processor, and process until smooth. Pour the pureed soup into a bowl. Repeat procedure with 2 cups soup. Return all pureed soup to pan. Stir in the vinegar, and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Spoon 1 1/2 cups soup into each of 6 bowls; sprinkle each serving with 1 tablespoon cheese.