Butter Bean & Cumin Soup

I saw this recipe in a diabetic cook book, as my mum has recently been diagnosed and adapted it slightly to reduce the Syns. It's wonderfully warming, tasty and was great with a big green salad and wholemeal roll

Serves 4

Ingredients

8oz of dried butter beans

1 cal spray 

1 large chopped onion

2 large chopped carrots

2 pints of vegetable stock

1 tsp of ground cumin

fat free natural yogurt

salt and pepper

Syn Value - big fat zero 0 for the soup. 

Rinse the beans and put in a large bowl. Cover with water and leave to soak for at least 12 hours. I did mine overnight. I am sure tinned butter beans would work too and no need to soak but I was watching the pennies! 

In a large saucepan, spray the 1 cal and gentle 'fry' the onions and carrots for 5 minutes until the are soft.

Add the beans, stock and cumin. Bring to the boil and reduce the heat, simmer for an hour until the beans are tender

Once cooked and cooled slightly whizz in the food processor (or in my case a handheld whizzer!) Season and then return to the pan to warm through.

Once spooned into the bowls, put a swirl of yogurt in the soup and serve.

The soup is thick and has a velvety texture on the tongue. Next time I do this, I am going to experiment and replace the cumin with chillie.