Great Northern Bean Soup, Southern Style

Great northern bean soup only gets better when you add classic southern ingredients: sweet potatoes and collards. The soup has a festive holiday look, with snowy white beans, bright orange cubes of sweet potatoes, and streamers of dark-green collards. The potato's sweetness balances the deep flavor of the greens, with lemon juice adding sparkle.

This filling soup is ultra-healthy: no fat and loaded with nutrition. Pack a thermos of soup for lunch during December to help avoid packing on holiday pounds.

Active time: 20 minutes. Total time: about 2 hours. Makes 10 main-dish servings. Vegan.

Ingredients

1 pound dried great northern beans
6 cups of water
2 teaspoons salt

1 onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 medium sweet potato, diced (about 2 cups)
2 cups collard leaves, sliced into ribbons about 1/4 inch by 2 inches

2 teaspoons lemon juice
ground black pepper, if desired

Method

1. Pick over beans, removing any non-bean objects like stones or stems, and rinse well. Put in medium pot with water and salt. Cover pot and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to lowest possible boil. Cook until nearly tender, about an hour and 15 minutes.
2. When beans are nearly tender, peel and chop onion and add to beans. Peel and dice sweet potato and add to beans. Rinse collards well and cut leaves into ribbons about about 1/4 inch by 2 inches and add to beans. (Save tough center rib for another recipe.) Raise heat if needed to bring to a boil again, then reduce heat to simmer for 20 minutes, until collards and sweet potatoes are tender.
3. Stir in lemon juice and taste. Adjust seasonings as desired. If you like a thinner soup, add water.
4. Serve hot. Refrigerate any extra.

From http://www.cookforgood.com

Tips and notes

• Collard greens and sweet potatoes are very inexpensive and available from mid-fall through winter.
• Both are good "vision foods" that may help you keep your eyesight as you age, according to the American Health Assistance Foundation. These dark green and bright orange vegetables have high levels of the antioxidant lutein, which can help prevent macular degeneration.
• Cutting the collards into narrow ribbons helps them cook quickly so they get tender well before they get stinky.