I had never been all that thrilled about veggie soup; until I came across a recipe with beans and spinach and ‘shrooms and stuff, and topped with a fried egg and drizzled with vinegar.
“This soup, I have to try!” I said to myself.
It was pretty good, even though I made a couple of adjustments to the original recipe from the nice folk at Cooking Light – and even my husband liked it, tho’ he wished there was some ham added or something.
The original recipe called for canned beans, but fresh tomatoes and ‘shrooms.
Hmmmpf.
Well… I had home made (and wicked tasty) cannellini beans, but only canned ‘shrooms and tomatoes, and, it was snowing, and a week before Christmas and I was not gonna take the 40 minute drive to and from 
the market for tomatoes and ‘shrooms, so I went ahead with canned, and cut out the called for 3/4 teaspoon of Kosher salt.
Worked a treat.
But…
before you think about making the soup, but skipping the fried egg…
don’t do it! That fried egg, a splash of vinegar, and freshly cracked pepper on top make this soup.
INGREDIENTS
•Olive oil
•1 cup diced sweet onion
•3 (4 oz) cans ‘shrooms, drained
•1 tbsp Sherry Peppers Sauce*
•1/2 tsp garlic powder
•2 (14-1/2 oz) cans diced fire roasted tomatoes
•1 cup veggie stock
•Cooked cannelloni beans
•Baby spinach
•Sherry Vinegar
•Black pepper
*No Sherry Peppers Sauce? No problem! Simply substitute a tablespoon of decent sherry and mebbe add your fave hot sauce, to taste.
Warm one tablespoon of olive oil in a Dutch oven or other large pot over medium high heat, then add the onion and cook for five minutes before adding the drained ‘shrooms.
Note: if using fresh ‘shrooms, clean and slice them, then add after cooking the onion for two minutes.
Cook for another six minutes or so, until the onion is tender and most of the cooking liquid has been cooked off.
Stir in the Sherry Peppers Sauce, garlic powder, tomatoes, and veggie stock and cook for another couple of minutes.
Stir in the cannellini beans, bring to a boil, and cook for fifteen minutes, until the soup has thickened and half of the liquid has evaporated.
Stir in the baby spinach and cook, stirring, until it has wilted, about two minutes or so.
Turn off the heat and keep the soup wamr while you prepare the eggs.
Heat one tablespoon of oil (I used bacon fat) in a large skillet over medium high heat, then break the eggs into the pan.
Cook the eggs for three minutes, until the whites are set, but the yolks are still a bit runny. Or, if that thought skeeves you out, go ahead and cook ’em until they are well and truly done.
To serve, ladle the soup into a bowl, slip an egg over the top, splash with the sherry vinegar and a good grating of black pepper.
Yum.
Note: you can use cider vinegar in place of the sherry vinegar.