Big Bean Soup Served with Little Nibbles is a great all-purpose recipe. I've probably written about it before on the blog. But, this is the early autumn, end of summer reprise. I was specifically looking for a soup to make that would use some of the abundance of vegetables we are getting currently from the garden and our CSA. So, I turned to this old fav.

It comes from Sally Schneider via Lynne Rosetto Kasper's "The Splendid Table" NPR program. What I like is that it comes in three parts:
Basic Bean Soup - onion, carrot, garlic, beans, broth, chili pepper, and some basic seasonings
Flavorings that are optional- including peppery greens, fresh herbs and garlic puree
Embellishments - which is a list of various vegetables that can be added at the end, like slow-roasted tomatoes, roasted mushrooms or fennel, plus things like cheese and other fresh herbs

So, there are almost endless variations of the options in the three categories. I used cranberry beans, turnip greens for the flavoring, and roasted some of our cherry tomatoes. Plus, I added some fresh zucchini, peppers from our garden, leeks, and green beans.
When using the leftovers a couple days later, I also threw in the leftover Zucchini Rinehart and some roasted local shittake mushrooms.

We had two good meals with this soup and another left that I put in the freezer.

Meanwhile, I'm watching the news and blogs and wondering whether our debate-watching party Friday night will be some other kind of party. This business of evading the debate is a new low - even for that campaign that seem to be lurching from one goofy idea to another. Now, it looks like he's not only trying to get out of his own debate, but setting the groundwork to get Suzie out of having to do hers as well. What a gentleman!