Cleaning Out the Fridge

I pretty much think cows' milk is gross.  It is for baby cows.  But, whatever.  We had some left in the fridge because our foster baby just moved out, and we're about to go out of town.  We also had an entire, unopened carton of baby spinach.  That would surely go bad.  So, spinach soup.  This came out very good and all the dairy made it seem decadent-- two thumbs up.  This is NOT vegan.  But it IS delicious.

Creamy Spinach Soup
About four servings

About 1/2 cup of butter
1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
1 can navy beans, drained
1 large pinch of sea salt

a few grinds of pepper
a large pinch of dried basil
the entire carton of baby spinach (the smaller one, not the huge one)

1 cup of whole milk
3 cups of water
2 veggie or nochicken bouillon cubes (I used one of each)
About 1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Melt the butter in a large and deep skillet or medium sized soup pot (I used a big, deep iron skillet and then my trusty Vitamix to blend).  Then saute the onions for a few minutes, add the garlic and saute a few minutes more, until everything is soft.  Add the can of beans, stir and warm through.  Add the spices and stir.  The add in the spinach, no need to chop.  Pour the milk and one cup of water over the spinach, turn up the heat and stir a bit, cook for a minute or two, so the spinach starts to shrink in size.  Then smash the bouillon cubes and add them and the rest of the water into the pot, stir together and allow to cook a few minutes.  Meanwhile, grate the cheese.  Then dump it all into a blender and blend, or add the cheese to the pot, turn off the heat and blend with a stick blender.

Enjoy with a Duvel and a glass of water, if you like.