Parmesan Broth with Kale and White Beans

I forgot to mention this earlier, but a downside of this soup is that the residual cheese on the rinds enjoys releasing from the rinds as it cooks and gumming itself to your pot, giving you a fun scrubbing job. The best way to avoid this is to tie the cheese rinds up in cheesecloth so the flavor infuses but less of the cheese. A second way is to use a nonstick pot if you have one. The way I do it is to keep using that cheesy pot to make the soup after you’ve used the broth, stirring and scraping. I find that only a little is left at the end this way.

Lady, where do you think I’m going to get a half-pound of Parmesan rinds? Don’t worry, I don’t think anyone goes through that much Parmesan, not even you. You can buy Parmesan rinds-aplenty at a handful of stores. Both Whole Foods I’ve gone to in NYC stock them, thus I’m sure most locations do, as do other grocery stores and many cheese stops. If they’re nice, they’ll give them to you for free. If they’re business-smart, they’ll charge you, but still significantly less than you’d pay for the cheese itself. Promise that you won’t throw away any Parmesan rinds; you can even keep them in the freezer until you need them.

I used cannelini beans for this the first time, but I spied some of Rancho Gordo’s Yellow-Eye beans in my cabinet and had to use them instead.

If you have time to soak your beans, do it, I find that it cuts stovetop time in half. I dump it, soaking liquid and all, into a heavy pot, add more water, and bring the pot to a full boil. Boil it for one full minute, skimming any foam, then reduce the heat to the lowest simmer possible. Your beans will take 1 to 3 hours to cook from here. Once they are mostly softened, you can add salt to taste. Store them in their cooking liquid.

Strict vegetarians do not eat Parmesan as calf rennet is used in production.