Butter bean and rosemary soup with Mull of Kintyre cheese

Serves 6

Traditionally, butter beans are often used in the Scottish kitchen – both in soups and as a vegetable beside a plate of everyday mince and tatties.  This soup is a beautifully flavoured bean soup topped with some grated Scottish Cheddar-style cheese.  I puree only about half the beans: this gives a natural thickness to the soup but leaves some whole beans for texture.

This is the sort of soup that will put hairs on your chest… or at least warm you up on a cold day out on the hills.

Ingredients

350g/12 oz dried butter beans

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, peeled and chopped

3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

1.2 litres/2 pints hot chicken stock

2 thick sprigs of rosemary

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

50g/1 ¾ oz Mull of Kintyre cheese, coarsely grated, to serve

Extra virgin olive oil, to serve

Method

Soak the beans overnight, then drain and rinse.  Heath the olive oil in a saucepan and gently fry the onion and garlic for 10 minutes.  Then add the beans, hot stock and rosemary sprigs and season with black pepper (but no salt yet).  Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer gently for about 1 hour or until the beans are tender.

Remove the rosemary (and try to extract any leaves which may have dropped off).  Using a hand-held electric blender, puree about half the soup, ensuring that some beans are left whole.  Now add salt – and more pepper, if necessary – according to taste.

To serve, ladle the soup into warm bowls, and top each bowl with some of the cheese and a drizzle of the oil.