This recipe is a “European” tasting soup that is bright and brothy. It is time-consuming, but the labor is minimal. This recipe is based on Bon Appetit’s video recipe.
Note: Make sure that you plan for this recipe to have enough time to soak beans.
Soak 2 cups of dry white beans overnight in cold water, place in the fridge.
In a large stockpot, add soaked beans with soaking water plus more to make up a 1:3 ratio of beans to water. Add a tablespoon of salt to beans and heat on medium-high heat. Get the water to boil. Skim as much of the foam as possible. Lower the temperature to medium-low to a gentle simmer.
While the bean and water are heating up, heat up a pan to medium heat. Wait about 5 minutes so the pan gets hot. Slice the lemon in half widthwise and place both halves cut-side down on the hot pan. Let the lemon halves char on the pan for 5 minutes. The lemon halves should be blackened a bit and smell sweet when taken off the pan.
Add charred lemon halves, the 5 crushed garlic cloves, the dozen herb sprigs (tied together with twine preferably), 1 bay leaf, olive oil, 1/2 tablespoon of salt, and pepper to taste. Make sure that all ingredients are submerged in the bean water. Stir and let the bean mixture cook until done, which should take somewhere between 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hour. Add water throughout if it gets low.
When beans are cooked, and skins are starting to curl up, taste the broth, add 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar, 2 pinches of fresh herbs, and salt to adjust for flavor.
Serve beans with plenty of broth. Optionally, top with toasted breadcrumbs and a drop of dijon mustard.
There should be a lot more broth than beans, save the extra broth and use in other recipes.