Creamy White Bean Soup

Add the butter, onion and garlic into a Dutch oven or other large stock pot and cook on medium low heat for approximately 15 minutes or until the onions are translucent but not browned. Whisk in the flour until you have a paste like consistency then slowly whisk in the chicken stock, stirring as you go and continuing until it has all been added. Add the beans, oregano and thyme and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to low and cook for 20 minutes.

Working in batches, add the soup to a blender or food processor and puree. Be careful not to overfill the blender or the hot liquid will leak out of the blender. You can puree all the soup or leave it as chunky as you like. This can also be done right in the pot with an immersion (stick) blender. Place the soup back in the stock pot and turn the heat to medium. Add the milk and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve hot and top with shaved Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Adapted from Sarcastic Cooking blog.