Green Bean and Almond Soup

The inspiration for this soup came from nothing more than "I have green beans, I don't need them for anything else.  Can I turn them into soup?" From there my mind went to 'green beans and... erm... what goes with green beans?'  Then I remembered green beans with almonds, which in my mind was always a side dish to a Thanksgiving dinner in America, possibly alongside a weird salad that has marshmallows in it.  I have to admit that I have absolutely no idea where this assumption comes from, apart from that I possibly saw it in an episode of Friends (The one where Joey gets the Turkey stuck on his head I assume...)

And then I googled Green Bean and Almond soup, and lo and behold, it is a thing.  When does a soup become 'a thing'? As in an accepted soup variety? Does it ever?  Is that the beauty of soup, that it can have literally any combination of meat, vegetables, herbs and spices and still be an acceptable thing? This is just another reason why I love the stuff...

Anyway, this is a tasty and sweet soup, thickened by the ground almonds, and although you don't have to put the white wine in, it will improve the flavour of the soup by 237% if you do...

Ingredients
400g Green Beans
2 Carrots
1 Onion
75g Ground Almonds
25g Butter
3 Cloves of Garlic
Slivered Almonds
900ml Stock
200ml White Wine
Salt and Pepper

Method.
1. Peel and roughly chop the carrot, garlic and onion.  Heat the butter in your soup pan and then gently fry the vegetables until they start to soften

2. Cut the ends off the green beans and then slice the remaining beans in half.  To the onions and carrot add the beans, stock, wine and ground almonds.  Bring the soup to a simmer, cover and cook for 25 minutes.  Remove the pan from the heat, allow to cool and then blend until smooth.

3.  Adjust seasoning to taste and then reheat.  Serve and garnish with slivers of almond.  Enjoy!