Want to live to 100? Start by listening to Dan Buettner. This Mediterranean White Bean Soup from his newest book, The Blue Zones Kitchen: One Pot Meals, will be joining our regular rotation this year. It would be ideal for big-batch cooking and freezing for later. Photo by Oliver Barth / National Geographic

This hearty soup evokes the flavors of the landscape in two of the blue zones—Ikaria and Sardinia—where the hillsides are often covered in wild fennel and other aromatic herbs. It’s also packed with beans, the king of longevity foods. A long, slow simmer marries the flavors and lets the starch from the rice and beans thicken this into almost a stew. It’s even better the next day, though you may want to add a little water to thin it when reheating, since the rice will soak up liquid overnight. This soup is an excellent opportunity to use some top-quality extra-virgin olive oil as a finishing touch.

• 1 tablespoon white miso
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (preferably oil from Garlic Confit (below), plus 2 tablespoons to finish
• 4 cloves Garlic Confit (below)
• 1 head fennel, tops and cores removed, sliced crosswise as thinly as you can (about 1/16 inch), fronds reserved
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 rib celery, diced
• 1 teaspoon herbes de Provence
• 1 bay leaf
• Juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tablespoons), plus zest reserved for garnish
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups cooked white beans, such as Rancho Gordo Alubia Blanca beans
• ½ cup cooked long-grain brown rice
• 2 tablespoons fennel fronds, finely minced, for garnish
• 2 tablespoons fresh dill, finely chopped, for garnish

Makes: 4 Servings

1. Whisk the miso into the broth until the miso dissolves.
2. In a heavy-bottomed soup pot, add 2 tablespoons of the oil and the garlic confit cloves. Use a spoon to smash the garlic into a paste and mix it into the oil.
3. Heat the garlic oil over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add the fennel slices, onion, carrots, and celery, and stir well. Sweat the vegetables until they soften but do not brown, about 10 minutes.
4. Add the herbes de Provence and bay leaf and stir. Stir in the miso broth, lemon juice, and salt. Add the beans and rice and reduce the heat to medium-low, so it’s just bubbling; cook gently for another 10 minutes, stirring periodically to make sure nothing sticks to the pot.
5. Remove the bay leaf before serving. Serve topped with the lemon zest, fennel fronds, and dill, and add a drizzle of oil around the outside of each bowl.
6. If you have some whole-grain or sourdough bread handy, that would be a wonderful way to scoop up every drop.

Garlic Confit

• 1 head garlic, cloves separated and peeled, flat ends trimmed
• 1 cup (or more) extra-virgin olive oil

1. Preheat your oven to 275°F.
2. Put the garlic in a small ovenproof dish, like a ramekin. Pour enough oil to cover the cloves by about 1  inch. Place the dish in the oven and cook for 2 hours, until the garlic is golden brown and very soft. Let cool, making sure the garlic remains submerged in the oil. Store in the fridge for no more than a week.