Collard Greens and White Bean Soup

After a couple of week's now, acquiring collard greens in my bin each week and not being quite sure how to use them up, I decided to try and use them in a soup.  I figured why not? I've got carrots, celery and onion, which are a perfect base for a soup that I need to use up too! So I started chopping. 

I started off by heating a bit of olive oil in a medium sized dutch oven. I added chopped onion, celery, carrot and gold bell pepper (this I decided on at the last moment, I thought it would go well in the soup).  Once the vegetables began to soften, I put in some sliced garlic (4 heads) and a sprig of fresh thyme along with some red pepper flakes, chicken broth and a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes. When this began to boil, 5 cups of chopped collard greens were added and the heat was reduced to a simmer for just under 10 minutes. A can of drained, rinsed white beans were added and the soup was cooked just a few minutes longer to heat the beans through.

I have to say that as good as this soup was, I felt that it was a bit lacking in flavor. I feel like the vegetables worked really well together, but maybe it would have been a good idea to add more spice. I also think that the addition of some cooked chicken or maybe even cubed tofu might work well in this soup.