Saturday, October 8, 2011

Bean soup

 Bean Soup I found the recipe here and decided to adapt it a bit to use up some beans I already had in the cupboard. Mine will not have all the beans on this list. My Mother's bean soup was just great northern beans and no veggies. If I added carrots or celery she told me "that is vegetable soup not bean soup".
Ingredients for the mix (original recipe)
Baby lima beans, dried ¬- 1 lb
Barley pearls - 1 lb
Black beans, dried - 1 lb
Black eyed peas, dried - 1 lb
Great northern beans, dried - 1 lb
Green split peas, dried - 1 lb
Lentils, dried - 1 lb
Lima beans, large, dried - 1 lb
Navy beans, dried - 1 lb
Pinto beans, dried - 1 lb
Red beans, dried - 1 lb
Soy beans, dried - 1 lb
Yellow split peas, dried - 1 lb

Combine all dried beans and store in airtight containers until ready to use.(I just put mine in pint size canning jars for the couples and in quart size for the larger families I put two bouillion cubes on top in the pints and three in the quarts for my gift jars at the same time.)

Ingredients for the soup 
Dried bean mixture, 2 C
Garlic cloves, minced – 1-2
Hot pepper, fresh, coarsely chopped - 1
Lemon juice - 1/4 C
Onion, chopped - 1 large
Salt, ¾ tsp
Ground pepper - 1/4 tsp
Whole canned tomatoes, undrained & coarsely chopped - 16 oz can
Water, 2 quarts
Ham to season, if desired - The original recipe called for 1 ham hock. (That is how my mother made hers.It's the bone that is the secret ingredient to a better soup broth... so if using beef Aimee get a bone in the cut of meat.)

Sort & wash the beans, place in a Dutch oven, and cover with water 2" above beans. Soak overnight.(older beans will require longer soaking and another water change)

Drain beans & add 2 quarts hot water, ham, salt, & pepper. Cover, bring to a boil, & reduce heat. Simmer 1 1/2 hours or until beans are tender. Add remaining ingredients, simmer an additional 30 minutes. Taste and add more salt or pepper to taste. Add lemon juice before serving.

 Made Black bean soup tonight with ham hock,chicken stock, black beans, red pepper, and leeks seasoned with parsley, and salt. Put it all in the crock pot on high for 4 hours. The fresh beans turned everything in the pot black. Tasted so good with a batch of cornbread.  We bought the leeks(2/1.00), beans(2.00/bag), and peppers(3/1.00) fresh from the farmers market. I love to make food FRESH in SEASON from the LOCAL farmer's market and the recipe above was my inspiration when I saw the beans at the market I had to buy some. The good thing about fresh beans is they do not require soaking overnight. The ham hock I had in the freezer $1.00/lb, the chicken broth was $1.75, red pepper $0.33, leek $0.50 that is about $3.58 for a crock pot full of soup. Enough to fill up my family of 6 tonight with leftovers for lunches.

No comments:

Post a Comment