Dinner #2 - 15 Bean Soup

I had a 1 lb 15 bean mix that I got at the farmers market awhile back in our "food storage" and decided that this chilly day would be great to use it. I have lots of cookbooks, but ultimately just ended up googling "15 bean soup recipe" and ended up using this one below...my comments are in green.

Ingredients

(1 lb) bag of 15 bean soup mix
1 large red onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 (15-30 ounce) can chopped tomatoes
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 c chopped ham or a 1 lb ham hock with hambones
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 tsp dill
1 tsp pepper
2 tbs olive oil
4 c chicken stock
5 cups water

Before you do any cooking you want to make sure that you have soaked your beans. (I soaked mine overnight in lots of water - they expand like crazy - and then drained the water off of them and put new water on to boil them...supposedly this helps with the gas factor of beans.)

Now, If you want you can add things to this soup like carrots or potatoes to make your own mixed bean soup. (I did end up chopping some carrots and adding them into the mix in step #6 because it just seemed like the kind of soup that should have carrots.)

1. Put the beans in a large pot and add 4 cups of water. Simmer on medium high heat for 45 minutes. Stir Occasionally. Skim the top with a spoon to remove the foam once in awhile. If at anytime the water gets too low add another cup of water.

2. Put 1 cup of water and 4 cups of broth in another large pot or stock pot, add 2 cups chopped ham or a 1 lb ham hock that has the bone ( if you don't have any ham you can use a pound of bacon for your soup ) and simmer on medium high heat for 30 minutes. (I used bacon because there is a long story about finding the ham at the grocery store...I just used 1/2 lb of bacon though.)

3. In a large frying pan add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and heat it up on medium heat.

4. While the oil is heating up put 2 celery stalks, 1 red onion, 1/4 cup fresh parsley and 3 garlic cloves in a food processor and chop them up. Don't Puree it! (I just chopped them up with my knife...minus the fresh parsley that I forgot to get at the store.)

5. Then add the mix to the frying pan and add 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon dill, and 1 teaspoon dried thyme and fry it up for 4 minutes. Stirring Occasionally. (I didn't measure the pepper or thyme and nixed the dill completely because it did not come in my spice rack...)

6. Now add the contents of the frying pan and the can of tomatoes to the pot with the ham and broth in it, stir it well and continue simmering. (My can of tomatoes was a big one...28 oz I believe.)

7. After simmering the ham and broth for 30 minutes pour it into the pot with the beans. If your using a ham hock remove the ham hock and pick the pieces of ham off that you want to add to the soup discarding the fatty pieces , add what you want to keep into the beans and then add the broth to the beans and simmer for 30 minutes.

Voila, it's finished. Now eat a bowl full or 2 and enjoy your new 15 bean soup recipe. (You will definitely want to enjoy more than one bowl full of this soup...it was pretty yummy and this recipe makes A LOT of soup. I think tomorrow I will take some to a friend or something because we have a lot and I am still planning on cooking another meal...but it will be great for lunch!)

All in all I think we liked the soup- like I said, it kind of felt like a soup day and I didn't even mind that I had soup for lunch as well! My parents came over to test it and they seemed to like it as well. It was a nice and hearty meal and we definitely didn't feel guilty about having seconds!