Basic Bean Soup Recipes

EASY BEAN SOUP

Steps:

• Combine all ingredients into a large pot and cook on medium heat for 2 hours.
• Turn heat to low and cook for an additional hour or until carrots and celery are soft.
• It can be kept on very low eat until ready to eat.

BASIC BEAN SOUP

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine the beans with the water, cover and let soak overnight.
• In a large pot over medium high heat, combine the soaked beans with water, carrots, onion and ham. Add more water to cover all, if necessary. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and let simmer for 4 to 6 hours. Add ketchup just to get desired color. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

QUICK HAM AND BEAN SOUP

Steps:

• In a large saucepan, saute the carrots, celery and onion in butter until tender. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cook for 15 minutes or until heated through. Discard bay leaf.

BASIC HAM AND BEAN SOUP

Steps:

• Rinse the beans, sorting out any broken or discolored ones. In a large pot over high heat, bring the water to a boil. Add the salt and the beans and remove from heat. Let beans sit in the hot water for at least 60 minutes.
• After the 60 minutes of soaking, return the pot to high heat and place the ham bone, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, mustard and bay leaves in the pot. Stir well, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 60 more minutes.
• Remove ham bone and discard. Stir in the chopped ham and simmer for 30 more minutes. Season with ground white pepper to taste.

QUICK BEAN SOUP

Steps:

• In a 3-qt. saucepan, combine onion, carrots, celery and water. Bring to a boil; boil for 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients; mix well. Heat through.

MOM'S SIMPLE NAVY BEAN SOUP

Steps:

• Pick over the beans, removing any small stones or beans that just don't look "right".
• Cover the beans with water in a crockpot (this is usually 2-3 cups of water).
• Now put the remaining ingredients in a soup pot or crockpot and simmer for another few hours.
• Mom usually mashes a cup or two of the beans to thicken the soup, but you don't need to do this if you prefer a clear broth.
• Remove the ham hocks and carefully pick apart, removing the tiny bits of meat from the bones.
• Return the meat to the soup.
• Throw out the bones, gristle and skin from the ham hocks.
• If you've put the hocks in cheesecloth, it helps to keep the little bones that can resemble beans from making their way into the soup as the hocks tend to disintegrate during cooking.
• If the soup has cooled considerably, get the heat back up and serve.