mmm, mmm, good!

A friend of mine – hi Carol! – posted on Facebook a couple of weeks ago about a soup  (navy bean and bacon) that she made and how awesome it was.  Well, it sounded pretty awesome to me – I mean, it has BACON in it!  I’ve never met a piece of bacon that I didn’t like.  So, of course, I asked her if she minded parting with the recipe.  I mean, it could have been a family recipe or an ancient Chinese secret or something and I wanted to be sure death wasn’t going to be involved with me getting the recipe.  And, I no longer live near her so we certainly couldn’t go to her house and distract her with something while I ransacked her kitchen looking for it.  Phew, no worries about that – she was more than willing to share.  And, strangely enough, she sent me a recipe that wasn’t for navy bean and bacon soup.  Aha!  Carol has some scientist in her and totally gets that recipes are just guides.  Love it!  Anyway, the recipe came from Epicurious.com and is actually Split Pea Soup with Bacon and Rosemary.  Okay, if you know me, you know I haven’t liked split pea soup since I was a kid.  It’s weird and it’s green and well….. split pea soup ranks right up there with Brussels sprouts and liver for me.  (*shudder*)  I’ve never once considered substituting a bean for a split pea – I mean, why would I?  But what a great idea!  And, did I mention it has bacon in it?

Of course, Carol sent along the changes/alterations she made to the recipe and how she made it.  This, folks, is awesome because, as I’ve said before, I don’t create recipes off the top of my head very well (Top Chef contender I am not) and this was destined to be a disaster if I had to “create”.  Even thinking about creating makes me nervous…. Padma and Tom and Gail would have a field day with me and I would be gone at the Quick Fire challenge (yes, I know they don’t eliminate there…that’s how I believe I would fare).  Immunity?  Ha!  Only cuz I’m up to date on my shots.  Anyway…..

I’m really nervous whenever I make things with dried beans.  I’ve only done it a few times and they’ve been what I would call acceptable but not successful recipes.  I’m always worried that the beans won’t be soft or flavorful or anything that they should be.  So, to help prevent that, I not only soaked the beans overnight, I also cooked them a bit PRIOR to starting the soup recipe.  Okay, honestly, they soaked from 7:00pm until noon the next day.  Overkill?  Maybe.  Don’t judge me.  I want my beans to be good.  Then, I drained and rinsed them, put them back in the pot, added 6 cups of water, and brought them to a boil, added a bit of salt, and simmered them for an hour.  Okay, fine, judge me.  Maybe you’re better with beans.  If you are and you know the secret on how to make them delicious every time, please share.  I’m sure it won’t just be me that’s grateful.

So, from this point, I pretty much followed the recipe on Epicurious.com but changed it a teeny bit – even from Carol’s suggestions – and got the soup on.  Finished product?  It was DELICIOUS!!!  And I served it up in the husband’s granny’s old Campbell’s soup bean pot.  A lovely, warm and homey soup in the perfect, warm, memory-filled old container.  Can’t get much better than that.  Oh wait, we ate outside on the back patio (Florida room) on our new patio set.  Yep, that certainly did make it better.  Oh, did I mention there’s a golf course?  And people were golfing?  Ahhhh…….  Okay, sorry, that’s not fair if you’re in an un-temperate climate right now.  Sorry.  Back to the soup – it was SO GOOD that Thing 1 had seconds and Thing 2 had huge firsts and said it was really good.  She also said she felt like she should be eating it while she was sick.  Best kind of soup ever – the kind that makes you feel better just thinking about it.  WIN!

Alright, here’s what I did to it to make it mine.  Please make it yours.  I promise it’s worth it.  Trust me – TEENAGERS liked it.  J  Happy cooking, eating and drinking!

mmmm.....bacon.....

bright, fresh veggies

simmering away

soup with puree added

the perfect serving vessel

Navy Bean Soup with Bacon and Rosemary

5 slices bacon, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 bunch green onions, white and green parts, sliced (recipe called for a medium leek (white and pale green parts only) sliced but my store was out of leeks)

1 large carrot, peeled, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced (honestly, I held back.  I LOVE garlic.  But 3 works really well.)

4 14 ½ ounce cans low-sodium chicken broth

16 oz dried Navy Beans, soaked overnight and pre-cooked, if you desire

2 bay leaves

½ teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

Salt and pepper

1. Saute bacon in heavy large dutch oven over medium-high heat until crisp and brown.  Add onions, leek (if used), carrot and garlic and sauté until vegetables begin to soften, about 6 minutes.  Add broth, beans, bay leaves and rosemary and bring soup to boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook until beans are tender, stirring occasionally about 1 ½ hours.  Taste soup while cooking and season with salt and pepper as desired.
2. Put about 3 cups bean mixture into blender and puree.  Return puree to soup pot, heat and adjust seasonings as necessary.  (If you have an immersion blender, now would be a great time to use it!  I don’t presently but will have one by the end of this week.  And, you can certainly puree more or less according to your tastes.  I did about 3 cups because I found a bean soup recipe that recommended that amount and it sounded good to me.  Thickened the soup nicely but didn’t make it like baby food.)
3. Serve with crusty bread perfect for dipping and ENJOY!