This was originally Fifteen-Bean Soup, recipe courtesy of Mountain View Monthly Meeting, Religious Society of Friends [Quakers], Denver, Colorado, ca. 1985. People used to sell bags of fifteen-bean mix at the annual craft fair.
1 pound each:
yellow split peas
lentils
Michigan white beans
kidney beans
small red beans
limas
butterbeans
black-eyed peas
black turtle beans
pinto beans
Great Northerns
chickpeas
adzuki/fava/speckled limas [this is what the MVMM recipe says]
barley [no, it's not a bean. I put in more beans instead]
Really, though, you can mix any beans you want and you can leave out the barley. It can be Ten-Bean Soup or Twenty-Bean Soup or whatever; it doesn't matter. I don't know how many beans are in the bean mix I have right now so I just think of it as ham-bean soup.
16 pounds of beans makes about 25 batches of soup.
Use a large Dutch oven or soup pot.
Soak 1 1/2 cups bean mix overnight
(or all day, and make it in the evening to eat later)
Drain soaked beans.
Add 1 1/2 - 2 quarts water
(I tend to go light on the water because I like thick soup)
Add ham-bone or about 1 pound of diced ham.
Boil slowly 2 1/2-3 hours.
Add:
28 ounces tomatoes (I like diced)
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, pressed
juice of 1 lemon
"1 long pod of red or green pepper"*
*This is from the MVMM recipe. It's pretty vague. I leave it out and add Tabasco or Crystal at the table if I want it spicier.
You can also add whatever other vegetables look like they need to be used up (Mom's friend Rhetta calls this "refrigerator soup," as in: Whatever's in the refrigerator):
1 bell pepper, chopped
celery tops
carrots
leftover cooked potatoes or sweet potatoes, cubed
okra
etc.
Cook 30 minutes.
Like all soup, it's good now and even better the next day. You can also freeze it if you can't eat that much soup that fast.
Bean mix:
2 pounds green split peas.1 pound each:
yellow split peas
lentils
Michigan white beans
kidney beans
small red beans
limas
butterbeans
black-eyed peas
black turtle beans
pinto beans
Great Northerns
chickpeas
adzuki/fava/speckled limas [this is what the MVMM recipe says]
barley [no, it's not a bean. I put in more beans instead]
Really, though, you can mix any beans you want and you can leave out the barley. It can be Ten-Bean Soup or Twenty-Bean Soup or whatever; it doesn't matter. I don't know how many beans are in the bean mix I have right now so I just think of it as ham-bean soup.
16 pounds of beans makes about 25 batches of soup.
Soup recipe:
Use a large Dutch oven or soup pot.
Soak 1 1/2 cups bean mix overnight
(or all day, and make it in the evening to eat later)
Drain soaked beans.
Add 1 1/2 - 2 quarts water
(I tend to go light on the water because I like thick soup)
Add ham-bone or about 1 pound of diced ham.
Boil slowly 2 1/2-3 hours.
Add:
28 ounces tomatoes (I like diced)
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, pressed
juice of 1 lemon
"1 long pod of red or green pepper"*
*This is from the MVMM recipe. It's pretty vague. I leave it out and add Tabasco or Crystal at the table if I want it spicier.
You can also add whatever other vegetables look like they need to be used up (Mom's friend Rhetta calls this "refrigerator soup," as in: Whatever's in the refrigerator):
1 bell pepper, chopped
celery tops
carrots
leftover cooked potatoes or sweet potatoes, cubed
okra
etc.
Cook 30 minutes.
Like all soup, it's good now and even better the next day. You can also freeze it if you can't eat that much soup that fast.
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