Beans the musical fruit.

[vesta111]

With fall so close the cooking shows have 2 out of 4 had at least one bean soup recipe.

Mexican bean soup to baked bean soup.

What did I learn.?

You cannot have enough garlic in bean soup.
You can throw left over salad with dressing into bean soup.
You can dice up corn tortillas to thicken the soup.
You can add most any seasoning to bean soup.

Depending on the bean I am not a big fan of lentils but all else is fine.

I took some Great Northern dried big Lima beans and cooked them up.

I added cooked bacon and a tablespoon of the drippings to the pot, threw in some tomato, cucumber and onion  left over salad with a vinegar and oil dressing, lots of garlic powder and let her simmer for 4 hours.  I added the diced tortillas half way through cooking.   Last hour I took 2 cups of the beans and veges, put them in the blender and pured them and added back to the soup.

I added salt as I checked the mess until it tasted good.

Hubby HATES Lima beans in any form, this concoction came out smooth, creamy and the remaining beans that were not blended gave it a chewing action, and he actually ate 2 bowls.

 Hubby is a Very pickey eater, he was raised in a huge family and his mother worked in a factory all day.  When she came home she could find the energy to open cans of stuff for the family, so if it is canned food hubby likes it.

My experiments cause him to eat allot of baloney sandwitches but this he liked---eather that or he was so hungry he would eat a dead cat.

Tomorrow I make Pinto bean soup, I am going to add a soup bone-beef- that was supose to go to the dog and all else that I made todays soup with.  Think I will add some cooked Okra to this one.

I will get back to you on the results and if I still have a husband.

Please give me some ideas on how your family and you make some kind of bean soup.

[IassaFTots]

Oh that sounds good.  I love bean soup, and can't wait till there is a chill in the air.  Wait!  I have some in my freezer!     My favorite is navy bean with a ham hock, carrots, onions, and sage/bay leaf/rosemary.  I need to put some pintos in soon, but I usually do those plain, less soup, more stew.  Habit, I am sure. 

[vesta111]

Oh that sounds good.  I love bean soup, and can't wait till there is a chill in the air.  Wait!  I have some in my freezer!     My favorite is navy bean with a ham hock, carrots, onions, and sage/bay leaf/rosemary.  I need to put some pintos in soon, but I usually do those plain, less soup, more stew.  Habit, I am sure. 

 My kids really liked the navy bean soup I fed them as kids, but you know kids they will eat anything.

My base was just a gallon of water, the beans, a bay leaf, garlic, some celery seed and perhaps some basil if I had it.

  I could then go from there some bacon,  or ham.   Perhaps a potato, a carrot, celery, and onion--what ever I had on hand.

The base I believe is what makes most of the taste, when you have 4 hungry kids and on a very short budget sometimes finding a fresh potato or carrot to add to the mix is a happy time.

[IassaFTots]

Yup.  I make them different every time.  That is the great thing about beans. 

[Thor]

Pinto beans and cornbread 

[debk]

I have never made bean soup.

I will never make bean soup.

I will probably never eat bean soup.

Beans are right up there with peas....nope, they are worse. 



I lived in the dorm for 3 years in college ( ). I would eat a lot of vegetables at lunch or dinner, because you can only eat so much "mystery meat", before you start to wonder if you should really be eating it.

The mixed vegetables always seemed to have more lima beans than anything else. I would have 2-4 little dishes of the mixed, pick out all the lima beans and leave them in a pile on my plate. Never failed, the next day....the vegetable of the day would be...LIMA BEANS!!! Always wondered how many others were picking them out too, and if they were all gathered together to serve the next day....

[MrsSmith]

Pinto beans and cornbread are a big favorite here.  I boil a big ham bone for stock, recover any meat, and add beans that have soaked overnight in a baking soda/water mix.  (rinse several times first!!)  I then add onion, garlic, pepper, a bay leaf, and whatever I have on hand...I like to add celery (especially the leaves) and green pepper, but don't always. 

Then cornbread, baked in a little bacon grease in the cast iron skillet.   

My kid recently made us try a "Redwall" bean soup - Stones inna Swamp.  It was a bean soup with all kinds of vegetables added, and then oat dumplings cooked in the last half hour.  I shouldn't copy the recipe down, I suppose...but the book, The Redwall Cookbook, is probably in your local library, in the kids section.  It was a very good bean soup!

I suppose the only other thing I always do when cooking...I never add just salt.  I always use bouillion instead, whatever flavor goes best with the mix.  I keep chicken, beef and ham flavor all the time. 

[vesta111]

Pinto beans and cornbread are a big favorite here.  I boil a big ham bone for stock, recover any meat, and add beans that have soaked overnight in a baking soda/water mix.  (rinse several times first!!)  I then add onion, garlic, pepper, a bay leaf, and whatever I have on hand...I like to add celery (especially the leaves) and green pepper, but don't always. 

Then cornbread, baked in a little bacon grease in the cast iron skillet.   

My kid recently made us try a "Redwall" bean soup - Stones inna Swamp.  It was a bean soup with all kinds of vegetables added, and then oat dumplings cooked in the last half hour.  I shouldn't copy the recipe down, I suppose...but the book, The Redwall Cookbook, is probably in your local library, in the kids section.  It was a very good bean soup!

I suppose the only other thing I always do when cooking...I never add just salt.  I always use bouillion instead, whatever flavor goes best with the mix.  I keep chicken, beef and ham flavor all the time. 

Corn bread to go with the beans is not something Hubby likes, I think it is the texture.

So I decided to turn corn bread into a desert.

I use Jiffy mix corn bread mix, add crumbled Bacon, one egg, half and half and one cup of maple syrup.  I also use a small cast iron skilet with some bacon grease AND 2 tablespoons of butter melted in hot oven.

One could add crushed walnuts or baking raisins.

This will have to be cooked about 10 minutes longer then regular corn bread remove from oven cover and bring to room temperature.The top will be very , very browned, from the maple syrup just this side of burnt.
 
The texture is like a soft brownie, the bacon and corn mixture with the maple syrup all go together.   I refrigerate the bread and when an after dinner sweet is called for I cut off a chunk and nuke it for 30 seconds.

I love to play with my food.

[Wineslob]

No bean soup, but I love me some homemade chili.