Rocket Bomber - article - recipes - Sunday Soups: #1 - Bean & Bacon Soup

Yes, this is a bit off-topic, at least for topics that have been previously established, but then again: this is a personal blog so I can post whatever I like. And those of you who follow me on twitter know how much I love to cook already.

One of my favorite appliances is my trusty slow cooker, and one of my fav applications for the slow cooker is soup. Now that it’s finally Fall [It’s still 80° out, but the first day of Fall was yesterday, 22 September] I say: it’s a perfect time to make some homemade soup.

This one is a two-parter, in that you need to plan a bit ahead. Actually you need to start the day before, but this step is easy: soak your beans overnight. For this batch I went with 1lb. of black-eyed peas and 1lb. of black beans – that sounds like a lot but don’t worry, we’re not cooking all of this today

I soaked the two beans in separate containers, as black beans will dye everything purple — which defeats the purpose of using two different types of visually-contrasting beans. I also heartily advocate that you use dried beans for soup, as canned beans taste canned and this is such a simple dish the bean flavor is the soup, really. Well, that and bacon.

What converts simple beans to fantastic soup? The secret is to not just soak beans overnight, but to soak them in brine (as opposed to plain water). For one pound of beans, I use 2 quarts water and a half cup of salt. (see note: a quarter cup for two quarts.)

Sunday Soup #1: Bean & Bacon

makes 3 batches
[one to cook, two to freeze]

prep time: 20 minutes, plus some pre-planning. cook time: 4 hours. 8 hours.
[edit 7 October: feedback from other cooks is that cook time is highly variable, depending on your slow cooker. Please allow 8 hours; it might be done before then, but it’s always easier to reheat, than to have underdone soup.]

Hardware:
Crockpot or other slow cooker, or a big enough soup pot.
Bowls or large storage containers [I have 13cup plastic storage containers] to soak the beans.
Quart-sized ziploc [or other brand] plastic bags.

Software:
2lbs. beans: after soaking that’s 12 cups

[edit 4 October: originally this recipe called for a cup of salt to a gallon of water for the brine. This is my standard brine for meats, but it failed me in this application: either bean cells like the salt more that meat muscle fibre, or the extended soak was too much, or — most likely — the fact that bacon & canned tomatoes carry their own sizable sodium payloads made the final product much saltier than expected. I didn’t notice as much in the first batch, but a later substitution of tomato juice for the water — recommended — made batches 2 & 3 too salty requiring some creative serving applications. ]
[ tl;dr as updated below, use 1/2 cup of salt, not a cup ]
brine: 1 gallon of water and a 1/2 cup of salt [table salt; if you only have kosher, adjust to 1 cup]

3 cups of chopped onion (one large onion chopped)
3 cloves garlic, or more, minced
6oz. of Bacon. mmmm, bacon.
6 stalks of celery
bay leaf [x3]
3 cans [14oz ea.] of diced tomatoes
water. Or tomato juice (as noted above, an excellent substitution)

Notes on ingredients:

As stated above, my personal preference is black beans & black eyed peas, as I like the visual contrast. Any beans will work, but when combining different types try to match them for size so they’ll cook evenly in the same amount of time.

Trader Joe’s sells bacon “ends” which are delicious, uneven, extra thick chunks of bacon — even thicker than thick cut — it’s kind of like a solid hockey puck made of bacon. This is highly recommended for this recipe, if you can find it. (It’s also a dollar cheaper than a regular pack of bacon)

The diced tomatoes I used today are packed with onions & garlic; other types have green chiles or basil, or nothing but tomatoes. Pick according to your tastes.

Methodology:

Soak the beans overnight in the brine. If you can’t plan that far ahead, wake up super-early and at least soak your beans for 8 hours.

Chop onions & garlic; you can dice the celery, too, but I include it primarily for flavor, so I leave the stalks mostly whole to make it easier to remove them.

Divide the recipe into thirds.

Each batch will be: 4 cups of beans, 1 cup of onions, 1 clove garlic, 2 celery stalks, a bay leaf, 2oz. of bacon — all of which will fit in a single quart-sized ziploc, handily enough:

Here you can see the next two batches of soup, everything prepped and ready to go, and about to go into the freezer.

The third batch goes into a slow cooker today. To your beans et. al add the whole can of diced tomatoes, juice included, and enough water to cover. You need a quart of water or so, and handily, you can use that empty can to measure it: two cans of water will be about a quart and will also make sure you get all the goodness out of the can.

Cook on low until the beans are done, the bacon is cooked, the celery is limp, and your whole house smells awesome.

To thicken the soup, you can add some roux, if you’re feeling fancy, or just take a potato masher & break up some of the beans to release more starch into the broth. [mash ‘em and cook uncovered for a half hour or so.]

Also, if you’re feeling fancy, you can add fresh chopped parsley or thin-sliced green onion to the dish. I like to serve mine with a dollop of sour cream; I’ve also made this a more substantial meal by serving it over rice.

Those freezer packs are even better (if that can be imagined) as you can go straight from frozen to soup: add the contents, frozen, to your crockpot with the diced tomatoes and a quart of water before you go to work, set to low and cook for 8 hours. When you come home, the soup will be done.