This side dish, which includes peas and cheese, is quite straightforward. I double the recipe and bring it to many of family get-togethers.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 45 mins |
| Additional Time: | 3 hrs |
| Total Time: | 4 hrs |
| Servings: | 8 |
Ingredients
- 1 (16 ounce) package dried navy beans
- water to cover
- 7 cups chicken stock
- ½ cup margarine
- 4 carrots, chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- ½ pound bacon
Instructions
- Clean and sort beans. Place them in a large bowl with water to cover and soak for 3 hours.
- Combine beans and chicken stock in a large pot over medium heat and allow to simmer.
- Meanwhile, melt margarine in a large skillet over medium heat. Add carrots and onion and sauté until onion is caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add this mixture to the pot.
- Sauté bacon in the same skillet over medium-high heat until crisp, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain grease and add bacon to the pot. Continue to simmer the soup over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the beans are tender and the soup has thickened.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 448 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 40 g |
| Cholesterol | 20 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 15 g |
| Protein | 17 g |
| Saturated Fat | 7 g |
| Sodium | 996 mg |
| Sugars | 5 g |
| Fat | 26 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Easy and tastes great! Good with fresh beans as well as dried ones.
Because this recipe sounds very sodium rich we actually thinned the chicken stock a little bit with an additional cup of water. We also did not add the bacon to the pot, we added it to the bowls when we served it. The extra water didn’t thin the soup as we simply cooked it a little longer. 3 hours in NOT long enough to soak dry beans. Overnight or very early in the day are best so they soak for 6-8 hours. Long story short is the soup was awesome. Simple to make and very flavorful.
Simply delicious! I added 2 stalks of celery to the recipe but didn’t make any other changes. Very simple to make and ready to eat in less than 2 hours of cooking. I highly recommend soaking the beans overnight.
Good basic recipe. My BF was asking for bean soup, which I had never made before. I chose this recipe as it seemed the most straightforward. I didn’t have bacon but cubed up some ham. Used half chicken stock and half water. Also added one bay leaf and 2 baby red potatoes, diced very small. Mashed some of the soup with a potato masher toward the end of the cooking time, to help thicken it up. Will make again!
Changes: I let my beans soak for 6 hours in cold water. I used 9 slices of turkey bacon. I added 3 cloves of garlic. I let my soup simmer for 90 minutes.Everything else as is in the recipe. The beans weren’t as tender as I’d like them. Next time, I will soak them overnight. Will definitely be making this again. It is very tasty.
chiken broth is not needed. I reserved a portion of the cooked beans, a third to a half cup and mashed and put this back to the soup stirred in thourghly an d then simmer to desired thickness
I must confess, the rating is based on my adaptation of this recipe. It was a great base for what turned out to be a one pot meal. Only had canned navy beans so put 3 cans in the pot with the chicken broth. Blended a fourth can to use as a thickener based on other reviews. Fried up 2 slices of thick bacon and used the bacon grease to saute onions, carrots and celery. Added the broken bacon pieces to the soup, 2 bay leaves and pepper. For this meaty version I used leftover Porketta roast that gave such great flavor. The Porketta was salty so didn’t need any additional salt. Next time I may add some chopped spinach.
I made this our first cold Fall day. I don’t usually keep bacon around to control my cholesterol and I had no ham. I used vegetable broth and a vegetable all purpose spice that I got at World Market. I followed the recipe as written other than the bacon. They were very good with some cornmeal muffins.
was a great hit ,my husband loves bean soup and htis passes
I soaked the beans overnight and put them in the crockpot today on high until it was bubbling and then turned down to low until the beans were cooked. Sauteed the veggies in olive oil and used 1 qt of Trader Joe’s low sodium organic vegetable broth and 3 c of chicken stock – I was worried about the other reviews mentioning the saltiness and the veggie broth was all I had that was low sodium. I’m glad I did – we really liked the added flavors from the veggie broth (including tomato). I cubed a 1lb ham steak instead of bacon. When the beans were tender I took out 2 c of the soup, pureed and added back to thicken the soup (I pulled out the ham cubes so they didn’t get pureed). I also let it cook without the top on for about 45 min to thicken as well. UPDATE 3/22/15 – added a bay leaf, used 1 qt low sodium veggie stock and 1 qt LS chicken stock. Still delicious.
Been making this recipe since I found it here Love it! I do soak my beans over night. Even the kids like this one will be making this for years to come! Thanks for the recipe!
Overnight soaking not needed with pressure cooker! Place 1 lb. navy beans in pressure cooker. Add 8 cups cold water. Bring cooker to pressure. Turn off heat, leave sealed for one hour. Beans are now perfectly ready for any recipe. No gas after effects with this method!
I was so disappointed!! Really looking forward to liking this, but it was extremely bland. I had to doctor it up quite a bit for any of us to enjoy it. Added salt, pepper, thyme and garlic, just to make it a passable dinner.
Great recipe to get more beans in my kids diet. They all love it!
this really was salty- so glad i added a whole quart of water. it’s a decent base, but needs something more. next time i’ll up the carrots, add something green(kale? spinach? parsley?) and use a hamhock. could also been good with some mushrooms in it. definitely has potential!
Lacked flavor. Would not make this again.
This was a wonderful base to add layers of flavor to. Instead of ham or bacon, I used smoked pork neck bones, (tie in a piece of cheesecloth and drop in);very inexpensive but adds a wonderful slightly smoky vibe to the whole thing. Also a little Thyme, 1 bay leaf and a couple cloves of garlic and a big pinch of cayenne pepper along with the other listed ingredients. I never serve the same day it’s made, but the next day every morsel disappears!
I soaked, then cooked the beans until soft in water only. Then cooked further to reduce the water. Adding chicken broth or any salt before they softened would have made them tough. I skipped all frying of anything, why add extra oil or grease? I also used pre-chopped and frozen onions, red & green pepper and celery. Added several carrots cut into rounds, chopped celery and various spices. Last I added pre-chopped ham and let all simmer until tender.
It was okay…not really impressed though. No one else in the family really cared for it either, it seemed to be lacking flavor.
I liked this soup but next time I will use ham. Did not care for bacon’s texture after sitting in broth and I did fry it crispy. I used chicken stock I had made by cooking the chicken, chunks of celery and onion. I then removed all of that for a wonderful tasting broth. To that broth, I added the pre-soaked navy beans and the carrots chopped. Very good soup.
Per other reviews, I soaked my beans overnight and used ham in place of the bacon. I also used some spices and only 1/4 cup of butter. I thought the soup was pretty good with these changes.