Senate Bean Soup

 Senate Bean Soup, is a classic navy bean soup, and has been served in the Senate restaurant since 1903. Several weeks ago I put out a call for your favorite soups and the winner (by a wide margin) was potato soup, in second place was chicken, a few votes for gazpacho, and finally bean, including specifically navy bean. The weather here is currently very crappy; cold and wet, and it’s the perfect day for some nice warm navy, bean soup. Since I’m not using the exact recipe I don’t think I can call this Senate Bean. I looked up several recipes just to check, and though I was planning on adding diced potato to mine, not one recipe called for it, so I’m saving my potatoes for Hasselback potatoes later this week (yum!!) so stay tuned for them.

Back in my diner days, I made soup daily, six days a week (no soup on Sunday, we were only open for breakfast). I had a broad repertoire, some of which turned out to be a bit too exotic for the small rural town I was living in. I once had someone complain about their cold gazpacho, and ask me to heat it up, sure, why not? My soup career is legendary (at least to me) as following culinary school I began my career in food service, making two soups daily, five days a week. During all that time I relied heavily on a book I’ve mentioned here before  Soups, Chowders & Stews, by Georgia Orcutt, which is sadly now out of print. I still have it, despite its torn edges, and loose, stained pages.

I like my bean soups cooked until they get creamy and thick, and with the flavor imparted from smoked ham necks or hocks. As they cook the collagen in the hocks melts, which adds body and which is why I prefer hocks to necks. When we were kids and we’d start bugging my mom asking her what we were having for dinner (usually around noon) her standard reply “Ham hocks and belly lox.” It was years before I figured out what a ham hock actually was.

What is your favorite bean (or other winter) soup?

Navy Bean Soup

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Serves	4-6
Prep time	20 minutes
Cook time	2 hours
Total time	2 hours, 20 minutes
Meal type	Soup
Misc	Serve Hot

Ingredients

• 1lb navy beans
• 1 Medium Spanish onion (diced)
• 3 Large carrots (diced)
• 3 stalks celery (diced)
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 2 ham hocks
• 2 cups water

Directions

Step 1

Combine all ingredients in a large soup pot Bring liquid to a boil and reduce heat to low, simmer for two hours, stirring occasionally

Step 2

After two hours remove ham hocks, and let cool enough to handle Remove skin and bones and discard, reserving meat, chop and add back to soup

Step 3

If beans are soft and soup has started to thicken, taste for seasoning. If not cook an additional 30 minutes.