It’s impossible to take flattering pictures of soup. I tried. Instead, I give you this:
Look at those beautiful yellow-eye beans!
There were a lot of options for these beans, but the rainy weather had me craving something comforting, so I went with a traditional soup, specifically:
Famous Senate Restaurant Bean Soup
2 pounds dried navy beans (I used yellow-eye)
four quarts hot water
1 1/2 pounds smoked ham hocks
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper to taste
- Wash the beans and run hot water through them until they are slightly whitened. Place beans into pot with hot water. ‘
- Add ham hocks and simmer approximately three hours in a covered pot, stirring occasionally.
- Remove ham hocks and set aside to cool. Dice meat and return to soup.
- Lightly brown the onion in butter. Add to soup.
- Before serving, bring to a boil and season with salt and pepper.
I quartered the recipe since we only had 1 cup of beans, but I ended up using about 2 quarts of water, and I added in some extra chopped ham. For extra nutrition and flavor (and let’s be honest, I’m trying to clear out the fridge of all these delicous, but space-consuming, greens), I stirred in about 1/2 pound (3 cups maybe?) of chopped fresh spinach right before serving. The quartered recipe made four generous bowls.
This is what it looked like. Please forgive the awful picture. Soup is perhaps the most non-photogenic of all the food subjects.
