Share and Relish

We are starting a new feature here.  Post a simple but tasty recipe, only once or twice a month.  The recipes must contain simple items that can be found in the United States as well as in Germany, especially since this is Georgia's brain child!

This should be a recipe that you actually make and eat, not just something you found in a magazine.  With the new diet, I am going to try to make my recipes a little healthy.  Well, maybe after this first one!  Right now, it's only me and Georgia that has signed up for this project.  Any and all are welcome!  Let me know if you'd like to play and we'll include your name and link you up. 

For my first recipe, I made my Mom's navy bean soup on Sunday.  Beans are high in protein but they are also high in carbs.  I'm not into my diet enough yet to know if this is really good or really bad for me, but it sure did taste good!  And, this is definitely a comfort food from growing up.  Being good Catholics, we always had meatless suppers on Fridays.  Bean soup was a staple in the winter for us. 

If you know how to cook, please don't point out all the errors in what we do!  This is how my Mom made it, so this is still how I make it!

I know how to make this in my dutch oven size pot.  You will have to adjust the recipe up or down depending on the size of your pot.

You will need:

1 to 1-1/2 lbs of navy beans
1 large onion
1 16oz can of diced tomatoes
1/2 stick of butter
small sized pasta

I start by cooking the pasta according to the directions on the box.  Rinse, drain and put in a container in the refrigerator.

I pour out all of the beans on the counter, and go through them all by hand.  It's not unusual to find a small rock in the bag. 

I will throw out anything that is not a bean, or any bean that looks "funny" to me.

Put the beans in the dutch oven, cover with cold water and swish around to rinse.  Throw out the rinse water and fill the dutch oven about 3/4 full with water and salt liberally.  Personally, I think beans need a lot of salt.  But, salt to your taste.

Once the water comes to a boil, put a lid on, turn the heat down to low and cook for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.  After 45 minutes, add the can of tomatoes.

Put the lid back on and cook for another 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Check to see if the beans are done.  If not, keep cooking until they are!  You can tell if the beans are done by taking a few of them out of the water on a spoon and gently blowing on them.  If they are done, you will see the skin on the bean peal right back when you blow on them, like this:

I learned that little trick from my sister-in-law!  When the beans are done, take a sauce pan and saute a large onion, chopped up, in the butter.  As you can see, I only had about 1/2 of an onion so I just used what I had.  I love a lot of onion.  Once the onion is soft and translucent, add enough flour to the pan to make like a paste.

To this same pan, now add cool water until this paste is creamy.

Slowly pour this creamy concoction into the soup, stirring constantly until incorporated.  Once this is all mixed together, let cook about another 10 minutes to thicken. 

Now it's time to enjoy!!  Take the pasta from the fridge, and put a dollop in your bowl.  How big of a dollop is personal taste.

Ladle the soup over the pasta.

Enjoy!  If my Dad were here, he'd add a BIG dollop of ketchup to this bowl, but that was my Dad!  The man thought ketchup was a necessity in any soup.

Go check out Georgia's first recipe, pepper soup.  It looks great!

This soup was mighty tasty.  And it came out just like Mom would have made it!