Bean & Bacon Soup
Bean & Bacon Soup
I love a good bean soup, and a bean soup with bacon, even better. I have modified this to use a slow cooker.
Ingredients
- 500 grams dry Great Northern beans
- 4 cups chicken stock, fresh or from powder
- 300-500 grams smoked bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 carrot, diced
- 1 handful celery, about 5-6 bunches, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 bay leaves
- black pepper, to taste
- dried parsley, to taste
Instructions
- Sort the beans and discard bad beans or debris, rinse and place in a large bowl that has a lid, cover with water by about 2 inches, cover and place in the fridge overnight.
- Next day, drain the beans, quick rinse and place in the slow cooker. And the chicken stock and set the slow cooker to High setting.
- Fry the bacon in a pan until just crispy, remove from the pan, briefly drain on a paper towel, then add to the slow cooker. You can reserve some of the bacon to garnish the top of each bowl if desired. This photo shows I am using 1/2 package of store bought Thai brand bacon, and 4 slices of thick cut German smoked bacon.
- Pour the bacon fat into a jar for use in later, like frying eggs, potatoes, etc but do not wipe out the pan, now add the veggies to the pan and cook those for 4-5 minutes or until starting to soften, then stir in the tomato paste, cook for another minute or two, then add this mixture to the slow cooker. Add the bay leaves and stir to mix everything together. Cover.
- Continue to cook on High for a total of 3 hours, then switch to Low setting for 3 hours. Perfect consistency.
- Remove the bay leaves, stir in some dried parsley and serve. Top with the reserved bacon for garnish if desired and sprinkle some dried parsley on as well.
Notes
Only item expensive here would be the smoked bacon, a good brand is TGM, this would be about 130 Baht/200 gram package, 2 packages would be 260 Baht. For 8 servings, this is about 95 cents per serving, good value!
Variants: 1. Prior to serving, add 2-3 chopped plum tomatoes and stir those in. 2. Add macaroni for a kind of pasta fagioli to get more meals from this.
Adapted from an internet recipe.
Adding pasta inspired by good friend, Edward Coleman.
Philippines.
Philippines.
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
I made this on 29 Mar 2017 and is truly one of the best soups I have made. Takes time but certainly well worth the wait! Perfect as written. Two thumbs up from my Thai wife as well. This is on my Go-To list and will be a standard soup here.