Fourteen Bean Soup
 
 
Author:
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 16 ounce package of organic fourteen-bean soup mix (or mix a little of this and that from what you have on hand to make 16 ounces of beans)
  • 1 large piece of kombu(1)
  • 1 onion, whole
  • 2 carrots, peeled, but left whole
  • 1 stalk celery, whole
  • 3-4 shitake mushrooms
  • 2 garlic cloves, whole
  • 3 bay leaves
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • ⅓ package of MorningStar Farms Bacon Strips (about 8 strips)
  • 1½ cups of canned diced tomatoes
  • Sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
  1. Soak the beans overnight, and drain off the water in the morning. (If you didn’t do this the night before, pour boiling water over your beans and let them sit covered for at least an hour.)
  2. Put a liner in the slow cooker. Rinse the beans and add them to the slow cooker, along with the kombu, onion, carrots, celery, mushrooms, garlic cloves, and bay leaves. Cover with water to a depth of about an inch over the top. This should take you about 6–8 minutes.
  3. Cover the slow cooker, set it on high for at least 8 hours (although more is OK, too, if you know you’re going to need to work late), and walk out the door without a backwards glance.
  4. Walk back in your home, 8-plus hours later, and be greeted with a wonderful smell. Get a slotted spoon and remove the kombu, onion, carrots, celery, mushrooms, garlic, and bay leaves.
  5. Remove the beans from the slow cooker and put them in a large sauce pan along with about 1 cup of the broth, the tomatoes, sea salt, and pepper. Save the remaining broth for stock.
  6. While the soup is cooking, cook the bacon strips on both sides until crisp and browned. Just be careful to not let them burn. Put them on a paper towel to cool, and then crumble them.
  7. Taste carefully and adjust seasoning, adding a bit more sea salt and pepper, or a bit more reserved broth. Sprinkle each bowl with chopped parsley and the crumbled bacon strips.
Notes
1 Kombu is a type of dried edible seaweed. You can find it in your local health food store or on the internet. The benefits of using kombu when you cook your beans are that it speeds cooking time, softens the beans, and enhances the flavor of the soup. It is also reputed to make beans more digestible. Don't worry—you can't find kombu, you can still make this soup!

©2014 Nancy Olah. All Rights Reserved.
Recipe by Fool a Carnivore at https://foolacarnivore.com/fourteen-bean-soup/