Name: Basic Bean Soup
Yield: Makes 2 Quarts (8 First-Course Servings or 4-6 Main-Course Servings)
Ingredients: Sour cream; Tabasco sauce; 2 cups dried beans, soaked for 4 hours in cold water to cover; 3 quarts broth or water and more as needed; Bouquet garni; 1 ham bone or 2 ham hocks; 2 teaspoons salt; ½ pound bacon, preferably in one piece; 1 large onion, peeled and chopped; 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped; 1 cup dry sherry

Preparation info

Makes
2 Quarts

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Cooking

By James Peterson

Published 2007

About

You can make this soup using virtually any bean, but the cooking times will vary accordingly; some beans cook faster than others, a phenomenon that results more from the age of the bean than the variety. The secret to this soup is the smoke from the ham bone, ham hocks, or bacon. If you don’t have all three, just use more of the one(s) you do have.