For many years, I had an annual party at which I served many varieties of soup to a large crowd. Guests requested that this one always be on the menu.
My sister Shelly Johnson was the inspiration for this hot, spicy, stick-to-your-ribs soup. I adapted her recipe, replacing canned ingredients with fresh ones and adding lots of beta carotene–rich vegetables. It was originally published in Beans (Harmony, 1994), a cookbook I coauthored with Joanne Lamb H