Senate Bean Soup

Ingredients

• 1 cup navy beans
• 1½ qt water
• 1 meaty ham bone or ham hock
• ¼ cup instant mashed potatoes
• 1½ cup finely chopped onions
• 3 stalk finely chopped celery stalks with leaves
• 1 clove garlic, pressed
• ⅛ cup finely chopped parsley

Method

1. Soak the beans in the water overnight. Add the ham bone, cover and simmer until the beans are just beginning to soften, about 1 hour.
2. Add the mashed potatoes and stir until smooth. Add the onion, celery, garlic and parsley and simmer another hour until the beans are soft. Add more water if needed, but the soup should be fairly thick.
3. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with crusty French bread.

Notes

Serves 4. The recipe can easily be doubled, tripled or quadrupled. Can be cooked all day (8 to 10 hours) on low in a crock pot, using a little less garlic (it becomes very strong when cooked in a crock pot).

Original card

The recipe above was transcribed from this scan of Vera’s original card.

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