Renee and I thought we would try something different this year for our New Years Dinner. I had been wanting to try a recipe from my favorite cookbook, “Joy of Cooking”, for quite some time, so we decided to make U.S. Senate Bean Soup.
There is good reason this soup has been on the menu in the U.S. Senate’s restaurant every day since 1901. There are several stories about the origin of that mandate, but none has been corroborated.
According to one story, the Senate’s bean soup tradition began early in the 20th-century at the request of Senator Fred Dubois of Idaho. Another story attributes the request to Senator Knute Nelson of Minnesota, who expressed his fondness for the soup in 1903.
Here is what you will need for about 6 cups of soup:
1 1/4 cups dried white beans
1 small ham hock
7 cups cold water
Bring the water to a boil, reduce and simmer until the beans are tender, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove the ham hock, discard the bone, skin and fat; dice the meat and return it to the pot.
Add:
1 large onion diced
3 medium celery ribs chopped
1 large potato, peeled and finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Simmer until the potato pieces are tender, which will take from 20 to 30 minutes.
The recipe in “Joy of Cooking” recommends that you take a potato masher and mash until the soup is creamy, we didn’t do that step.
That’s all there is to it and the results were yummmmy. This one is a keeper.