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Bean and Bacon Soup is a hearty winter soup made with plenty of beans, bacon, and other vegetables.

Over the last few weeks my husband has mentioned bean soup several times. I just smile when he mentions it but secretly I’ve been wondering what bean soup is all about.

I admit it; I’ve never had bean soup before! One of the reasons is that any time I see it there is ham in it and I’m not a big fan of ham. However, I started looking up recipes for bean soup that don’t have ham and I came across one for bean and bacon soup that sounded good.

I was surprised that this bean soup had a base like many of my other soups with onions, carrots, celery, garlic, and chicken broth. That’s my soup base for chicken noodle soup, potato soup, and several other soups so I was familiar with that part.

Ingredients:

bacon
onions
carrots
celery
garlic
chicken broth
Northern Beans
black pepper
rosemary
tomato sauce

To make this soup chop the bacon into small pieces and [lace in a large Dutch Oven over medium high heat. Cook the bacon, stirring frequently, until it has browned.
Remove several tablespoons of bacon from the pan and place on paper towels to drain. You will use this later on to top the soup so there is still some of the crunch of the bacon.
Leave the remaining bacon and 2 tablespoons of bacon fat in the Dutch Oven. You will be cooking your vegetables in the bacon fat to give them a salty and smoky flavor.
Add the onion, carrots, and celery to the pot and saute for 5 minutes. Add in the garlic cloves and saute for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant.
Stir in the chicken broth, Northern Beans, black pepper, and rosemary. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Stir in the tomato sauce and simmer for 20 minutes.

I decided to make this soup during the week because it looked like I could make it in under an hour plus there would be plenty left to enjoy for lunch later on in the week. A lot of soup recipes take a while to simmer so it’s not practical to make them during the week so when I find one that I can make quickly it’s pretty exciting.

It’s been pretty chilly here lately and I figured a big bowl of soup would be appreciated for lunch or dinner. We’ve also been getting a lot of rain so I haven’t wanted to run out at lunch time and get anything.

I have a ton of leftover ham from the holidays. Can I use that in the soup instead of bacon?

Absolutely! Instead of frying up the bacon and leaving the bacon grease you can put 1 tablespoon of butter in the pan and saute the onions, celery, carrots, and garlic for a few minutes. Then add in 3/4 cup of chopped ham and cook for 2-3 minutes before continuing on with the recipe.

I have several different types of beans at home. Can I use different types of beans or only the Northern Beans?

You can use any types of beans you’d like. Northern Beans are traditional in this recipe but you can use black beans, cannellini beans, or even kidney beans if you’d like. Go with your favorite.

I don’t have any tomato sauce. Is there anything I can substitute for that?

There certainly is. If you have chopped or diced tomatoes, either fresh or canned, place 1 cup in a food processor and blend until smooth. Use this in place of the tomato sauce. If you happen to have crushed tomatoes in a can you can use that in place of the tomato sauce as well. Do not use tomato paste as it is much thicker and will cause the soup to because sticky.

Can I make this soup ahead of time? How long does it last?

You can make it several days in advance. I often make it Sunday night and then we enjoy it during the week. This soup will last up to 5 days so it’s easy to make ahead of time and refrigerate until you are ready to eat it.

I will say I was surprised by the amount of bacon in the soup. It seemed like a lot but I cooked it all. At the last minute decided to crush up two pieces of the bacon and reserve it to sprinkle on top of the soup. This was a good idea as the bacon in the soup doesn’t stay crisp at all and the crispy bacon on top of the soup adds a nice texture to the soup.

The flavor was really delicious. I wasn’t sure what to expect since I’ve never had bean soup before but it had flavors of bacon, beans, and vegetables. The tomato sauce adds a bit of richness to the soup which it really needs. We enjoyed the soup with some Challah bread we received in our CSA this week and that was the perfect compliment to the soup.

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