Senate Navy Bean Soup

Total Time: 5 hrs Preparation Time: 1 hr Cook Time: 4 hrs

Ingredients

• 1 lb dried navy beans (about 2 1/3 cups)
• water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 smoked ham hock or 1 leftover ham bone
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Recipe

• 1 wash beans, drain then soak in large pot.
• 2 for quick soak method combine beans & 6 cups water. heat to boiling; boil 2 minutes. remove from heat. cover, let stand 1 hour or.
• 3 soak beans overnight.
• 4 in large frypan melt butter, saute celery, onion and garlic until tender.
• 5 drain beans, reserve liquid.
• 6 into saucepan add beans, reserved liquid and enough water to make 10 cups, ham bone or hock, salt and pepper plus saute veggies from frypan.
• 7 heat to boiling, reduce to low.
• 8 cover and simmer 3 hours or until beans are tender and soup thickens.
• 9 remove meat from bone and add to soup.
• 10 remove a cup or two of beans, mash and return to make a thicker soup if desired.