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Mary Jane’s Bean Pot Soup

Years ago, my dad owned a Honeybee Ham store, which he bought mostly as a tax write-off—until my sister Mary Jane got involved, that is. She took over the kitchen and started making, among other things, her fabulous bean soup for the store’s little front-of-the-house café. Business took off. But my father, whose main business was swimming pool contracting, finally sold it. Until he did, for years we had ham for every occasion—parties, family reunions, holidays. After that, I didn’t eat ham for a while. My little sister died suddenly last year, and I recently found her handwritten bean soup recipe in an old notebook. Serve it with my iceberg wedges (page 219) and Sweet Potato Biscuits (page 239), and you’ve got an easy, fortifying meal fit for a group of friends or family on a cool winter evening. Don’t forget that the beans need overnight soaking before cooking.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    serves 8 to 10

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
3 tablespoons minced garlic (about 9 medium cloves)
2 jalapeño chiles, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
4 medium carrots, diced
10 cups water
1 (20-ounce) package 15-bean mix, soaked overnight according to package directions
1 meaty ham bone, or 1 (14-ounce) package smoked sausage, sliced
1 (10-ounce) can Rotel tomatoes (see Tip, page 138)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat the olive oil in a large stockpot set over medium heat; sauté the onion, celery, garlic, jalapeños, and carrots for about 3 minutes. Add the 10 cups water, the soaked and drained beans, ham, tomatoes, ginger, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, decrease the heat, and simmer, uncovered, until the beans are tender, 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

  2. do it early

    Step 2

    The soup can be made up to 4 days in advance and refrigerated. It can also be frozen for up to 2 months. To serve, reheat and add water or stock if it has become too thick.

  3. tip

    Step 3

    My dad sold ham bones for soups at his Honeybee store, so it is worth asking for bones at your local ham store.

Pastry Queen Parties by Rebecca Rather and Alison Oresman. Copyright © 2009 Rebecca Rather and Alison Oresman. Published by Ten Speed Press. All Rights Reserved. A pastry chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author, native Texan Rebecca Rather has been proprietor of the Rather Sweet Bakery and Café since 1999. Open for breakfast and lunch daily, Rather Sweet has a fiercely loyal cadre of regulars who populate the café’s sunlit tables each day. In 2007, Rebecca opened her eponymous restaurant, serving dinner nightly, just a few blocks from the café.  Rebecca is the author of THE PASTRY QUEEN, and has been featured in Texas Monthly, Gourmet, Ladies Home Journal, Food & Wine, Southern Living, Chocolatier, Saveur, and O, The Oprah Magazine. When she isn’t in the bakery or on horseback, Rebecca enjoys the sweet life in Fredericksburg, where she tends to her beloved backyard garden and menagerie, and eagerly awaits visits from her college-age daughter, Frances. Alison Oresman has worked as a journalist for more than twenty years. She has written and edited for newspapers in Wyoming, Florida, and Washington State. As an entertainment editor for the Miami Herald, she oversaw the paper’s restaurant coverage and wrote a weekly column as a restaurant critic. After settling in Washington State, she also covered restaurants in the greater Seattle area as a critic with a weekly column. A dedicated home baker, Alison is often in the kitchen when she isn't writing. Alison lives in Bellevue, Washington, with her husband, Warren, and their children, Danny and Callie.
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