Name: Navy Bean Soup Recipe - White Bean Soup Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 90 min
Total time: 100 min
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons Cooking oil; 2 medium Onions (400g (diced)); 2 stalks Celery (diced); 1 medium Carrot (diced); 2 teaspoons Salt (double if cured meat is not used); 2 cloves Garlic; 1 teaspoon Black pepper; 1 medium Tomato (100g (or 2 tablespoon purred tomato)); 2 cups Beans; 1 teaspoon Paprika; 16 slices Chorizo (optional); 1 lb Ham shanks or Ham hock (optional but the more the better); 8 cups Water; 1 handful Carrot (400g (sliced)); 1 lb Kale (optional)

Looking for healthy carbs, extra protein or a tasty amount of luck? Check out this Navy bean soup recipe it’s the best bang for the buck!

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Yes, good carbohydrates do exist as not all carbs are created equal. Carbs from legumes are good because these little things are full of stuff that our body needs, opposite to starches like sugar and white flour.

Navy beans contain fairly big amount of vitamin C, Iron, Vitamin B6 and Magnesium which are all great things to have to maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle. Complemented with a bit of protein and a tad of fat this dish could take us to 100 years easily.

The origin of the navy beans name roots in the fact that the US navy uses white beans as a staple food to feed its sailors since the mid-1800s. In other parts of the world, people haphazardly call this thing just white bean.

Legumes such as beans are part of the Mediterranean diet which provides globally the longest lifespan for its beneficiaries. It’s worth to note that Japanese live second longest so we either choose sushi or chorizo to live long but with both diet we can have beans.

As it is with kidney beans, white navy beans are also toxic when eaten raw. Luckily, thirty minutes cooking greatly reduces the level of toxins in beans to safely edible level. Generally, this doesn’t cause any disturbance as beans need at least 90 minutes of cooking or even more if the bean is old.

Soaking beans has a long tradition and recently it is a hot topic of debate as it should or shouldn’t be done. Some claim to make a difference reducing the toxins or the trouble making gases while others haven’t ever heard about it.

Studies seem to find no evidence that soaking would reduce flatulence causing gases nor helps too much reducing cooking times more than 20 minutes. But as it is with studies there are always
exceptions so if someone finds that soaking beans or a spoon of baking soda helps soothing the symptoms, use the knowledge and live accordingly.

Beans are not only nutritious and tasty but they bring us luck too! According to folklore, eating beans on New Year’s Eve will bring us a prosperous, rich New Year. In fact, all legumes that symbolize coins like black eyed peas or lentils have the same lucky charm.

Eating beans with pork that symbolize a fat wallet when alive and general lucky animal will result the ultimate boost for our chances to have a prosperous and lucky New Year according to popular belief. Mind not to eat poultry as that flies away with our luck nor do any washing as that washes away luck.

This thing is a minefield and have never been peer reviewed though so take it with a pinch of salt.

In fact, it’s better to add the salt into the soaking water as the salty water will be absorbed by the beans resulting tastier beans. If we plan to use the soaking water for cooking then rinse the
beans before submerging them in.

Otherwise beans are quite forgiving and provide a delicious meal without much care or intricate cooking techniques. We can throw everything together and cook them until it’s done.

White-bean-soup-navy-bean-soup-1-SunCakeMom

With a bit of love and mirepoix (diced onion, celery, carrot sautéed on oil) we can take a delicious meal a couple of notch higher and tap ourselves on the shoulder because we’ve just created an absolutely stunning meal.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons / 30g Cooking oil
2 medium / 250g Onions (diced)
2 stalk / 100g Celery (diced)
1 medium / 100g Carrot (diced)
2 teaspoons / 10g Salt (double if cured meat is not used)
2 cloves / 6g Garlic
1 teaspoon / 3g Black pepper
1 teaspoon / 2g Paprika
1 medium / 100g Tomato
1 cup / 500g Beans
Meat (optional pick one or combine)
- 16 slices Chorizo (carefully as it can overwhelm the dish)
- 1 lb / 500g Ham shanks or Ham hock (more the better)
- 1lb / 500g Sausage (more the better)
8 cups / 1900g Water
1 handful /400g Carrots (sliced)
1 lb / 500g Kale (optional)

How to make White bean – Navy bean soup

Soak the beans according to instructions on packaging.
Heat oil in a pot then add the diced onion, celery, carrots and salt.
Saute the vegetables on high for 3-5 minutes until the onion gets a translucent/glassy look.
Turn the heat down to medium low and cook the mixture until the onion starts caramelizing, stirring occasionally for about 15-25 minutes. (optional) Add garlic, black pepper, paprika and tomato then mix it well. Cook it until garlic gives out its scent for about 2-5 minutes.
Add beans and the optional chorizo, ham or sausage.
Fill it up with water, put the lid on and simmer it for about 60 to 90 minutes depending of the beans.
Ten minutes before the soup is done, add carrots and other vegetables like kale, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts or broccoli then turn the heat up and bring it to boil.
When the soup starts to boil lower the heat and simmer it for 10 minutes or until the the desired texture of vegetables is reached. Take it off heat and let it cool down a bit before serving, for about 20 minutes.