By posting this Navy Bean with Bacon Soup during the middle of a holiday weekend I must be hoping nobody will see it. I understand it might appear a bit odd but bear with me. Am I seriously suggesting a big hearty bowl of bean with bacon soup a the perfect way to commemorate a Memorial Day weekend?
Who wants to sit down to a big bowl of Navy Bean with Bacon soup while everyone else is grilling hamburgers and having picnics? Who in their right mind would be having navy bean with bacon soup to celebrate the beginning of summer?
Me. That’s who. I’ve never been accused of having a right mind anyway. I’ll explain:
Navy Bean with Bacon Soup made perfect sense to me yesterday when I started this project. I discovered a big Mason jar full of navy beans in the pantry during a reorg project. Three day weekends always seem to inspire the pantry reorganizer in me and when I find these ingredients left over from old projects the idea for my celebration just clicked. Navy Bean with Bacon to celebrate Memorial Day!
To wit:
1) Memorial Day is about remembering those who gave their lives to protect our country while serving in The United States Armed Forces.
2) The US Navy is one of the branches that make up our armed services.
3) This soup is made with navy beans.
See what I did there?
Welcome to my brain.
This same brain latched onto the slow cooker as a particularly convenient holiday-weekend inspired idea. I really wanted to celebrate memorial day with a good bowl of navy bean with bacon soup but I also wanted to go outside and play with everyone else.
Slow Cooker Navy Bean with Bacon Soup
Until now my slow cooker has only made the acquaintance of a certain Tuscan White Bean Chili that I make every year and as the weekly key-player in making tons of chicken stock from the many chicken carcasses that litter our weekly kitchen-scape each week.
Its about time it learned a new trick so I asked it to jump in and do all the work for me so I could go outside and play all day.
adapted from Cooks Illustrated
This is what you will need:
- 1 pound dried navy beans. (About 2 1/4 cups)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 ounces bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces.
- 3 medium onions, finely chopped
- 8 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 cups water
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 sprig rosemary
- salt and pepper to taste
- grated Parmesan cheese for serving
This is how you make it:
- Rinse the beans well (especially if they have been in the pantry as long as mine have!) and pick through them to get out the grody bits and then soak them in a bowl overnight. When ready to use, drain them.
- Heat the oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat and add the bacon and cook until just lightly crispy, about ten minutes. Remove a small handful of the bacon and set aside to use as a topping later. (Optional.) Add the garlic and onions, 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook until all the onions have softened and have turned a nice golden brown. This should take anywhere from 10 to fifteen minutes.
- Transfer the onion-bacon mixture to the slow cooker. Add the water, chicken stock, beans, bay leaves, and pepper flakes and mix until combined. Over the crock pot and cook on low for about eight or nine hours or until the beans are softened through. The timing for this is really just to your own preferences for soup texture.
- Go outside and play all day.
- When the soup is to your liking add the rosemary sprig and cover. Let soup cook for 15 minutes to flavor and the remove the sprig and bay leaves. Check the seasonings and add salt and pepper to taste if needed.
- When ready to serve, ladle into bowls and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and a drizzle of olive oil, if desired.
Traditional Memorial Day fare or not, that soup looks really good!
Well, it was easy and thats what I needed. Besides, its a 3 day weekend, right? Whats one night of soup? Still plenty of time for hamburgers.
Well…It’s four years later, and your beans are still causing stirrings; I just put on a pot of your beans. This is the first time I’ve made navy beans, with nothing more than salt.
Peterson
Unconventional but at least having a connection in name might give more thought to those in the armed services than a cheese burger. I’d like my navy bean soup to be accompanied by an army of that delicious looking toasted bread. Certainly a victory parade for the taste buds.
The bread was quite good… but your comment dear Marilyn has me wondering what soup I will have to celebrate next year? Probably some sort of seafood bisque to celebrate the Marines.
Pinning this… I just came back from ADK it was snowing… Wish I had this recipe in the mountains this weekend. Have a great day Sir.
My slow cooker really needs more things to do. Its one of the only things I will clear to be “on” while nobody is home so it really should be in charge of more things than chicken stock and chili. I only went outside the box because I had a jar of beans I wanted to use up.
There once was a blogger named Trevor
His connections were terribly clever
He threw beans in a pot
And said, “You know what?
‘ll come back and eat this whenever.”
I have a blog friend named Trix.
she writes poetry comments for kicks
effortlessly they flow
I read and say “whoa”
Then dinner I go and must fix.
Crazy that you just came up with this! The guys on my team at my jobsite were just talking about this soup last week! I love that this is “NAVY” bean soup – perfect! And really, with so many activities over a long weekend, what doesn’t make sense about that?! All you needed were my corn muffins (on this week’s post at FFWD)! OK, your choice was perfect, but hey! You really can’t go wrong with beans – that’s what that crock pot is for!
Go Navy! This weekend’s weather was more suited to soup than it was to traditional cook-out fare anyway. Brrrr! 🙂
I could have used this throughout April and most of May. It’s been cold, I have an unused crock pot in my cupboard and this looks easy-peasy and delicious. Probably will save it for September but have added it to my virtual soup folder. BTW, I followed you train of thought quite easily. Happy Memorial Day.
I just ordered a bunch of heirloom dried beans from Rancho Gordo (I have no affiliation with the company) …. can’t wait til they arrive. Soup, hummus, bean heaven, here we come!
Wow, this looks super tasty. I enjoy soup year round – even during the warmer summer months. During our last socal heatwave, I was making an Asian noodle soup!
hi Trevor…this soup is fabulous ! Mom made it the other day and the house smelled soooo delicious…comfort food loaded with flavor”. used homemade broth from the many roasted chicken carcass that we have stashed in the freezer. The soup alone is delicious… it makes a lot so i ‘m going to use some of the beans and make a chilled bean dip/puree. next up is “jacket potato” with the beans and poached egg for Dad’s dinner. hope all is well…jules
If I want to use 2 pounds of beans can I just double everything?
You can scale either way Kristi, just make sure your pot/cooker is large enough.