Autumn has arrived in England and soup is back on the menu. My mother wasn’t big on prepared or convenience food when we were young. One thing that slipped through her objections was Campbells Bean & Bacon soup. It was my favourite. Time to re-create Bean & Bacon as part of my project to reclaim convenience foods.

I use dried beans in my cooking, they are easier to store than canned beans and last more or less forever. Covid lockdowns made me a bit of a hoarder and some of my dried beans are from 2020. Still good. The other reason to use dried beans is that you can use the ‘hot soak’ method to soften them. Hot soak method reduces the amount of gas that bean dishes produce in humans. Nothing eliminates the consequences of bean consumption but hot soak, in my experience, reduces it significantly.

The recipe below includes instructions for using dried beans and canned beans. The only difference is cooking time. A mini-chopper is very useful for the vegetables and a stick blender great to puree some soup to thicken.

Let’s cook.

Recipe

Ingredients

380 grams (2 cups by volume) dried white beans (navy beans) OR 2 x 425 gram (15 ounce) cans of beans

8 strips of smoked streaky bacon, cut into small pieces

Lard or butter to sauté bacon and vegetables

1 medium onion, finely diced

3 medium carrots, diced

3 stalks of celery, diced

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

110 grams (4 tablespoons) tomato paste

500 mls (2 cups) of pork or ham stock

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons of brandy or cognac

Method

1. If using dried beans, follow instructions here for soaking methods. Otherwise, open your tins of beans.
2. Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).
3. Sautè the bacon until crisp in the lard or butter in a large deep oven proof casserole (Dutch oven) or a skillet. Your le Creuset or similar is perfect. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon to drain on kitchen towel.
4. Add the onions to the pan and cook over medium high heat until transparent. Pour the brandy over the onions and turn up to high to cook off the alcohol.
5. Return heat to medium, add the carrots and the celery and cook until they start to soften – 5 minutes or so.
6. Add the spices and the tomato paste, stir to coat the vegetables well. Add the stock and the beans and bring to a simmer. Stir in the bacon.
7. Put the cover on the pot and transfer to the oven. Check once an hour or so, stir and add more water if necessary. Canned beans – may be ready in 90 minutes, if you started with dried beans the soup may take 2 1/2 or 3 hours for the beans to reach the desired softness.
8. Remove from the oven; transfer one or two ladles of beans to your blender or liquidiser. Blend and return to the soup to thicken it.
9. Garnish with additional crispy bacon or slices of sausage if desired, serve warm with crusty bread.
   

Thank you for reading the blog. Let me know how the recipe works (or doesn’t) for you in the comments or tag me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.