Bean Soup With Sausage and More - Southwest Flavors - Nutritious
photo by Tinkerbell
- Ready In:
- 3hrs
- Ingredients:
- 19
- Yields:
-
6 Main dish servings
- Serves:
- 6-10
ingredients
- 1 1⁄2 cups dried pinto beans
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 1⁄2 lb Italian sausage (hot or sweet, about 2 links)
- 3 slices bacon (or skip the bacon and use an extra sausage link)
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 cup chicken stock (homemade, strong, preferred, but you can substitute one 15-oz. can chicken broth)
- 6 1⁄2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1⁄2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- chili pepper (3 teaspoons hot, canned Hatch chilies, or 1 teaspoon fresh jalapeno pepper, finely diced)
- 1⁄2 cup bell pepper, diced (red or green)
- 2 medium carrots, 1/3-inch slices
- 3 -4 celery ribs, chopped
- 1⁄3 lb red potatoes, chopped into 3/4-inch chunks (about 3 red "new" potatoes)
- 4 tablespoons fresh cilantro
-
Garnish (enough for number of servings that day)
- grated cheese (Monterey jack, cheddar or Mexican)
- chile
- cilantro
directions
- Quick soak method for beans: Check beans for debris and rinse. Place beans in large pot and add enough water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to boil. Boil for 2 minutes; remove from heat and allow to rest, covered, for 1 hour.
- While the beans are soaking, cook the sausage and bacon in oil. Remove from pan and saute onion in drippings until medium brown. Drain well.
- Drain beans, rinse and put into sausage pot. Add stock and water, salt, pepper, garlic.
- Bring to boil and reduce to simmer. Cook for total of 1-3/4 to 2 hours, partially covered.
- Take a break. This is a very forgiving recipe!
- For the chilies, crank them up or down to your taste. I prefer to make the soup very slightly spicy hot and serve more chilies on the side for guests to garnish to taste.
- Add drained onions and remaining veggie ingredients as you peel, chop and dice. Cut sausage into 1/2" slices and coarsely crumble bacon. Add sometime along the way. Add the potatoes and cilantro last.
- Taste, especially for salt.
- If you want the broth thinner, add a little stock. Or if you want to thicken it, mash some of the beans.
- Serve with cheese, hot chilies and cilantro as garnishes. You might want to bring out the saltshaker for those who like a lot of salt. Good with cornbread or warm buttered tortillas.
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Reviews
-
One of my favorite herbs, cilantro always takes me back to New Mexico and I jump at any chance to use it fresh! Unfortunately, by yesterday my cilantro was not looking so healthy and I had to use dried for this soup instead. The sausage I used was smoked chicken and turkey with mozzarella, because it was the one that said it was gluten free. It turned out to have quite a bit of spice to it so I opted to use just one jalapeno. I let this soup cook itself in the crock pot for about 4 hours (a new crock on low), and it was a delicious, hearty meal at the end of a long day. Even though it was on the spicy side, my 4 year old ate 3 bowls of it! I can't wait to dig into the leftovers today & have DH & DS try it for lunch. Thanks for sharing your creation, Pamela! Made & enjoyed for the Topic of the Month Forum's Soup-Fest! Tag Game.
Tweaks
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One of my favorite herbs, cilantro always takes me back to New Mexico and I jump at any chance to use it fresh! Unfortunately, by yesterday my cilantro was not looking so healthy and I had to use dried for this soup instead. The sausage I used was smoked chicken and turkey with mozzarella, because it was the one that said it was gluten free. It turned out to have quite a bit of spice to it so I opted to use just one jalapeno. I let this soup cook itself in the crock pot for about 4 hours (a new crock on low), and it was a delicious, hearty meal at the end of a long day. Even though it was on the spicy side, my 4 year old ate 3 bowls of it! I can't wait to dig into the leftovers today & have DH & DS try it for lunch. Thanks for sharing your creation, Pamela! Made & enjoyed for the Topic of the Month Forum's Soup-Fest! Tag Game.