US Senate Bean Soup

When I try to plan frugal meals, I tend to try to incorporate beans since they are cheap, yet pack a nutritional punch. I just wish I had more yummy bean recipes! :) I found the original recipe for this soup that uses beans in the Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook and we loved it! My husband said he could have kept eating it all night long, and I wish he would have because this recipe made a ton of soup! In fact, there was too much of it to fit in the crockpot I had! 4 adults ate a little less than half of what this recipe yields, so if you have a smaller family, I'd definitely suggest cutting it in half. I also didn't have a hamhock (nor could I find one at the store), so I used bacon, and since my crockpot couldn't handle the volume of this soup, I had to cook it differently. So the recipe below is not the original, but instead is exactly how I made the soup.

US Senate Bean Soup

1 lb. dried navy beans, cooked and drained
1 lb. bacon
10 cups water
2 medium yellow onions, diced
3 medium baking potatoes or 5 small russetts, cubed
6 ribs celery, finely chopped
2 Tbl dried parsley
1/4k tsp ground black pepper, or to taste
salt to taste
1 bay leaf, optional (I used it)

Cook the bacon in the bottom of your soup pot until it starts to brown. Add everything else to the pot. Bring the soup to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until veggies are tender or until ready to serve. (My soup simmered for about 4-5 hours and the potatoes and beans retained their texture and shape just fine.)