12 Bean and Sausage Soup

AKA: Preferred night-before-a-race meal

My secret to a fast and fueled race???  This soup.

Now you know.  The secret is out and shared for all to use.  I am slowly overcoming my recipe hoarding through these posts!  (And confessing that I use a lot more garlic than I've documented in the past - a direct confession to anyone I have ever gifted a binder full of my favorite recipes.)  Whew!  Okay.  Confessions done... I feel better.  Thanks for listening.

When it comes time to try this recipe, and you're at the grocery store standing in an isle systematically looking for a bag of the "12 Bean Soup Mix" with the other dried beans and think... HUH.  UHHH...  Jo...  Is this right?  There's only a "13 Bean Soup Mix"?!?!?  And you WOULD be right! - at the grocery store or online, it's going to be called "13 Bean Soup Mix".  

Here's why I call it "12 Bean Soup Mix":  
My handsome Bret SR. sweetly asked me one evening while eating this soup, "Jo, would it be possible to NOT have the huge, ugly, dry-in-the-middle beans in this soup?"  
The afore mentioned bean?  A lima bean.  A lot of them...  So my soup has been reduced to a "12 Bean Soup Mix" and the soup (and husband) is all the happier for the requested change.  

At the Davis house we've been eating through a 25 pound bag of Bob's Red Mill bag of "13 Bean Soup Mix" for a few years now.  I honestly don't know that a single bag that you purchase from the grocery store would be enough.  ...it might take 2 bags of the mix because you'll need 2-3 cups.  I'll leave it to you to put your Smarty-Pants on and figure out exactly what you need to buy (1-2 bags of 13 Bean Soup Mix) while you're standing in the store.

As for the races (or a long workout) and this soup for a fueling meal...  The times I've planned ahead and had some stored up in the freezer, or made it fresh and for the whole family the night before a race (or crazy long run) --- AMAZING!!!  Always enough energy.  Never a heavy stomach.  It's my favorite go-to meal the night before.  My only regrets have been when I DIDN'T have it.

Make it.  Try it.  Get in a long run the morning after and tell me if you agree!

2 1/2 - 3 cups 13 bean soup mix 

--- (minus lima beans if Bret SR. will be at your table please!)

8 cups filtered or drinking water for soaking

SOAK 4-8 hours - adding water as needed
(Optional NOTE:  I try to drain, rinse and add new filtered water 1/2 way through the soaking process.)

1 pound sausage (Jimmy Dean Natural  OR  Kroger HOT sausage)

2 Tablespoons Bertolli Extra-Virgin Olive Oil 

1 large onion, chopped

10-12 carrots, peeled and sliced

6 stalks of celery, sliced

1 bundle (8-10 cloves) garlic, minced

1  quart chicken broth

1-2  cups water

2  bay leaves

1  heaping teaspoon dried oregano

1  heaping teaspoon dried basil

1/4  teaspoon red pepper flakes

1  Tablespoon Kosher salt

1  teaspoon black pepper

2  TABLESPOONS Better-Than-Bullion 

1  30 ounce can tomato sauce

Soak your beans 4-6 hours for best results 
- Use water you'd drink or cook with. 
Add water throughout the day as 
it gets soaked into your beans.

(Optional NOTE:  
I try to drain, rinse and add new filtered 
water 1/2 way through the soaking process.)

Brown your sausage in the pot you'll
be cooking your soup in.

Once brown, add your diced onion with
a few Tablespoons of olive oil.

(My all time FAVORITE olive oil is
Bertolli's extra-virgin.
I've never been able to find
a flavor I like more!)

Add peeled, sliced carrots, next celery,
and add minced garlic last.

When garlic is caramelized and everything
has a heavy garlic smell,
add water and chicken broth;
then all remaining ingredients.

With everything added... do not be surprised
(as you baby-sit this amazing soup!) 
that you'll  likely need to add a few cups
of water as the beans soak up more and
more throughout the final simmer.  

Make sure to have a final taste
check before serving. 

You may decide it needs more
Kosher salt and/or pepper.

Cook on a low simmer for 2-3 hours.

Check and stir occasionally.  Add water as needed to keep it at a "soup" consistency.

Serve with cornbread or natural-yeast bread.

Amazing to freeze!!!  Re-heat stovetop and add water, a spoonful of Better-Than-Bullion chicken broth, Kosher salt and pepper to taste for best flavor.


NOTE:
Soup photos were literally taken as the "night-before-race-fuel" for the 2015 Surfside Beach 1/2 Marathon and Kid's Mile.  So yeah.  It works.   XOXO

Click Link FOR:    Mama Jo's Recipe Blog TABLE OF CONTENTS