Bean Soup with Bacon

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Love bean soup but don’t have a day to make it? No problem! This delicious Bean with Bacon Soup has all the slow cooked flavor you love, but can be made quickly using pantry ingredients for an easy weeknight meal!

Thank you Michelle for the opportunity to share a recipe with you and your readers!  I appreciate the opportunity to share my favorite food – soup!  And I want to wish you a speedy recovery and send good healing vibes your way – get better soon!!

Hi everyone, my name is Deb, and I blog at Bowl Me Over.  Because most of the meals I create end up in a bowl, I decided that a soup is definitely what I wanted to share with you today.

Bean soup is always a staple in our home.  But all that delicious flavor takes a llloooonnnnggg time to develop. By the time you soak the beans overnight, chop all the veggies, and simmer it on the stove, you have several hours into making just one meal.

No one has that amount of time, right?

Now you do! Today I want to share my easy recipe for Bean Soup with Bacon. It has all the flavor of a slow cooked bean soup, but only takes 40 minutes to make!  You’re going to use a few shortcuts from your pantry to bump up the flavor and speed up cooking.  It’s totally worth it!

BEAN SOUP WITH BACON

You’ll start by cutting the bacon into a small dice and putting them in a heavy bottom stock pot on the stove.  After the bacon is diced and put into the pan, turn on a medium heat.  Putting the bacon into a cold pan and cooking it slowly will allow the fat to render from the bacon, leaving you with just the crispy pieces!  This will take 10-15 minutes.

While the bacon is cooking, chop the onion, peel and dice the carrot, mince the garlic.  Open all the cans of beans.  Drain three cans and rinse them well, set them aside to drain.  Open the fourth can, do not drain.  Pour everything from the fourth pan – juices and all – into a blender.  Add 1/4 cup chicken stock.  Blend until smooth and creamy.

When the bacon is crispy, remove it from the pan with a slotted spoon,  Place it on a paper towel and allow it to drain.  Remove the excess grease from the pan, but be sure to leave the browned bits, we want all that flavor!

Add just a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan followed by the onions and carrots.  Season the vegetables with Italian seasoning, black pepper and red pepper flakes.

Sauté over medium heat for 3-4 minutes until the vegetables start to soften and begin to brown.  Add the minced garlic and saute another minute or so. Next deglaze the pan with a couple tablespoons of white wine, being sure to scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan.

Now add the reserved beans, blended beans and remaining chicken stock to the stock pot.  Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer at a low bubble for 15 minutes stirring occasionally.

Remove from the heat. Add the bacon back in at the end, a squeeze of lemon and freshly minced parsley, amd give it a good stir.

Check the seasoning.  You may need to add salt, but only 1/2 teaspoon at the most.

Easy and completely delicious, this bean soup has all the flavor you normally get when it’s cooked all day long! And, it’s quick enough to be a weeknight meal too!

Personally, I love the affordability you get from a great pot of beans.  This meal offers 6 healthy servings.  If you want to stretch it even further you could add additional chicken stock, but I like a good thick bean soup.

If you want a big pop of heat I’d recommend a few dashes of tobasco sauce – it adds amazing flavor!

What is your favorite soup?

Does your family eat soup year round or only in the fall and winter?

OTHER SOUP RECIPES YOU MAY ENJOY

• Lebanese Lentil Soup with Lemon and Noodles…this is a family fave! My kids ask us to make lentils on a regular basis and this is one of their favorite recipes!

• Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup…when I feel like making something other than the traditional chicken noodle soup, this is the recipe I usually use! It’s packed with chicken, orzo, kale and a twist of lemon, and I can have it on the table in 30 minutes! Another favorite of my kids!

• Easy Butternut Squash Soup…who doesn’t love a good butternut squash soup this time of year?! Smooth, rich, and simple to make, this soup is equally at home on the family dinner table as it is for holiday entertaining!

Let’s get cooking!