Bean Soup

I love my mother-in-law's bean soup that is served with sauerkraut, but I have never tried to make it because I didn't think it could possibly be as good as hers. We made lots of calls to her to make sure that we got everything right, but in the end my husband said it was nearly perfect!

Making this soup was perfect for a weekend predicted to have snow, and it gave me an opportunity to try out my slow cooker method for Calypso Beans again.

Bean Soup

1 lb Calypso Beans (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

5 c water

1 lb ham shank (or ham hock)

1/2 lb smoked pork chops (bones cut from meat)

2 polish sausages (or mix of Hungarian, smoked, etc.)

3T butter

flour

sauerkraut

Place beans and water in slower cooker and cook on low for one hour until beans are plump.

Add in ham shank and bones from the smoked pork chops. Cook on low for 6 hours stirring occasionally.

Make Johnny Cakes to put in the oven just before starting the next steps on the stove top.

When fully cooked, remove bones. Transfer soup to a pot on the stove top.

Strip ham from bones and return some to the soup. Cut up pork chop meat and add to the soup. Cut up sausage into rounds and add to the soup (This photo shows one Polish and one Hungarian sausage. We decided to use two Polish in the final soup.)

Turn up the temperature to boil the soup.

Make a roux with butter (or fat) and flour. Mix roux into boiling soup to thicken stirring constantly. Turn down and serve hot with sauerkraut.

Refried Calypso Beans

After making Pasta and Calypso Beans, I still had half of a batch of cooked beans. One staple dinner in our family is simple burritos. I normally use refried beans from a can to which I add onions, garlic, cumin powder, and chili. This was so simple to make, and I like the "build your own" aspect to burritos. I liked the Calypso beans and in the pasta recipe, but I'm not convinced they are the right bean flavor for this dinner.

Refried beans and simple burritos

2 c cooked Calypso Beans (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

olive oil

cumin

chili powder

salt and pepper

shallots (from Open Oak CSA)

garlic (from Open Oak CSA)

spinach

ground beef cooked

tortillas

salsa

plain yogurt

Heat oil in a skillet. Add beans and mash with a spoon. Add in spices to taste. In a separate pan, saute shallots and garlic and wilt spinach. Cook ground beef with same spices. Serve all parts separately or together on a tortilla.

Pasta and Calypso Beans

I picked up our first bucket of grains and beans from our Lonesome Whistle CSA. Thirteen pounds of flour, beans, barley, wheat berries, and oats. It's the first time I've had a CSA like this, and it's a little intimidating!

I decided to start with a simple family bean soup recipe. However, I cooked the beans too long in my slow cooker without adding the meats. I'll try bean soup again sometime soon. For now, I decided to turn some of the beans into a simple recipe from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites Cookbook.

The calypso beans are so creamy and worked well in this recipe. The recipe was good for our family because it was easy to deconstruct by keeping the beans and pasta separate for a member of our family who is not a fan of tomatoes.

Pasta and Calypso Beans

2 c dry beans (from CSA) (I used 2 c cooked beans in the recipe)

5 c water

5 shallots chopped (from CSA)

2 cloves garlic minced (from CSA)

1 t dried rosemary

olive oil

1 28-oz can of tomatoes

salt and pepper

brown rice pasta

Place the beans and water in slow cooker and cook on low for 4-6 hours.

This over cooked them, but was perfect timing for this recipe.

Boil water for pasta. Add brown rice pasta, cook 1 minute, and then let stand in hot water for 15 minutes.

Cook shallots, garlic, and rosemary in olive oil.

Add in can of tomatoes, 2 cups of cooked beans, salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes. Blend with immersion blender. Pour sauce over pasta.