Senate Bean Soup

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I think it is probably good, BUT, I remember this soup as "Soup of the Inner Sanctum," the name of the dinning room of the Senate. Their recipe uses 4 large onions, a clove of garlic, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, a chopped carrot, and a half lemon. All of the seasonings should be wrapped and tied in cheesecloth. Also, calls for a ham hock, salt and pepper. It is truly a wonderful bean soup. Serve with cornbread. Hail to the Chef!.

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As presented, this recipe is too simple to be a really flavorful bean soup. Also, the butter called for in this recipe is gratuitous; I get the feeling it was added just to make this a 'Paula Dean' recipe. If you want a really good, well balanced bean soup, listen to the people who modified it with celery, carrots, stock, bay leaves, etc. Then give it an acid-pop with either lemon juice or champagne vinegar at the end, and toss in a couple drops of liquid smoke too. You won't be sorry unless you make it exactly as presented.

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Great soup! I agree about country ham being too salty for this, but a nice spiral ham works great! As for why they call this "Senate Bean Soup", I'm guessing it's because (like Senators it's a lot of "ham" and usually "full of beans".

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It can't be the real Senate bean soup recipe, because they used the recipe decades before they had "spiral ham" The bone from leftover Easter ham goes into the navy beans for three hours, plus a cup or more finely diced carrots half an hour from the end. Regardless, delicious.

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Oh my goodness, I love it! I changed a bit. My grocery store didn't have the beans so I purchased canned ones. I also used a ham steak I cut up because they were out of the spiral ones. It still was delicious! Thank you so much Paula!

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Simple yet very tasty. My husband loved it!!

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Delicious bean soup. Even my picky sister loved it! Very comforting soup. I did make a few additions - added some chopped carrot and celery, a few bay leaves, and some chicken stock for added flavor. Keep an eye on the soup, as I had to add additional water/broth multiple times. Because the saltiness of the soup will vary depending on the amount/type of ham you use, I highly suggest waiting until the end to salt it, and then simply season it to taste.

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I've made this soup twice, the first time with a big 'ol leftover ham bone and it was pretty good, just a bit salty and flat. This time when I made it, i added a few bay leaves and doubled the onion, used two small smoked ham hocks, put a few cups of chicken stock in with the water,some cubed leftover ham and grated carrots at the very end. It was absolutely great this time!

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4 stars because so it's so easy and cheap to make, perhaps a little too simple. It is tasty, though some fresh herbs would help brighten it up. I made a whole batch and froze a couple of servings for quick weeknight meals alone.

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Since I love more herb flavor in anything, I added a little thyme and corriander, also added celery in with the onion and bought canned navy beans...mmmmm easy and good! Visit sandies galley for monthly free recipes.