Should You Soak Navy Beans Before Making Soup?

This really is the best Nave Bean Soup. It’s so very rich and full of flavor (because of my super-secret ingredient). Your entire family will be asking for more!.

My family loves Navy Bean Soup. My husband always says, “I could eat this every day,” whenever I make this soup. It’s kind of a joke in our house. Seriously, I could eat it every single day. ”.

He probably wouldn’t be so happy if I served it seven days a week, but it’s still a pretty big compliment from him. I feel pretty great when he loves something I make and calls it “the best Navy Bean Soup ever!” since he works for a great restaurant company.

Honestly, this soup really is very tasty. The broth is rich and flavorful, and the beans are creamy and delicious. Plus, it’s super cheap to make, which is always a bonus.

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You’ll still need to sort and soak the beans overnight to sprout them, but you should do this two or three days before you want to make the soup. They need to soak for at least eight hours. After that, drain them into a regular colander or my favorite, a mesh-strainer colander, and give them a good rinse. Next, put the bean colander on a plate so the beans don’t spill all over the place. Cover the colander with a kitchen towel and set it on the counter.

The next few days, wash the bean colander three or four times and put it back on the counter. After a day or so, you’ll start seeing a little sprout pop out of each bean. When the sprouts are about a quarter-inch long, they’re ready to cook.

This will help keep them from going bad. If it’s warm in your house, wash them more often and keep a closer eye on them. Also, rinse them a few times a day, whether it’s warm or not, and don’t use them if they start to smell bad!

This has become my absolute favorite method of preparing the dried beans. They’re so much more digestible, and they take a lot less time to cook. So, with just couple minutes a day for rinsing the beans, it keeps all of our tummies happy. #winformom.

BUTTTT…. You can also use the “quick soak” method if you forget to soak or sprout your beans and then realize in the middle of the afternoon that your family is expecting dinner in a few hours (what a pain!).

Once you put the beans in the pot with water, cover them and set the pot over high heat to “quick soak.” Once they come to a nice rolling boil, set your timer for two minutes. When it beeps, take the pot off the heat, put the lid on top, and let them sit for an hour.

I also put a small amount of baking soda in the pot right before I put the lid on because I’ve heard it makes the food less gassy. I don’t know if it works or not, but I figure it’s worth a shot. Besides, don’t be shocked when the baking soda hits the water and makes it fizz. The bubbling only lasts a few seconds. ).

If you want to quickly soak the beans, put them in a colander and run cool water over them a few times.

Now that the beans are all soaked or sprouted, it’s time to make the soup. First, dice a carrot and a stalk of celery. So they don’t take away from the main dish, I like to cut them up pretty small.

Heat a couple tablespoons of oil in the bottom of your soup pot (this is my absolute favorite pot for making soup) and cook the veggies until they’re tender, but not browned.

If you don’t have much time when you start making the soup, you can wait to cook their and add them. A lot of the time, I cook the beans first and then soften the carrot and celery in a separate pan before adding them to the almost-done soup.

Put the drained beans in the pot with the vegetables when they are soft. Then add my “secret ingredient.” I think the best way to make bean soup taste great is to use chicken stock, either store-bought or homemade.

You can make this soup taste good with just water and a ham bone or hock, or even bacon grease in a pinch. But adding chicken stock will make it so rich and flavorful that it will make you cry. It’s worth trying if you’ve never cried over a pot of soup before.

Next, nestle a ham hock or ham bone down into the broth. When I make my Simple Glazed Ham for a holiday meal, I always save the bone. If I’m not going to use it right away, I freeze it. You can also use a ham hock from the meat section. It works just as well and adds a nice smokey flavor.

Then, turn the stove to high or medium-high and bring the pot to a boil. To make it last longer, turn down the heat once it starts to boil and let it simmer for a few hours.

Either leave it open or cover it, or put a lid on it halfway so the steam can escape. I often forget the “right” way to do something, and my soup has never gone bad because I used or didn’t use a lid. Just follow your heart.

Stir the soup occasionally and start checking the beans for doneness after about an hour or so. Be careful because sprouted beans may only need an hour and a half, so you’ll need to keep an eye on them. Beans that have been soaked but not sprouted may take up to three hours to fully cook. You want them be very tender and creamy. Not hard and not mushy.

If they aren’t done after checking them the first time, check them at half hour intervals. You’ll know whether to turn down the burner, turn up the burner, or add a little more liquid if you check them early and often.

Take the ham hock or bone out of the beans when they are done cooking and set it on a plate for a few minutes until it’s cool enough to handle. Pick off whatever meat you can find and stir it back into the soup.

Last but not least, bake some Everyday Biscuits or slice some homemade French Bread (YUMMM!), pour this deliciousness into bowls, and tell your family that bean soup can really taste this good!

Step-by-Step Guide to Making the Best Navy Bean Soup

This recipe uses dried Navy beans or Great Northern beans. The Navy beans are traditional and smaller. The Great Northerns are slightly bigger and tend to be creamer. I probably like Great Northern best, but either one works well.

If you’ve never worked with dried beans before, don’t be intimidated. They’re surprisingly easy to prepare using a couple different methods, depending on how much time you have.

For any method you choose, you’ll want to start by rinsing and sorting the beans. Just put them in a colander and run water over them while you look for tiny rocks (I’ve found some before) or beans that look gross.

Next, dump the rinsed beans into a pot and cover with about two inches of water for soaking. Keep in mind that the beans will get bigger as they soak, so make sure your pot can hold that many beans.

You can put the beans and water in the pot before bed and let them soak overnight if you plan ahead, which I don’t do very often. You can also start them in the morning as long as they soak for at least eight hours.

Now, if you REALLY want to kick it up a ‘lil bit, you can sprout the beans. Which seems like something someone who wanders the woods eating tree roots would do, but I promise it’s also for the rest of us. And if YOU are that person who wanders the woods eating tree roots, please send us a recipe!

How to Prepare Navy Beans for Cooking