Sausage Bean Soup

This great bean soup recipe comes from The Centennial Cookbook from The Pembroke Hill School. As usual, I made just a few changes to the recipe, but would probably make it a little different next time. This recipe uses the beans and their liquid, which adds a lot of unneeded sodium. You could probably keep the same thick consistency by draining and rinsing the beans, adding a couple of cans of broth and smashing a third of the beans in the pot. Either way, the recipe published below is really good.

Sausage Bean Soup

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped

1/2 lb. Italian sausage, casing removed and broken up

1 Tbsp. olive oil

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 carrots, chopped in 1/2-inch chunks

1 (15 oz) can pinto beans, undrained

1 (15 oz) can Great Northern beans, undrained

1 ( 15 oz) can navy beans, undrained

1 (14.5 oz) can no-salt diced tomatoes, undrained

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Saute onion, bell pepper and sausage in olive oil in large pot, browning sausage lightly. Add garlic and carrots and stir. Add beans, rinsing each can with water and adding that to the soup. You will add about 1 can of water total. Add tomatoes, cumin, cayenne and vinegar: stir. Add more water if needed. Simmer covered, on low, 1 hour. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve.