There are a lot of different recipes out there for Navy Bean Soup. I guess I never really knew what it was, despite having eaten it, or something similar many times. I happen to really enjoy ham and bean soup, bean and bacon soup, and so on. I think these are closely related to Navy Bean Soup. I was home visiting my dad a few weeks back, and he was telling me about the Navy Bean Soup he had eaten when he and my mom toured the aircraft carrier U.S.S. John F. Kennedy before I was born. My uncle was a Sailor aboard the Kennedy, and they used to have kind of like a family day aboard the carrier. Anyway, my dad had the Navy Bean Soup for lunch and loved it. My mom was an amazing cook, but she could never quite match whatever recipe the Navy cooks used. I don’t know if this is it, but this is what I came up with, and it was delicious, filling, and will be made a lot in the future.
Ingredients:
1 pound of dry navy beans, picked over, and rinsed*
About 1- 1 1/2 tbs dried parsley
About 1 tbs dried thyme
About 1- 1 1/2 tbs dried chives
1 Bay leaf
1 pound of salt pork, blanched, and trimmed of most of the fat
1 pound of smoked ham, chopped or diced
1/2 of a large white or yellow onion, chopped
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced
About 8 cups of cold water
Salt and pepper to taste
2-3 tbs salted butter
* You can use canned navy beans. If you do, drain, rinse well, and reduce the cooking time.
Directions:
1. Clean and soak beans according to the directions on the bag.
2. In a large pot, add beans and cover with cold water by about two inches. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer. Cook for five minutes, remove from heat, cover, and let sit for about an hour.
3. Add parsley, thyme, onion, garlic, and bay leaf to the beans. Add in the salt pork and ham*. Bring to a boil, cover, and adjust the heat so the soup cooks at a gentle simmer. Cook until the beans are tender (about 1 1/2- 2 hours).
4. Take one or two cups of the beans and some liquid, place in a blender, and puree. Add the pureed beans back into the pot and stir well. This thickens up the soup. You can also simply mash some of the beans right in the pot.
5. Add 2-3 tbs of salted butter to the soup. Salt and pepper to taste. Continue to simmer on low until ready to serve.